<strong>Kim:</strong> Hello everyone and welcome to It’s full time to travel time. I am Kim and I am here with my cohost, Isaac. And I’m super pumped this episode. We get to really dig in and take you with us and relive our trip to Zion National Park. A lot of crazy things happened on that trip, including an exorcism on my possessed car. We’re going to talk about some fun facts about Zion, a great place to spend and a must see national monument, and a hidden gem in Utah. Yeah, Slot Canyon. That’s gonna be super cool. I’m excited to talk about that.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> I’m pretty excited as well, and, you know, Zion, honestly, is one of the most epic national parks in the U. S., and so we’re excited to be diving in so you get to learn more about what you should do when you visit Zion.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Alright, so now I’m really pumped for you guys to relive this trip with us. So let me take you on this journey, right? So, this was part of a three month road trip we did, and Zion was part of that. But like, the question is, how the heck were we able to do a three month road trip? Isaac, like, how?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Okay, Kim, well, now that I’m done laughing from your very beautiful face.
<strong>Kim:</strong> You’re laughing at my—
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Face? At your beautiful face.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Oh, okay.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> So, Manny threw me off so much there.
<strong>Kim:</strong> It was my face that threw you off.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Yes. Cover that thing up.
<strong>Kim:</strong> I covered it up.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Okay, so how did this three month road trip come into fruition?
<strong>Kim:</strong> That is what I meant.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Excellent. A couple things happened that led to this road trip. First of all, I was asked to be a groomsman in one of my best friends from Syracuse, New York. And so we decided to make a road trip out of it because we also had to be back in Arizona three months later to be in another wedding with our friends Sasha and Spencer. So, we decided to make a three month road trip out of it.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Wedding season, clearly. It was.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> And on top of that, the question is, well, how could we have afforded to actually take three months to travel?
<strong>Kim:</strong> We were not rich at that time.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> We were not. So, what we had just done, though, is I had partnered with my good buddy and roommate from college, Ruan, and we had put together an entire course, an online course, and we had sold about 80,000 worth of this course.
<strong>Kim:</strong> And—
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Kim was definitely a part of helping out, building out the funnels and just supporting us during this. And she learned a lot about digital marketing during this procedure. So since we had been able to create this course, we had a solid amount of success in selling the course, and we had some extra funds to be able to travel, plus the course was actually generating funds for us while we were traveling. Super cool. So that was really instrumental in allowing us to first leave on this three month road trip. So we had already some pretty epic adventures before we even got to Zion on this road trip. Some pretty crazy stuff happened to us. But I think one of the craziest things that happened as we came into Cedar City, which is where we stayed at our Airbnb—do you remember what happened to your car?
<strong>Kim:</strong> Yes. My car was possessed. And I’m talking like, possessed and possessed. I can’t even describe it. We would be driving, and then all of a sudden, I’m not going to make the noise because it’s going to be so unpleasant on your ears. But imagine, like, a bomb meets, like, a squeaky something, and it happens for a split second in the car, and then I’m like, What happened?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> It was like fireworks were going off in our car doors. All of a sudden without any warning—
<strong>Kim:</strong> Just a sound, just a sound. Oh and the radio no longer worked. So it would be pure silence and then out of nowhere unexpectedly you never knew when it was coming you would hear that noise and I would freak out and guess what? Obviously I’m driving, so it’s like not the best to hear fireworks go off in your car while you’re driving.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> This is wild. So we get to Cedar City. I know we had a really cool Airbnb. Do you remember our host name?
<strong>Kim:</strong> I, I don’t.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> What, it’s not like that’s—this was eight years ago or something.
<strong>Kim:</strong> He has brown hair, he’s taller than me. I have some descriptor factors.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> He was awesome. And we stayed in an interesting, almost like little mobile home. It was tiny.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Yeah, more like a casita, I feel.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> I think we had like a hot plate, a bed, a tiny TV. And we had some chickens, didn’t we, in our backyard?
<strong>Kim:</strong> I mean, just to be clear, we didn’t eat the chickens, but I did hug a chicken, for sure. I mean, he had all sorts of chickens in the backyard, so we got to see them, but most importantly, they had silkies. You don’t know what a silky is? Go Google it, it’s like one of the cutest chickens I’ve ever seen in my life. And I’m pretty sure they lay like three to four eggs per day.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Well—
<strong>Kim:</strong> Which is why you want to have a silky. He let me pet his silky.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> So. We get into Cedar City, we spend the night, and the next morning we are heading to Zion. In terms of where to stay when going to Zion, I really like Cedar City. It is about a 45 minute drive away, so it’s a little bit farther away, but it’s a really cool town. They have a ton of cool things that happen in the town.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Yeah, Isaac, don’t they have like the Shakespeare Festival that happens there?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Yeah, they do. Good call. And they also have a couple of wineries, great art, some great food, we really enjoy our time in Cedar City. Another good place to stay when heading to Zion is Hurricane, which we’ve stayed in as well. And that’s about a half an hour drive away from Zion.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Hurricane!
