This is the last time I travel without my bike.

as they say, hindsight is 20/20.

My family just returned from a camping weekend in Zion National Park. Even though I have lived in Utah for almost all of my life, I have never been to Zion N.P. (that I can remember, just in case my mom comments on here that I, in fact, have been to Zion) As such, I didn't know what the cycling was like in or around the park. Since we were already packed to the rafters in our van, and this was a family trip with my sister-in-laws family, I decided to leave the bike at home.

That was a move that I proceeded to regret for the entire weekend.

For those of you who don't know, Zion N.P. is extremely bicycle-friendly. most of the park is restricted to vehicular travel. The only things allowed on the majority of the drive through the park are slow-moving trams - which are prohibited from passing moving cyclists, and have a bike rack on the front which can hold two bikes if you want to only do a one-way trip. Every trailhead also boasts numerous places to lock your bike while you explore the trails, and many of them have water refilling stations, where you can top off your bottle with some natural spring water.

The weather was also just about perfect over the weekend. It was a little cold in the mornings, warming up to about 5-10 degrees below the perfect temperature.

I saw every type of bike out there on the roads, and parked around the tents in the campsite: from little kids bikes (a couple of which were constantly ridden through our campsite by their owners until I gave them the "death stare" and told them to knock it off), fitness bikes, mountain bikes, up to our next camp-site neighbors who brought along a pair of litespeed titanium road bikes.

Next time we go to Zion (oh yes, there will be a next time) I'm bringing a bike. I'm also bringing some hiking shoes and gear and plan on hiking Angel's landing and possibly the narrows, but that's for another post.

No pictures, as we also forgot to grab our camera as we were going out the door.  I'll have to see if I can snag some pictures that my sister-in-law took.