By Steve Bergsman
Many of America's great national parks are bunched across the Southwest, but even though they are open year-round, most visitors still arrive in the summer months, when kids are off from school and vacations are in full swing.
My wife and I have done Yellowstone in the dead of winter when the snow was as deep as our chins and the only vehicles rumbling through the park had treads. It was a lot of fun, so we thought we would try an off-season national park trip again. This winter we decided to visit Utah's Zion National Park.
Except for the holidays, winter is the off-season for Zion as well as other national parks across the country, and that's what makes this time of year so great. There are no crowds. It's possible to get a room in the Zion National Park Lodge — not so easy to do in the summer; you can drive your own car in the park instead of taking the park's public transport, which doesn't even run in the winter; you can eat at any time you want because the dining room is not stuffed with tour-bus visitors; and you can pretty much do your own thing on the trails because there's not a line of hikers before or after you impeding your progress, obstructing your views or waiting to get by.
The other good thing about visiting national parks in winter is that with the leaves off the trees, it's much easier to spot wildlife. Bears may hibernate, but almost all other animals don't. We didn't see a wide variety of wildlife, but we saw enough to give us a jolt. A passel of wild turkeys appeared every morning on the great lawn in front of the lodge, and each morning and evening a small, scattered herd of mule deer would occupy the trailheads. Indeed, late one morning we were coming back from a hike when we saw a young buck with an already impressive rack standing astride the trail. No matter how much we yelled or stamped our feet, it didn't move. It turned its head in our direction, ate more grass, scratched its hooves on the ground — in short everything but move off the trail. Eventually we fixed that stubborn mule deer: We moved off the trail. Do mule deer laugh?
Off-season visits to the national parks are a bit of a tradeoff because not all services are available. Independent outfitters go on vacation or ply their trade in places such as Hawaii. At Zion, the park's natural history museum was closed when we went by to visit on a Thursday afternoon.
This past winter the biggest drawback — or the greatest attraction — was the weather. To the positive, the temperature never sank below the 40-degree range at night, and the day temperature settled comfortably into the 50s — what I consider the best temperature for long hikes. On the other hand, a winter storm had hit California and was rapidly blowing in our direction. Twice a day I was checking the weather outlook not only for Zion but for the route home to Arizona, and we realized the good times were just about over. Snow and rain were coming quickly. Much to our dismay, we decided to leave a day early, departing ahead of the storm.
Still, we got our fill of what we wanted to do - hiking.
The main part of the park, where 90 percent of tourists visit, is basically a lengthy canyon that follows the rushing Zion River. The park road runs parallel to the river from the town of Springdale outside the park to the massive facades of rocks called the Temple of Sinawava. The road and the river are at the bottom of the canyon, sandwiched between towering red-rock walls. The stark beauty of the locale is overwhelming.
We arrived at Zion Lodge in the mid-afternoon and were soon at the Emerald Pool trailheads across from the lodge. The park service rates Zion's trails in three categories: easy, moderate and strenuous. The lower pool trail is considered easy, while the upper pool trail is moderate. There are really three pools on the walk, and most everyone, including my wife and me, hike them all together. Along the way there are a few small waterfalls and a section underneath a rock ledge where the water drips from above. Otherwise it's a good walk that continuously climbs until arriving at the Upper Emerald Pool, which can be found at the base of a cliff.
According to one of the waiters at the lodge restaurant, the defining hike of the park is Angels Landing, which mostly climbs through a series of switchbacks along the rock face of a jagged mountain wall. My wife and I have height phobias, so we weren't going to do this hike, but then someone told us we could walk the Grotto trail right from the lodge and end up at the Angels Landing trailhead. So right after breakfast we journeyed out . When we reached the Angels Landing trail we kept going and made it more than halfway up the trail to an overlook. I would like to report we managed the rest of that hike with aplomb, but we could not screw up our courage to do the next section, which was to cross the top of a rock face. I pulled out the park's description of the trail, which read "not for young children or anyone fearful of heights. Long drop-offs." No kidding!
In the afternoon, we went out again for a third hike, this one the easy but lovely Riverside Walk that followed the Zion River past the Temple of Sinawava deeper into the canyons. The night before we had befriended a family of four from Brisbane, Australia, and we encountered them again on the Riverside trail. With much exclamation, they told us they had hiked the Angels Landing trail to the top of the mountain.
"It was the scariest hike I have ever done in my life," the woman told us
"But you did it," I responded. I wished I could have made the same claim.
WHEN YOU GO
We drove to the park from Las Vegas, which was a three-hour ride. Leaving the park, we drove east on the precarious and scenic Zion-Mount Carmel Highway toward Phoenix.
In Springdale, outside of Zion, there are many hotels because of limited lodging inside the park, but in the off-season it's much easier to get reservations at the Zion National Park Lodge, a beautiful, historic property. Cabins and suites are available: www.zionlodge.com.
Steve Bergsman is a freelance writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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