<strong>Isaac:</strong> So we have this possessed car that is literally just like—sounds like it’s exploding out of its doors occasionally on us—
<strong>Kim:</strong> Isaac, didn’t you have me put in ear plugs or earbuds or something? You were like, Kim is gonna freak you out. Yes, I did swerve on the road because, god, you don’t know when it’s freaking coming,
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Right? And we already had plans on climbing Angel’s Landing the next day and we had to do it that day. And so we got up around five o’clock in the morning. I gave Kim earplugs so that the booms wouldn’t startle her too much. And we drove 45 minutes to Zion where like every five minutes, our car would be like, boom, like—
<strong>Kim:</strong> High pitched boom. Oh my gosh.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Crazy.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Thank you for the earplugs. It did help out. I didn’t freak out as hard, but still like, how are you not going to jump when that happens?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> It was a weird experience, but—
<strong>Kim:</strong> We made it to Zion.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> So we made it to Zion. We got to Zion around 6. To park in the main parking lot, if you want to go to Zion and park in the main parking lot, you have to get there early. That’s all I can say.
<strong>Kim:</strong> And preferably not on a weekend if you can do it. I mean, honestly, we travel on the weekdays. It’s such a better, smoother experience a lot of the time, especially—Zion’s one of the most busiest national parks, right, Isaac?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> It is, and the bus system was designed to bus 2.5 million people a year, and it’s already bussing over 5 million people a year. So, it is important if you want to do one of the major climbs that you got there early, get into the parking lot and take the bus early, because we still had about a half an hour wait just to get onto the bus from the main parking lot.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Yeah, and if you don’t know about Angels Landing, you guys, this is super cool. If you go to Zion, you got to do it. Definitely I’d say for kids like 12 or older at least, but essentially it’s two and a half miles, there’s about 1500 feet elevation gain, 21 switchbacks. Isaac, do you remember the nickname for the switchbacks?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> I don’t.
<strong>Kim:</strong> You don’t? It’s Walter’s Wiggles.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Okay.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Who came up with that?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Probably Walter.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Yeah, probably. Some Walter out there. Thanks, Walter. Another cool thing about Angels Landing though, I actually learned this: the guy who it was named after—they call it Angels Landing because he said only angels could land on it. I guess we’re angels then, huh?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> You know it. So with Angels Landing, we actually think Angels Landing is our favorite hike that we’ve ever done in America.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Ooh, speak for yourself, but it’s definitely in my top list for sure. Is this your number one I think? This is—
<strong>Isaac:</strong> News to me. I thought it was our number one.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Do you want it to be our number one?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Collectively combined. I mean, you’re putting me on the spot. I really have to—
<strong>Kim:</strong> Think about it. It’s like in my top three for sure.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Well, you think about what other ones beat it and I want to know what hikes beat Angel’s Landing. Alright, alright. So what’s crazy about Angel’s Landing though is that—one, there’s lots of switchbacks getting up there. But then when you get up to kind of the midway point, you have to then climb holding on to a chain, and there are thousand foot drops on either side of you,
<strong>Kim:</strong> And—
<strong>Isaac:</strong> There’s only one chain. One chain is fine if people were just moving in one direction, but people are moving in both directions—
<strong>Kim:</strong> So what does that mean? We have to hug strangers. I legit remember it because Zion—again, Angel’s Landing is one of the busiest trails in Zion. Also, you know, so as you’re hanging on to the chain, make sure one hand always hangs on to the chain, let go of the other hand, wrap it around your friend, or someone you don’t know, then let go of the other hand and go around. So you were getting real personal with some people, you know, but I’d smile at them and they would awkwardly smile back, so maybe the smile made them a little uncomfortable.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Yeah, safety, safety first. Now when we hiked Zion, it wasn’t a permit system, but I do want to let everyone know who’s looking to hike Angel’s Landing in Zion now: it is a permit system, which is actually smart because it was getting too many people climbing it at once. And so you have to go on and you have to get your permit in order to hike Angels Landing. And this is a very popular hike. So look ahead—I mean, you want to be probably looking a month ahead in order to get your permit.
