Zion: Backpacking and Staying at The Lodge
- Zi Sen Chong
- Nov 6, 2021
- 8 min read
Hitting more than the classics. Wading in The Narrows turned into a feel-good mission. Glad to have some down-for-whatever friends in this journey.
This trip is long-time coming; it was rescheduled from April 2020. Back then, it would only be Brad and I. And this time, we have added another of my favorite adventure buddy Shea.
Brad can be quite a planner, if he decides to be one. He sketched a 4-page power point slides (as seen below). He was also the one that waited eagerly (online) at 10am 3 months prior to secure our campsites. Thanks Brad.
I wanted to do more than just hiking the classic trails so I pushed for a backpacking trip. We decided on the West Rim Trail, top-down approach, which should only have small amount of elevation gains over 20 miles or so distance.
At the St. George airport, I try to be cheap and ask a random girl if she wants to share a ride to Zion. It turns out that she is going to stay at St. George but she says that she could ask her friend if he could drop us off at Walmart because they are going to Walmart. She calls but the answer is no. Her friend probably thinks that she is crazy to offer three random dudes a ride. At least we tried.
On the ride from St. George to Zion National Park, we makes friend with our Lyft driver Jeff. We exchange numbers. He basically becomes our chauffeur for our trip. We also make friend with our shuttle driver Joe, a late 30s guy that has been bouncing around different national park for seasonal works. He is kind enough to drive us a little further to the viewing platform of Lava Point and asks us not to tell his boss or put it on any review.
The first day of hiking is quite average. My energy level is quite low because of sleep deprivation of the last 4 days (work conference and catching early morning flights). Other than the Lava Point area, the views along the hike is not very memorable. We pass by campsite #6, which I think is the best camp site along this trail. We get to our campsite #4 in an area called Potato Hollow just when the sun is setting. The temperature drops dramatically within an hour (probably from 60s to 30s), and we are in full winter-camping mode as soon as we have our camp set up.
The first night probably has one of the best starry nights I can remember. Standing in the cold, with our toes freezing, we can easily see the Milky Way and all the constellations that we do not know. I also see a couple of shooting stars and make some wishes. I don't remember if any of my wishes made in front of shooting starts ever come true. But might as well give it a try. It is free anyway.
We are in bed by 8:30am the first night. I have this little trick where I put hot water into my water bottle and put it in my sleeping bag, and it helps tremendously in a cold night like this. I feel quite refreshed the next morning. I have not had any sleep longer than 5 hours in the last 5 days and I feel like I have caught up with my sleep.
After some dilly-dally, we leave our campsite at noon. The view from the trail to our next campsite, campsite #6, is spectacular. Large gorges woven in between dramatic cliffs as far as one can see. We hike along the edge of the cliffs for the most part.
We get to our campsite #6 around 3pm. After we have set up our camp, we hike about 1.5 miles near campsite #2 to get water from a spring. The spring is barely dripping. Luckily there is small puddle on the ground, just enough for us to scoop up some water for treatment. We have brought our lunch with us and the view here is great. Brad is letting his imagination runs wild with all the rock formations and cliff colors, calling out animal shapes and human faces.
After we get back to the campsite, we get into our full winter gear mode in anticipation of the cold, and walk over to the edge of a cliff to watch the sunset. We just sit on some big tree roots protruded out of the ground watching the sun slowly sinking into the horizon, turning the sky from bright orange to purple blue and eventually black. It is one of the longest and most beautiful sunset I can remember. Before we know it, all the stars are out. We talk about everything from serious issues to ridiculous stereotypes, none of which we would ever remember frankly. It is a good time.
The next day we march towards Angel's Landing. The descent from our campsite to Angel's Landing is pretty rapid and steep. And the hike up to the top is much more strenuous that I have expected. The hike is much longer and the exposure is higher. Without the chain link, this would have been a dangerous scramble to get up to the top. The tourists (including ourselves) are there, but it is not too crowded to feel annoyed.
And the hike down to The Lodge is rather steep and long too. It would have been very difficult for us to hike up this way with our heavy backpack.
The Lodge is the only accommodation in the Park. It is not luxurious but has a fitting cabin-style. It feels approachable in the sense that the design and services are rather down-to-earth. The National Park Service probably wants to keep it that way.
The first order of business is a glass of celebratory beer at the beer garden.
