So true! We rented e-bikes on our first day at Zion and that was absolutely the best way to see the park - we were able to go all over, quickly, and stop and gawk at the gorgeous views anytime we wanted. On our second day we used the shuttle to get to the Narrows early - not too crowded, though the shuttle back (around 1:30) was a bit of a mob scene. I would NEVER visit Zion during the summer or any school break, though. There were more than enough people for me the weekend after Labor Day. Next time we’ll aim for late September and a weekday.
I forgot to mention, we stopped at Silver Reef Brewing in St. George on our way back to Vegas - a couple of nice beers (guava sour for me and an amber ale for DH) and a really good burger, fries and pork belly bites. Definitely a better option than the fast food strip.
@sck You may have already seen my trip report from 2020…we enjoyed Oscar’s Cafe for breakfasts and Bit & Spur for dinners. But we tend to go only to sit down-type places, where we can get an adult beverage with our lunches/dinner, so we didn’t consider any quick taco meals.
Yes, there are about a million places in Springdale that offer E-Bike rentals. We stayed at The Lodge at Zion Country (now rebranded as the Red Cliffs Lodge), so we chose a rental outfit that was within easy walking distance of that hotel, Zion Adventure. They offered a discount package if you rented a bike and Narrows gear (water shoes, neoprene socks and walking sticks) and allowed us to pick up our Narrows gear the night before our hike when we dropped off our bikes so we could get on the shuttle to the Narrows asap the following morning - highly recommend them.
In Springdale we had pretty lackluster Chinese at Bamboo (I think they’re the only Chinese place in town) and a couple of overpriced and not very good pastries from Deep Creek Coffee. Good ice cream and other treats at Springdale Candy Company. Those were our only meals there - because we were hiking in the park so much, we ended up eating a lot of trail snacks rather than sit down meals. The leftover pizza from Pizza & Noodle (stored in our hotel mini fridge) came in very handy for that purpose! There really aren’t any “holes in the wall” in Springdale proper as it is very much a tourist hub - for that I think you’ll want to look at some of the small towns you drive through on the way to/from Zion.
Thanks for the Silver Reef Brewing at St. George! We spent the day hiking the Zion Narrows. Afterwards we made our drive to Vegas and stopped at St. George for dinner. we were all famished after a day wading inside the Virgin River in at times stomach-high water. Forgot to make a reservation, oops and ended up waiting an hour.
But the wait was worth it. Good gastropub food. Food took a while to come out of the kitchen too- they probably had one guy inside cooking, and the cook could cook.
We ordered so much food for the seven of us. I thought we definitely over-ordered. But we actually finished everything after wading in the Virgin River all day long. The burger was good. Everything else was well cooked. The beer flight was cheap- 4 small glass of beer for $6. Shoutout to Stephen our server who was great.
We planned the bottoms-up Zions Narrows as the last hike of the trip because its the most strenuous. And it was meant to be a bucket-list hike. Everyone, including the kids really looked forward to it. Even the non-hiker was looking forward to it when told we would be wading in the river for the entire day in water gear.
It almost didn’t happen though. The first ranger at the Visitor’s Center bluntly told me the water would be as high as the top of the head of our younger one. Asked how far into the hike from the start at the Temple of Sinawava before the water got that deep. We were told, 20 feet into the hike. That would be a non-starter of course.
But since this was a big deal for us. I asked 4 more rangers once that ranger left. The answer ranged from absolutely no problem, to waist-high water, which would still be manageable.
At the end, it was managed just fine by our younger daughter. We spent the morning pushing upstream to the intersection. The kids did great. Another family with similarly-aged kids were deterred right at the beginning and didn’t go on.
It was quite chilly the whole morning. We had lunch at the intersection. The kids decided to turn around and headed back because past the intersection the water started to get deep and fast because the canyon walls were really narrow on both sides. Two of us decided to keep going. That was the part where the Zion Narrows was absolutely spectacular. We walked almost to Big Spring and then decided to head back because otherwise we’d leave town way too late.
When we got back closer to the trailhead there were a bunch of college gals and boys who were just speed hiking in the water with nothing but sandals and underwear with phone on one hand. Ahh, youthful enthusiasm. Who needed gears anyway.
Having been to most of the spectacular national parks out west, the Zion Narrows hike is truly special.
I must say I found the pizzas at Zion Pizza and Noodle Co to be quite bad. Different town, but the pizzas on the same trip from Antica Forma in Moab was much much better. Zion Pizza was very salty, dough was not good. That was unfortunately one of the worst meals for the entire trip for us.
We also got some pre-made meals from Sol Foods Market in Springdale for the first day of Zion when we hiked the Emerald Pools trail. Supposedly the best hippie grocery store in town. We got some bread, some bars, etc. One of the items we got, a type of rice bowl, was truly bad. The rice was hard and dry. Yes we ate it cold- that didn’t help. But even after reheating later back at the hotel, the rice was still hard. I don’t know how they cooked rice that bad.
That’s exactly what happened to us - it’s amazing how hungry that hike makes you. But I agree it was truly spectacular - I’ve never seen anything like it! Glad you enjoyed Silver Reef, too. As for Zion Pizza, sorry you had a bad experience there - we found the pizza decent (not great, but fine) and I recall really liking their linguine in light cream sauce. I may just have been hungry, though - I was famished from hiking most of that trip!
Too bad about Raku being underwhelming, but my experience there was now almost 16 years ago. A lot of things can change in that time, clearly.
Surprised you didn’t try their housemade tofu, which made me a tofu convert (at least for a hot minute ). Your KOS also looks anemic compared to our golden brown skewer.
If we should ever return to LV, we’ll skip this one. Sounds like there’s no reason to return, even though it was probably our best meal back in '09.
I wouldn’t be surprised if its a completely different cook who’s cooking your meal in a resort town like this. They probably just get whoever they can get that season. Because its not just me who didn’t eat much of the food. Pretty much everyone else also.
). Your KOS also looks anemic compared to our golden brown skewer.