<strong>Kim:</strong> I agree. It’s really smart though, because obviously safety is of most importance. So thank you permit system.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Absolutely. So, you know, we’re climbing up this mountain and it’s, I mean, it’s just epic. I don’t know how else to say it. But we do come across—they were like a group of friends.
<strong>Kim:</strong> That’s where we met Lane and she was actually honestly struggling a little bit, but Isaac totally helped her through it. What did you say to her, Isaac?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Well, she was sitting down and she was kind of freaking out a bit and so I sat down next to her. I actually did some breathing exercises with her and we just talked it out and, you know, we said, let’s just continue going one step at a time. Let’s make sure we continue to hold onto the chain, you know, let other people go around or do your hug method. And we just continued up and—
<strong>Kim:</strong> Honestly we made it to the top all together. Like we made friends on this trail. We made it to the top. We high fived, we sat up there, we were like, holy crap, we made it up here.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> And I think it’s one of the coolest things about any mountain climb that Kim and I’ve ever done— you make friends with people also climbing the mountain—
<strong>Kim:</strong> And then they become like friends forever,
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Right? Because it’s like an experience you’re going through—
<strong>Kim:</strong> It’s mental with other people. It’s emotional, you know—
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Lane is still a friend of ours. We still touch base. Shout out. Yeah. And then, you know, I remember one other mountain we climbed, we started sliding down the mountain with a group of friends—
<strong>Kim:</strong> On our butts.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> On our butts. That’ll be a different time.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Different episode.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> So we make it to the top of Zion, and wow, I mean, your angel quote is probably pretty accurate. It is one of the best views we’ve seen from any national park in our lives.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Oh my god, yeah. It was epic. I mean, you’re looking over a huge canyon, it’s kind of like reddish rock all around you, there’s greenery mixed in, there’s birds flying at eye level, like, I hope I can really paint that picture for you, cause it’s just—it’s crazy.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Would you say that—well, you’re supposed to tell me what your other favorite hikes are from different national parks, so, do you have other ones that beat Angel’s Landing?
<strong>Kim:</strong> Okay, so to be honest, I’ve had some time to reconsider. And I’m gonna have to say Angels Landing is number one.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Okay, so I’m glad we circled back to that.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Yeah, I mean, I really had to think about it, but you’re right. You’re right. It is our favorite hike in a national park. Correct.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> So we get to the top. Incredible. So we start hiking down. We now have a whole group of friends. So it’s like eight of us all hiking down together. And I remember a moment where we had like climbed most the way down and I look back and I see the switchbacks going up the mountain that we—
<strong>Kim:</strong> We’re still walking forward and you were like, hey guys, turn around, and we’re like, what are we looking at?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> And I was like, do you guys see that trail like way way up there? They’re like, yeah. I was like—that’s where we just came from.
<strong>Kim:</strong> And Lane was like, are you serious? No one—
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Believed me at first.
<strong>Kim:</strong> No, and we were like, are you sure? Like, can you point it out for us? Like, it’s hard to wrap your brain around like, oh yeah, we were, you know, almost 2000 feet up there.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> It was incredible.
<strong>Kim:</strong> It’s awesome. Always look back on a trail though. That’s really, really good advice. Like, to really feel proud of what you accomplished because you freaking did it. It’s awesome. Turn around and look.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> So we’re going with—that is our collective favorite hike in a national park that we have done so far, and it was one of the first major hikes we did in a national park.
<strong>Kim:</strong> And that is when we made our first pretty significant mistake. You remember, Isaac?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> I do remember. So, we get all the way down, we get to the bus stop, we are exhausted. Super tired. I mean, this is a hefty hike.
<strong>Kim:</strong> And I was really hungry, too. We were starving.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> We were starving.
<strong>Kim:</strong> And so Isaac has this brilliant idea, like, oh, the buses are so busy, like, why don’t we just walk back? It’ll probably be faster.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Terrible idea. I mean, it was like a 20 minute walk to the lodge where we could eat and we were so tired.
<strong>Kim:</strong> What’s even worse is to watch the bus actually pass us and we’re like, no.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Halfway on the hike to the lodge, the bus passes and we were like, this was a terrible choice.
<strong>Kim:</strong> So then at that point we finally make it to the lodge. We’re starving. Yeah, and we got there and—
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Well, so we order food and then I suddenly realized I was like, wait—
<strong>Kim:</strong> I don’t—
<strong>Isaac:</strong> I don’t think I have my wallet.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Oh, no.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> And so I have Kim dig through her backpack and we find 15 total—
<strong>Kim:</strong> Thankfully we had some—
<strong>Isaac:</strong> So I had to call the waitress back and I was like, I’m so sorry, but we have to cancel everything we ordered. We only have 15 on us. What can we buy?
