Our first stop was to drive down to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It's so humongous! We started at the Visitor Center and walked over to Bright Angel Point. Then we also drove over to Cape Royal and walked the trail there. It seemed like everywhere we went had a stunning view so it's hard to say one was better than another. We also found a picnic table in that area and ate our picnic lunch while looking out into the canyon. We were surprised how cool it was; we expected it to be really hot but it was only in the mid-60s while we were there!
Then we drove a couple of hours north to Zion National Park which was also very beautiful. The road takes you down through the canyon which was pretty cool since we had just seen the Grand Canyon from the top looking down. Zion is similar to Yosemite park in that it's really just one main route through a narrow canyon area (which is why Yosemite was unbearably congested). But we liked how Zion handled it; instead of trying to pump people through a narrow area they have most of the area closed off to through traffic and you have to park and take a shuttle through most of the park. The shuttles ran super frequently; we never waited more than 2 minutes. And that allowed us to get through the parks and see the sights quickly and without all the frustration of fighting traffic and finding parking everywhere we wanted to stop. So we rode the shuttle for the whole route in order to get a quick look at the park and then we got off at the Grotto and did the Kayenta Trail hike to the Lower Emerald Pool trail which was about 3miles total. It was a nice hike through the canyon and we got to see the lower Emerald Pool (which didn't look emerald to me), lizards, and lots of cacti. On the way out of the park we also saw a few Desert Bighorn Sheep walking around!
So that was our day! Last night and tonight we're staying at a campground in Kanab which is known as "Little Hollywood" because it's where a bunch of old western movies were filmed.
Tomorrow we go to Bryce Canyon!
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