This video shows visits to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park and both Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks in Utah. I have several video clips from both Zion and Bryce and a photo slide show from all three. It was late April, early May 2012, and temperatures were all over the place. We went from wearing shorts and T-shirts down in the Virgin River Valley of Zion to full winter gear way up at Bryce Canyon. With an elevation as high as 9,100 feet, it can get chilly up at Bryce, especially for sunrise photo shoots.
We had many fun hikes through remarkable desert landscapes and came away wonderstruck with a hard drive full of fantastic photos and memories to last a lifetime.
Ahhh, love this video. I moved to Southern Utah 4 years ago and all of this is in my backyard. Wonderful places to visit, well except for Zion NP. It's so crowded these days and the only way to get around is by shuttles (you have to get tickets in advance, so no spontaneous trips). Even if you go in January when there are no shuttles, you have to get there by the crack of dawn or you won't get on the Scenic Drive. They close it early to vehicles because it's so crowded. I guess Utah's tourism promotion of visiting the "Mighty Five" has worked.
Yeah, we were there in late April early May 2012, and not that many people really, went back in late March, early April 2014 and it was much busier but still could drive in March or catch the buses in April easy enough.
I think one reason for reduced crowds during our earlier 2011/12 trip fuel was expensive, I remember diesel was over 4 bucks USD a gallon in most places, and gas not much cheaper.
The good thing for us though at the time was the Canadian dollar was at par with the USD and even worth a bit more at times not under 80 cents like it is today.
Quite enjoying these flashbacks! We visited Zion in November, no problems doing the scenic drive, or hiking inside the canyon as long as we took the first shuttle in the morning. Bryce, we did in April 2019.
A bit cool, but a lot less crowds.