<strong>Kim:</strong> We got like a chicken noodle soup.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> I think we got like chicken noodle soup and like half a sandwich—
<strong>Kim:</strong> Oh, we asked for lots of crackers, too. Remember? Because we—
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Were so hungry. They give you 14.70 and I had to tell the waitress like, I’m so sorry—like you’ve been awesome—this tip is literally just because we only have 30 cents left. That’s all we had.
<strong>Kim:</strong> And you were like, I’ll come back and tip you properly I promise, and we were able to, but she was really awesome and understanding but that was crazy. And so we got a tiny bit of food, and it’s like, at least an hour to wait for the bus to get on the bus and get back to our car from there, so.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Make sure you at least have some money with you if you’re not bringing your wallet so you can buy some food after the hike. Mistakes were made.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Rough.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> So that was a really epic day. We get back in our car— it’s probably like four or five o’clock and we still have to drive 45 minutes back to Cedar City with a possessed car that’s like crackling and booming every five to ten minutes out of nowhere—
<strong>Kim:</strong> Whip out the earplugs, right?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> So Kim’s listening—has the earplugs in. I don’t have enough earplugs myself, so I’m just like jumping every time this happens and—
<strong>Kim:</strong> When he jumps then I jump.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> So we make it back to Cedar City and I think we call AutoZone and scheduled to go in the next day to see if they can perform this—
<strong>Kim:</strong> Honestly, Isaac thought of AutoZone because he was like, I’ve had really good experiences with AutoZone in the past. Honestly, you guys—they just know things sometimes. They know. We didn’t even know if they would know how to fix us. We’re like, eh, let’s give it a shot.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> So the next morning we wake up early, we go into AutoZone and we’re like, hey. Is there anyone here who can perform an exorcism?
<strong>Kim:</strong> And they were like, well, let’s have Chad help you out. And so Chad came outside and he’s like, tell me what’s going on.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> So we’re like, here, just listen. And the crazy thing is this was happening even when the car was off.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Dude, no key in the ignition. The door was open. I walked away from the vehicle and it went—like it did the crazy.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Chad is like, what is going on here? And so he tries to investigate. We can’t figure out at first what’s happening.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Didn’t your stepdad have an idea?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Right, shout out to my stepdad, Bob, and he thought maybe it had to do with the sound card. And so I was like, hey, Chad, could you help us figure out where the sound card is? And maybe let’s just try and see if that has something to do with it. So he located the sound card, was able to pull it out, and that stopped.
<strong>Kim:</strong> A.K.A. Chad ripped out my car’s vocal cords.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> And then he got some holy water and started throwing it onto the car.
<strong>Kim:</strong> I don’t know what sound they make, I guess. Sorry for you religious people.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Apparently a bong. Boing oing oing oing oing—
<strong>Kim:</strong> Oing. That’s just what I envision, I guess.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> So—
<strong>Kim:</strong> In short, thank you Chad at AutoZone in Cedar City, Utah. You saved my car. Our trip—you saved my car. That was a rough time.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> And so the whole rest of the trip we had no radio, no CD, no sound and so luckily I had bought a portable speaker. So we just played music on the portable speaker.
<strong>Kim:</strong> You put it in the cup holder.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Yeah, put it in the cup holder. At first I hung it because it would attach, but then it fell a couple times from the top of the car and I stopped doing that.
<strong>Kim:</strong> That would also scare me and just fall.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> So that was how we performed an exorcism—
<strong>Kim:</strong> On the car.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> On the car, and were able to continue on our three month road trip. Just such a wild experience, honestly.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Isaac, whoa, do you hear that? I think I do. Oh my, what’s happening? What is it? It’s where we quest for questions in National Park Adventure Quest Game! You ready, Isaac?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> I’m not, but let me get ready. Are you ever ready? So remember, Kim, the rules of this game are simple. We’re not looking for the correct answer. We’re looking for the first answer that comes into your head.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Right. No brain, just speak.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Why don’t you start us off?
<strong>Kim:</strong> Sorry, I went straight caveman. Straight caveman. Isaac, what would you say is the most challenging hike in a national park that you’ve done? No thinking, no thinking.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> I would say Mount Ida in Rocky Mountain National Park was one of the most challenging that we did because—well, one, I don’t know if we were fully prepared. Remember I didn’t have a hat. And so we wrapped our cooling towel around our head because it was super cold.
