Zion National Park can be a pretty busy place with all the hikers doing Angel’s Landing and the Narrows and all the photographers lined up on the bridge.
Plus, we made a critical mistake. Because we had been there before, we didn’t do as much research as we usually do. We just booked a week at the RV park.
It turned out that the week we chose was spring break!!!! Noooooo!!! All the people! It was outrageous.
We couldn’t even get to the narrows because there was no where to park and it was a week before the shuttle bus started.
Seriously, spring break and there’s no shuttle bus? Who planned this?
Now we know and we’ll never go there again during spring break, that’s for sure.
We decided to find a quieter part of the park to enjoy, so we went on a drive to check out some of the other park entrances. The first was Kolob Canyons.
Kolob Canyons is located on the north western corner of the park, but to get there you have to drive out of the park, back to interstate 15, and re-enter the park at the Kolob Canyon entrance. You will enjoy many scenic vistas along the five mile drive on Kolob Canyons Road, like this one:
Please click the image to view a larger version.
I made this photo right on the side of the road. I used a small aperture of f/25 to create a large depth of field so I could get both the flowers in the foreground (Japonica, I think?) and the mountains in focus.
Next up on the blog, I’ll show you another quiet spot in the park, Kolob Terrace.
Anne
A beautiful image as always, what camera lens combination didyouuse for this photo? Nex-6?
We are currently in Victoria BC waiting for the bus to the Butchart gardens with my Nex-6 and photography tolerant wife.
Canada has been a sensory overload, you are lucky to live in such a beautiful country.
Hi Gordon, yes, I made this one with the NEX6. You are going to love Butchart Gardens!
Anne
The gardens were amazing we spent 9 hours wandering and photographing and had a very large afternoon tea. Sadly we fly back to Australia on Friday.
Ouch – spring break! Reminds me a bit as to why Cultus Lake doesn’t exist for me between June and September!
Wow, beautiful. Hard to imagine the place is packed with tourists…
Frank (bbqboy)
Beautiful photograph of the Kolob Canyons. This photo has inspired me and I hope to make it out there some day
Talk about not doing research, I went to Zion two weeks ago, and I didn’t know it was monsoon season there. So mornings and evenings were all clouded over. No golden hour; more like a partial golden minute.