On day 19, I was SO excited to go into Zion and take the scenic drive shuttle. Well, this was the first day of our trip that was a bust…That picture above is not a New York subway- it’s the “scenic drive” shuttle. You can’t see any scenery on the tour because they cram people in like sardines. I had 2 people sweating directly on me — YUCK!! The first shuttle we took had no air conditioning, only windows that 1/2 opened and blew hair dryer hot air at you.

We stayed on for all 9 stops to get an overview of where we would get off on the way back. It’s about 40 minutes to ride the whole way to the end. At the end, you are forced to get off the shuttle, and then get in line to take another shuttle back. It felt like Disney World. It was 110 degrees out while waiting in this line. We waited for at least 15 minutes. God was talking care of us though because the shuttle we took back was air conditioned! But.. it was still packed.

The drivers were supposed to tell about the park, but the first one only said the stop numbers. The 2nd driver talked the whole time, but the speaker wasn’t working and we couldn’t hear a thing because there were so many people and everyone was talking. By the time we got the 2nd shuttle, we were too hot, tired, and crabby to get out and hike. We didn’t want to have to wait for another shuttle and have to stand up the rest of the way back after hiking. (We were also blessed to have seats and we couldn’t take a chance of not having them on the next shuttle). Once we got back to the visitors center, we couldn’t remember where we parked and had to walk all over. We also had to wait about 20 minutes just to find a parking spot when we started which should have been a red flag for us. 🤪

My advice- if you’re not a hardcore hiker, skip the Zion Scenic Shuttle. Take your car and drive the part you are allowed to with your own car, and stop when and where you want!

The best part of the day was our stop at Desert Smoothie. We tried their famous prickly pear fruit smoothie, and it was delicious. We also got to have coffee in the morning with mountains right outside of our window.

And see bison at our campground.

So, even with some struggles, it was still a great day!😆