<strong>Kim:</strong> I didn’t even have gloves either.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Right. So it was cold. We got hailed on quite hard. The mountain is like sideways with no path. So you’re walking sideways a lot of the way, which is hard. We got hailed on pretty hard coming back from that because we got a little preoccupied on the top and didn’t come down quick enough. So yes, that would be one of the most challenging.
<strong>Kim:</strong> All right, solid.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Kim, what is one of the most stunning views that you have seen from a national park?
<strong>Kim:</strong> Oh, okay—without thinking, honestly, the part in Yosemite National Park—I mean you guys have seen all the photos too—and that one scenic pull off where it’s like the giant canyon covered in green and the big gray canyon walls on each side and the epic long waterfall in the distance coming down. It’s just like imprinted in my brain real hard.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> That’s a good one, and Yosemite ironically enough is like our least explored national park.
<strong>Kim:</strong> We failed pretty epically exploring Yosemite, but that’s a story for another podcast.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Rough. We’ll come back to you, Yosemite. Speaking of which—Kim, you’re a really great photographer. What would you say is a great national park, like, worthy of photography?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> The first one that comes to mind is Mount Rainier—
<strong>Kim:</strong> National Park. Interesting. Why?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Love the wildflowers. You have so much up and down. You have the elusive mountain, which sometimes shows itself and it’s epic when it does.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Elusive. Elusive.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> So Kim, what national park surprised you the most?
<strong>Kim:</strong> Ooh, without thinking about it, I’m going to have to say Olympic National Park. I didn’t realize that there are fricking rainforests.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Pretty epic. Two rainforests in Olympic National Park. I think Hoh Rainforest is the most well known. And Olympic National Park has eight entrances.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Oh my lord, why?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> None of them are connected to each other.
<strong>Kim:</strong> No, and they’re super far apart, aren’t they?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Yeah, some of them are really far apart. So we’ve been to three of the eight entrances, I believe.
<strong>Kim:</strong> And I’m pretty sure that’s relatively close to, like, Forks—which is that Twilight area—and the beach, La Push, and all that. We didn’t do that. Isaac’s not a Twilight fan, but still, it’s hilarious. Random. The more you know. Oh, your turn, Isaac. Ooh, so what—I’m excited. Sorry, my bad. Also, not my bad. Not apologizing. Isaac, what is your favorite lesser known national park?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Two actually come to mind. The first one, I have a terrible time pronouncing. Kay hoo guh?
<strong>Kim:</strong> Eww. I believe he means Cuyahoga in Ohio.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Cuyahoga National Park. And the other one that came to mind—it’s gone.
<strong>Kim:</strong> It’s gone? I guess it’s really not—
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Well known.
<strong>Kim:</strong> It’s so well known it went into your brain and flew out immediately. It’s gone. Aw. So what about Cuyahoga though?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> It was just really interesting. There’s not as many parks on the east coast and it’s not one of the most like stunning national parks and yet we really loved it. We came across what is the closest thing that we’ve seen to a slot canyon on the east coast in that park—
<strong>Kim:</strong> And he means Midwest, by the way. I’m Midwest proud, you know.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> It’s east-ish—
<strong>Kim:</strong> Also, as he calls it, the Middle East because like, look at a map guys—is that Midwest? It’s not Midwest at all.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> It’s Middle East.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Okay, so back to the Middle East—you liked Ohio because it had slot canyons in the Midwest. Honestly, yeah.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> And the trees were really epic. I just really enjoyed the park and, you know, locals kind of talk down about the park. And one thing Kim and I have learned is that if locals talk down about a tourist attraction, that means it’s going to be awesome.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Yeah, legit.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> All right, Kim, if I say the color orange, what is the first national park you think about?
<strong>Kim:</strong> Ooh, orange, orange, orange. What’s orange. Gold poppies? No. Orange. The sunshine? And there’s a lot of sunshine in all of the national parks. I’m failing pretty hard at this one.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> What’s the first national park that pops into your mind if I say orange?
<strong>Kim:</strong> Like Badlands, but it’s not orange at all. It’s like kind of dirt-like, I suppose. But when I think of orange, I think like Syracuse orange and I can’t find that orange really.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Well, there you have it. All right, so Kim, I do want to jump back to Zion because I think you had a list of fun facts about Zion and I’d love to hear them.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Thank you. I have three. In fact, we already talked about how cool Angels Landing is—you guys know the scoop on that. But honestly, I thought it was really cool that Isaac and I got to see an endangered—and when I say animal, I mean bird. Isaac, you remember what that means?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Endangered animal or bird. I know all of those words.
