In the last installment of our Autumn Road Trip adventures, we left off at a gorgeous spot in Page, Arizona. If you need to refresh your memory, use this link: Arizona. If you need to start at the beginning of our trip, you can click here.

Our plan was pretty fluid at this point, as we were trying to decide how much farther west we wanted to travel. Our only constraint was a plan to arrive at our friends’ place in Waxahachie, Texas, on a particular date. Working backwards from that date on our calendar, we figured we had time for one more day to go west before we needed to start heading southeast. We decided to check out Zion National Park in Utah. And what a great decision that was!

The drive to and through Zion National Park was breathtaking! One awesome view after another around every bend.

The curves and the heights made it feel like a roller coaster at times. And the tunnel! A 1.1 mile narrow tunnel with height and width restrictions and a long line of traffic waiting to pass, as they only allowed one-way traffic through it. At a few intervals inside the tunnel, a large opening would give a brief glimpse of the huge rock formations outside. It was tempting, but impossible (and against the rules), to pull over to take a look. And we were going too fast in the darkness to photograph them.

We pulled over several times before and after the tunnel trying to appreciate and capture the magnitude of the sandstone formations around us. But, as I’ve said before, pictures hardly do it justice.

Traveling from Page, Arizona, we had entered the park from the east, driving along the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway toward the Visitor Center, only experiencing a portion of the large park. We exited into Springdale, a very busy town with lots of traffic and not enough parking spots. We managed to find a small cafe, with a tight parking lot, for lunch. Then we re-traced our route back to Page. Just before exiting the park again, we found the East Rim Trailhead. A perfect spot to run/ hike at the end of the afternoon.

Then, it was back to Page, Arizona, for the night with the promise of more adventures to come.