We flew into the Vegas airport Wednesday night, where our good friend Tyson picked us up, and we started our journey over to Springdale, Utah, which is the town that borders Zion National Park.

We booked rooms at the same hotel that Jordan and I had stayed in five years before, and I’m so glad we did because it was even better this time around. They had renovated since our previous stay, and the whole place was just so cool. The staff even had a pumpkin decorating contest going on, and guests could vote for their favorite pumpkin. So cute!

Because we had driven in at night, we woke up in the morning so excited to finally see the scenery. Our hotel overlooks the Watchman which is a very well-known mountain in Zion National Park, and wow, the view did not disappoint. You’re surrounded by the mountains in Springdale, so everywhere we looked there was another jaw-dropping view.

After ogling all the mountain views, we headed down for a quick bite to eat at the continental breakfast, which turned out to be a major highlight of the hotel. The menu changed daily! This morning was French toast sticks, eggs, sausage, and potatoes, and they had a fully stocked parfait bar as well. We couldn’t stop raving about it.

Once we finished eating, we headed back to our rooms to get ready for the first outing of the trip: the Canyon Overlook Trail! This trail is a short one-mile hike to an amazing spot that overlooks Zion National Park. Jordan picked it as a warm-up, something to get us used to the steep drop-offs we’d face at Angels Landing the next day.

Zion National Park is so amazing that even the drive to the trailhead was fun. You wind up through the canyons, slowly gaining elevation and even pass through a mile-long tunnel that they built in the 1920’s. I can’t imagine what those engineering plans looked like for that!

A quick note about the park layout before I continue on: Zion has two main roads. Zion Canyon Scenic Drive, which heads north and dead-ends at the Temple of Sinawava (where the Narrows hike begins) and the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway which exits the park to the east. In peak season, private vehicles aren’t allowed on the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive, only park shuttles and e-bikes are. The east road, however, stays open to cars and no shuttles run this route.

Since Canyon Overlook is on the eastern side, you can only reach it by car, and the trailhead parking lot is small. We didn’t get an especially early start and figured we’d have to wait for parking, but just as we arrived someone pulled out. We were so excited! Until another visitor let us know the trail was closed for a search and rescue mission and wouldn’t reopen for another two hours. Total bummer, but we hoped the person was okay, and decided to move on with our day.

We had planned on e-biking after the trail anyways, so we headed over to Zion Peddler to rent some bikes and check out the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive by bike.

At this point we were absolutely dying to get out there and start exploring, but we had to get through all the waivers and rental process. They explained the stops of the park and the rules of the road (basically just stop and pull over for those shuttles whenever they come up behind you) and we were on our way!

Our first stop was the Pa’rus trail which starts near the visitor center and follows the Virgin River. We started off super slow because I kept stopping for bird-watching and photo ops. Honestly, with views like that, how could you not?

When we stopped at stop 4 on the shuttle map, Court of the Patriarchs, we spotted a helicopter with a rescuer dangling from a hoist! We weren’t sure if that was the same person that they were conducting the search and rescue for, but I snapped a view pictures because I was still playing with the zoom on my new iPhone 17 Pro Max (such a good upgrade that I panic bought before the trip lol) There was a short walk to a viewpoint there too, so of course we checked that out.

Next, we stopped at the Zion Lodge, which Jordan had tried to book for the night before Angels Landing, but it was fully reserved. Such a bummer because the grounds were gorgeous. The lodge sits tucked between towering canyon walls, overlooking a huge green lawn with a massive cottonwood tree, which might be the oldest in Utah according to our GuideAlong app. We grabbed burgers from the quick-service spot and they really hit the spot. It was such an incredible view for a casual lunch.

After we ate, we wandered through the gift shop for a bit. I had forgotten to pack a hat since we were wearing helmets earlier, so I kicked off my souvenir shopping with a Zion National Park hat.

Fueled up and re-accessorized, we walked over to the Emerald Pools trailhead. This wasn’t in our original plan, but we were itching to hike after our morning trail got canceled. It turned out to be the perfect warm-up. It was just enough to get our legs moving without tiring us out for the next day.

Turkey stop:

Next on our bike tour was Weeping Rock. This short trail had apparently been closed since 2023 due to a rockfall and had only recently reopened, so we were excited for the opportunity to check it out. It was a very short walk up a paved path that dead-ended at, quite literally, a weeping rock! At the time, we didn’t know much about what made it special, but we later learned some fascinating geological facts from our Angels Landing shuttle bus driver, Ron.

The rock is part of a massive layer of Navajo Sandstone, which is incredibly porous. When it rains or snows on the cliffs above, the water sinks down into the sandstone and slowly filters through it. Scientists estimate that the water currently dripping out of the rock may have fallen as rain nearly 1,000 years ago. Once it hits the denser Kayenta layer below, the water can’t go any further and starts to seep, or “weep” out through the rock face. Some of the plant life in that little alcove isn’t found anywhere else in the world, which is wild. It ended up being a cool stop, but I think we would have appreciated it even more if we’d known all that while we were there.

Also, I did totally take a picture of the trailhead sign that has all of this information and we didn’t read a word of it. Guess we were too excited to stop and read lol

It was getting a little later in the day at that point, but we were still determined to make it to the end of the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive. We kept biking north and made a quick stop at what our bike rental agency called the “Secret Springs.” We had definitely hyped this one up in our heads a bit more than we should have. It turned out to be a very short offshoot from the road with a small deck and a little waterfall at the end. Still, it was funny since we’d spent all day making sure we didn’t forget to visit the Secret Springs so they wouldn’t be a secret anymore.

With that five-minute stop behind us, we headed to the Temple of Sinawava, which is the final shuttle stop unless you’re planning to hike the Narrows. We had that hike scheduled for Sunday, so we knew we’d be back. While we were there, we saw an incredible number of mule deer. On our ride back down, we kept seeing more and more, and according to shuttle driver Ron, he and the other drivers had been talking about how many there were that day! It was apparently an unprecedented number of sightings, which was pretty cool to find out later.

Since the e-bikes were due back at 7:45 PM and we didn’t want to be out past sunset on the Scenic Road, we made much better time heading back down. The ride was easier since we’d already hit all the main stops going up, and we only paused if a shuttle was behind us or if we spotted wildlife. It was such a blast biking through the canyon, and I think Zion is one of the few places where you can do that kind of ride safely and comfortably.

We were trying to have minimal stops on the way down, but Caroline spotted this huge buck on the Pa’rus trail. We of course stopped for photos, and Jordan snapped one of my favorite pictures of the trip of me!

After dropping off the bikes, we were starving and started googling nearby restaurants. Anthera popped up with great reviews and pictures of a beautiful outdoor patio, so we decided to give it a try. I’m big on ambiance when it comes to dining, and we love eating outdoors (especially with the mountains all around) so it seemed like the perfect spot. Unfortunately, the patio was closed, but we still got a nice table inside with a good view and ambient live music drifting in from the room next door. Everything we ordered was delicious. Jordan and I both had the salmon, which was amazing, and Tyson’s steak was just as good.

On our walk to Anthera from the parking lot, we had passed a little French pastry shop, so of course we had to stop there on the way back. I’m so glad we did. Everything we tried was incredible. The owner was so friendly and told us all about where his ingredients come from, chocolates imported from Belgium, other items from France, and we ended up ordering a whole assortment of pastries and chocolates to sample.

After dinner and dessert, we headed back to the hotel for an early night. Our Angels Landing hike was the next day (on Halloween!!) and since our permit time was before 9:00 AM, we had a 5:00 AM wake-up call to get to the chain section on time.