<strong>Kim:</strong> What I’m trying to say is that Zion is actually home to the California condor, which is an endangered species. And there was this guy who gave us binoculars and he was like, “Oh, there’s a condor,” and it was a baby, you remember?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> I think it was actually one of the first instances that they were aware of where a mating couple condor had had a baby in the park.
<strong>Kim:</strong> It was a huge deal and they were like on the cliffside built into the wall. So we actually got to see him, which I honestly didn’t even realize they were endangered, to be honest. It was just a really surreal experience. So another fun fact too is about the arch there. Do you remember the giant arch like built into the wall? It’s called Kolob Arch. Starts with K. That one is actually one of the longest natural arches in the world.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Huh.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Did you know that?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> I didn’t actually.
<strong>Kim:</strong> It’s 287 feet long. And honestly, when you think of arches, what do you think of? Arches National Park.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> We’re not in Arches, we’re in Zion.
<strong>Kim:</strong> That’s what’s so cool! We’re in Utah, though, and there’s a lot of cool arches there, including this one, which, obviously, if you’re going to Zion, you should definitely see.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Awesome, and I just want to throw in a third fun fact.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Alright.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Zion actually has several entrances and actually has North Zion, which is completely separate from the rest of Zion.
<strong>Kim:</strong> What’s in North Zion?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> There’s three trails that are pretty awesome, and I recommend going to North Zion on Saturday, because Main Zion will be bonkers. But on Saturday, we went to North Zion—nobody was there.
<strong>Kim:</strong> We didn’t see anybody.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Almost nobody.
<strong>Kim:</strong> And it’s still really beautiful. You don’t have like the epic sights, like when you’re on top of Angels Landing and the canyon, obviously, but it was really cool to see. And there’s, like Isaac said, there’s hikes to do still.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Yeah. So that is our three fun facts.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Okay, Isaac. So what are some other things for people to know about going to Zion?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> If you’re gonna be visiting Zion, it’s good to understand how the shuttle system works. First of all, I would go onto the website and see when it’s running. It typically runs from March to November. And when the shuttle service is running, you actually can’t drive a private vehicle into the main heart of the park—you have to take a shuttle. There is a lodge that’s about halfway up the drive. If you’re staying in the lodge, you can drive there, but if you’re not, you have to take the shuttle to get there. It does have some great food, and that shuttle will give you access to almost all of the hikes, honestly, that you want to do in Zion National Park.
<strong>Kim:</strong> And this is probably why you suggested we take the bus and not try to walk like we did, right?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Well, I mean, we just walked from one bus stop to another bus stop. To try and walk from the beginning to the end—there’s no way.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Don’t do it.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Yeah. With that being said, there is actually another scenic drive you can take even when the shuttle system is running. That will bring you east, up, and then out of the park. There are some very cool trails on that, and it’s a very beautiful drive, so what I recommend doing is doing your hefty hike the day beforehand, and then when your muscles are recovering the second day, go and do this scenic drive that exits out the east side of the park. When we’re talking about hiking trails, some of the best hiking trails are in the main part of the park. Some of the most famous and well traveled are Emerald Pools Trail—which we got to do when it was so cold out, because the sun during the winter doesn’t actually hit the canyon until about twelve. It was so cold that I got a cup of tea. A cup of tea. And I was hiking the trail with a hot cup of tea, which is outrageous. I think the only time I’ve ever done that.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Super outrageous. It was delicious though, I ain’t mad. It was good.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Obviously Angels Landing in that area and then one of the most popular hikes— not my favorite necessarily but still very popular— is The Narrows.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Super cool. Giant slot canyon, high mountain walls. You are going to get wet. You’re trekking through water. Definitely do your research, though, because the water levels vary throughout the year— sometimes it’ll only be to your ankles. Other times, like us, it was to our hips, so having hiking poles is especially helpful for The Narrows, whether the water is at your ankles or your hips.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> You really have to have good equipment to make this hike pleasurable, and we did not. So I recommend—you can actually rent socks and boots from the main area in the visitor center in Zion, which makes a lot of sense. You can also rent walking sticks if you don’t have them. But you are gonna want to have great water hiking boots and socks and walking sticks to go on this, and you need to look at the weather beforehand. They oftentimes do close it because it can have a flash flood in it. So definitely do your research and prep better than we did to do The Narrows.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Learn from us.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> In terms of some other hikes, if you take the scenic drive I was talking about that brings you to the east, one of the coolest trails is actually Pine Creek Canyon Overlook. We love this trail. It was really awesome. And, as we’re hanging out at the end of the trail, Kim looks up and sees two mountain—what are they, mountain sheep?