The hot shower and rocking chair at the porch feel good too. For dinner, we go to the restaurant in the Lodge. The restaurant is at the second floor above the front desk. It has a large outdoor area overlooking the cliffs. I am marking it down as a potential future wedding reception area. We are hungry. Each of us basically gets two entrees. A steak plate with a junior burger with sweet potato fries for me. After dinner, we sit by the fire place (not working) and try to soak up all the digital toxic from our phone that we have missed in the last 3 days.
Shea really wants to get the $10.99 all-you-can-eat buffet. So we wake up at 7am to get that before hiking The Narrows. Brad has decided to sleep in instead. The operation here is to pack up, get on the shuttle back to the visitor center, store our backpack, rent gears, and take the shuttle to the Temple of Sinawava, where the trailhead of The Narrows is at. By the time it's all said and done, we are at at the trailhead at around 11am.
Hiking The Narrows is quite an experience. We hike in the calf-deep river towering by 100-foot tall walls on both sides. The water can go as deep at chest-deep. The rented shoes, wader and wooded stick help us a a lot.
The first 2 miles of the hike is rather tourist but the crowd thins out considerably when we get to what seem to be an impassable deep pond. After some prodding with his wooded stick, Shea finds a way to get through it without being fully submerged into the water. After that, we pretty much have the entire river to ourselves until the Big Springs.
This hiking adventure quickly turns into a mission when we run into another hiker that tells us about a distraught family of seven trying to get out of The Narrows. There are 3 kids between the age of 6-12, a middle-age couple and a older age couple (probably grandparents). They are doing the top-down approach of The Narrows; they backpacked in and camped last night. The dad tells us that he had a broken ankle 6 months ago and he thought that he would be fine doing this trip. But his ankle swelled severely last night and now he can barely walk. He is with his wife and their 6-year old kid that is crying. The grandparents and two other kids are further front with the hope that they can get out in time to get on the bus shuttle, and come back to pick them up when they are out of The Narrows. Without much persuasion, we convince them to let us take their backpacks to lighten their load. We also give them whatever water and food that we have left. They are very grateful. And we feel good about doing some good deeds.
After we get back to The Narrows, we report to a park ranger about the situation. We make sure that the ranger is not sending rescue (it can be costly) but is aware of the situation. At about 10pm, we received a text from the family saying that they have gotten out around 9pm. All good.
Luckily we made friend with Jeff the Lyft driver. We arrange for him to drive us back from Zion to St. George. We share the whole tale with him and Brad on our way back to St. George. He is very much like a trusted tour guide now at this point. He tells us some interesting facts and points of interest along the way, and recommends us to go to Ribs and Chop House for dinner. He also picks us up at 5am the next day to go to the airport. It simply feels good to have a chauffeur for a trip like this!
What a memorable backpacking trip in the Zion National Park. Looking back, we did it as good as it can be. The 3D2N backpacking trip, top-down approach to Angel's Landing, followed by one night at The Lodge and one night at St. George, was quite nice. The top-down approach means that the backpacking portion was not too exhausting; staying at The Lodge after being filthy for 3 days was very nice; and not needing to rush to the airport on Sunday allowed us to do The Narrows. Other than the gorgeous and dramatic views, the sunset was beautiful, the starry night was spectacular, the conversation was fun, the rescue mission was memorable.
Chances are that I am not going back anytime soon. I am glad that I was able to check this off the list and have something fun to remember for the rest of my life.
Trip Planning in Nutshell
Day 1
Fly into St. George in the morning
Get a wilderness permit from the Visitor Center
Buy gas cannister and fill water
Eat lunch and wait for our pre-arranged shuttle at 2pm
Drop-off at Lava Point and start hiking
Day 2
Set up overnight camp at campsite #8
Day 3
Set up overnight camp at campsite #6
Get water near camp site #2
Hike Angel's Landing
Check in and stay one night at The Lodge
Day 4
Hike The Narrows
Stay at St. George
Day 5
Leave for Denver
Things I Would Do Differently Next Time
Campsite #6 is probably the best site along West Rim Trail. Avoid #4 because it is in the hollow and it gets very cold at night.
If I were to come back, I would probably try to do one night backpacking only, and spend two nights at the Lodge. That probable means that we need to start at Lava Point no later than 10am so that we can get to #6 before dark.
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