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Story by Alan Snel Photos/Design by Anna Barantez
Heaven is a mere three hours from Las Vegas.
I’ll get to the punch line quick here — it’s bicycling Zion National Park in southwest Utah, a heavenly piece of nature that wows, inspires and drops jaws with its to-the-sky walls of rock, are-you-kidding Angels Landing trail, The Narrows and its dramatic, steep red cliffs. And yes, it’s only three hours of driving from Las Vegas.
On August 27, 2022, Anna and I drove to Zion. And here is our story.
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We left Las Vegas very early. As in 3AM early and we rumbled along Interstate 15 north of Mesquite when Anna caught a nap.
She draped a sheet over her head and the Shroud of Anna was snoozing nicely as the first light of the day edged its way above the eastern horizon in St. George.
The Shroud was up and at ’em when we drove through Springdale, the doorstep into Zion, and waited only five minutes to enter the park at 7 AM.
Anna is a mountain bike ninja, but we pedaled road bicycles on the floor road of the Virgin River valley.
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Zion has become ridiculously popular. Here’s a visitors numbers chart showing visitorship hit 4.5 million in 2017 and then again in 2021 (not counting November and December.)
But we arrived so early that we easily found a parking space in the lot about a half-mile past the toll booth.
It was cool on this August Saturday morning, but as light began to creep its way into the canyon the temperature also rose. Here’s a park map of the scenic drive, which is closed to motorists but open for bicyclists.
Anna and I typically bike on dirt.
So, bicycling on the pavement amid the stunning scenic beauty was different.
The park had a rule that required bicyclists to pull off the road to allow the shuttle buses to pass.
But Anna and I were both surprised by how close the buses passed us when they had the entire empty oncoming lane to use to move over when passing. Anna had a good point that a casual bicyclist who is not used to biking on roads could get spooked by how close the shuttle buses passed us.
The scenic drive was a lovely platform for us to gaze at the soaring walls of red rock that seem so largely out of scale for the scenes of every day life.
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It was a marvelous morning gazing at the scenery, nature and red cliffs.
The early morning light was stunning, illuminating sections of the rising walls that formed the canyon. Take a look.
When we arrived back at the car, visitors were slowly trolling the lot sniffing for an open spot.
But we had Capriotti’s turkey sandwiches to munch before we started home for Las Vegas with full memories and tummies.