<strong>Kim:</strong> The bighorn sheep? The bighorn sheep. Whoa, what kind of sheep is this?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> So two bighorn sheep, and they looked so, like, majestic.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Oh, they’re so righteous.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Right, they look so righteous. And so those are a couple of the hikes that we recommend doing in Zion because they are awesome.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Super cool. Super cool.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Talking about other things in the area that you might want to check out—Kim, do you remember this really cool local spot that we were told about just because we were talking to locals?
<strong>Kim:</strong> Well, heck yeah. We were like, should we tell other people? Maybe we shouldn’t. This is that hidden gem I was telling you guys about, or rather not telling you about. I’m gonna tell you about it right now. It is called Kanara Falls, with a K. And this is also in Utah, near Zion, about— I don’t know, how far away?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Half an hour to 45 minutes from the main entrance to Zion, but quite close to Cedar City.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Yeah, and this is a slot canyon. You’re gonna get a little wet. The water will typically come to your ankles—again, check the water levels— but you’re hiking through this slot canyon. It’s kind of dark. You don’t need a flashlight or anything though, and then you’re gonna hop over big boulders, you’re gonna climb a ladder. It’s so cool. It’s unique. It’s totally one of a kind and—
<strong>Isaac:</strong> What she’s not mentioning for some reason is there’s a waterfall in the slot canyon.
<strong>Kim:</strong> It’s freaking awesome. I’m not sure why she wouldn’t mention that.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> (laughs)
<strong>Kim:</strong> I can just see it in my head. Yeah, thanks Isaac for helping out there. It’s a four miles out-and-back trail and when we went—years ago, Isaac—this, I mean, you said it yourself, only a local told us about it. Now, people know about it. You’ve probably seen it on Instagram or something, but it’s only 15 per person, which honestly is really reasonable. Helps them upkeep this beautiful spot in Utah. A permit is required. You can just go online and type it in. They do limit it to 200 people per day now as well. And guess what, Isaac?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> What?
<strong>Kim:</strong> There’s no rickety, sketchy ladder anymore.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> I know. We looked it up just to see how it looks now. And we’re like, whoa, that ladder is so much more upgraded than the one we did. It’s so real.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Yeah. It’s sturdy. You don’t have a chance of falling off of it. It’s like a staircase now. It’s not even like a ladder anymore. So that way you can climb up the waterfall using a staircase. Super cool though.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Okay, so now we’ve spent I think three or four days in this area. It was time to continue on our road trip and so we went to the next national monument on our list, which was—
<strong>Kim:</strong> Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah. It’s so freaking cool.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Cedar Breaks is almost like the little brother of Bryce Canyon. It looks very similar. It’s only again about a 45 minute drive from Cedar City and you actually drive up a very cool scenic mountain drive to get there and it’s right before Brian Head, which is actually one of our favorite places to go and stay during the summer—
<strong>Kim:</strong> Which is ironic because Kim does not ski or snowboard.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Brian Head is a ski resort and yet in the summer you can get phenomenal deals on Airbnbs there because there’s not a lot happening, but it’s so beautiful. You’re like 10 minutes away from Cedar Breaks. We love—we go to Brian Head almost every other year just to spend a week there during the summer.
<strong>Kim:</strong> And in Brian Head, there’s some of the oldest trees in the world. Different topic, but holy crap, you know? At least in the U.S., yeah. Oh my gosh.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> The twisted—Cedar pine?
<strong>Kim:</strong> Twisted pinecone? No, it’s a bristlecone pine.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Twisted br—
<strong>Kim:</strong> Know your trees, Isaac.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Twisted bristlecone pine.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Forest. Woo! Woohoo! So yeah, tell us more about Cedar Breaks though. Obviously, little bro.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> The first time we got to Cedar Breaks, it was so cold. We didn’t realize how cold it would get from driving up this mountain. So we were not prepared. We get out and we had this car blanket, and we wrapped both of us in this car blanket and we were running to the viewpoints—so we didn’t do a ton the first time we went there honestly because we literally were just wrapped in blankets running to each viewpoint.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Honestly super cool thing about Cedar Breaks is like the roads are all paved for the most part. I mean you’re driving all the way around Cedar Breaks National Monument, right? And then you can go to different pull outs and you can do different—
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Kinda. There’s only one road. That’s what I mean. You drive alongside Cedar Breaks and you can stop at the different lookouts, and there’s really only one hike.
<strong>Kim:</strong> It’s just that one, huh?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> It’s just that one. I mean, we’ve been there a couple times. There are a couple other hikes. There’s one major hike that’s really pretty awesome. There are a couple smaller hikes as well.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Oh, remember the marmot we saw in the tree?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> We saw a marmot in a tree. Who does that?
<strong>Kim:</strong> I mean, a marmot who wants a great view, duh. He like had one shoulder up, you know, like the Dos Equis guy.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Hashtag marmot life.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Hashtag marmot life.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Cedar Breaks was really quite amazing and it is definitely worth the stop and we’ve gone back and explored it three or four times now actually.
<strong>Kim:</strong> So speaking of which, Isaac, I feel like both of us know the animals pretty well at this point, right? Would you say?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> I mean, we’ve seen quite a few.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Great. Can we put it to the test right now? Because I’m going to embrace my inner animal and I’m going to make some noises and you are going to have to guess what animal from Cedar Breaks National Monument was this.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> This might get wild. Okay. Let’s cut this out.
<strong>Kim:</strong> It’s going to get weird. All right. Ready? Animal number one. Awoooooo! Woo! Ow, ow, ow, awoooooo!
<strong>Isaac:</strong> I mean, I was confused at first, but—coyote?
<strong>Kim:</strong> Ding, ding, ding! You are correct!
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Okay.
<strong>Kim:</strong> That’s cause I was laughing in the beginning.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Okay.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Animal number two. Ah! That one was bad.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Pika is the first—
<strong>Kim:</strong> You got it, you got it! Okay, okay. Man, my animal noises are fricking good, aren’t they? Pika pika! All right, animal number three. What’s that? Oh my god. It was a complicated noise. That was.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Shoot. I mean it sounds like a mammal of some sort.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Okay, you’re on the right track.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> But it’s not a marmot.
<strong>Kim:</strong> You have one to two hints. Would you like either of them?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> It’s not a—
<strong>Kim:</strong> Marmot.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Is it? It’s smaller. Is it a weasel?
<strong>Kim:</strong> What kind of weasel?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Was it the black footed weasel?
<strong>Kim:</strong> No! But that’s a different place. You’re actually right though, it’s the long tailed weasel.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> The long tailed weasel.
<strong>Kim:</strong> Freaking so good, Isaac. You guys, we saw a long tailed weasel at Cedar Breaks National Monument. I was losing my sh—It was so freaking awesome because you don’t see this. It’s kind of rare, it sounds like, and we went to the visitor center and I told the park ranger ‘cause I was so pumped about it and she was like, “Aw, you saw a long tailed weasel? We rarely even see those.”
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Yeah, she was jealous.
<strong>Kim:</strong> She was so jealous and the cool thing about these weasels too is like they’re dark brown and their bellies—the whole underside—is like light tan, but they turn completely white in winter which is so awesome. Yeah, that was—good job, Isaac. I’m impressed with you.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> I know you love weasels. How much you freaked out when you saw it?
<strong>Kim:</strong> That’s pretty true. It’s pretty true.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Yeah, we saw like a really unique bird there too— a ground bird that we’d never seen before.
<strong>Kim:</strong> It almost looked kind of like a pheasant. But I don’t have a clue what it was.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> We’re not even sure what it was. We still don’t know.
<strong>Kim:</strong> We don’t know—yeah. Oh, the unknown.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Okay—awesome. So that is our kind of mini trip around Zion and what to do around Zion National Park—Cedar Breaks, we have Cedar City, Kanara Falls—just really awesome stuff. I mean, there’s so much to do in that area. And then from there, we continued on our three month road trip and got to go to three other national parks in the next week in Utah. So it was an—
<strong>Kim:</strong> Epic trip. And to start with Zion as well, as part of the beginning of our trip was like—holy moly, what are we getting into?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Yeah, yeah, it really was.
<strong>Kim:</strong> So hope you guys enjoy Zion, and Kanara, and all the other places as much as we did. Thanks for joining us on Full Time to Travel Time.
<strong>Isaac:</strong> If you want to try and do your own road tripping adventure and see all five of the Utah National Parks on one road trip, visit our website at <a href="http://www.fulltimetotraveltime.com/utahadventure">www.fulltimetotraveltime.com/utahadventure</a>. And Kim, what’s coming up for our next podcast?
<strong>Kim:</strong> Yeah, Isaac, so in the next episode, we’re going to be talking about how we actually started our own business to fund this awesome travel lifestyle, yeah?
<strong>Isaac:</strong> Yeah, that’s going to be exciting.
<strong>Kim:</strong> So until next time, adventure on!
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