Day 17-My Favourite National Park Ever

Kanab, UT to Zion National Park
Distance: 35.13 miles
Time: 2:32:03
Max Speed: 40.6 mph
Average Speed: 13.8 mph

Today has been a day of great food and beautiful scenery. It all started with a delicious continental breakfast at the Best Western in Kanab with cereal, bagels, hard-boiled eggs, and more. The breakfast was followed by a beautiful climb that was rather challenging. We were winding through the mountains, red rocks and trees abound. There was a sweet descent into our first rest stop. From there, we climbed again, all the way up to the Buffalo Grill where we were treated to lunch.
I had never tasted buffalo before today, but I must say that the buffalo burger we had for lunch was quite delicious. Though it could also be that I had just climbed a very sizable hill, but either way it was tasty. We took some time to take pictures with the live bison behind the restaurant and pick up some postcards before continuing on to the park.

From the Buffalo Grill into the park was mostly downhill riding. Upon arriving at the entrance to the park, the majority of us stopped to get pictures with the sign. From there, the road was gorgeous, winding through breathtaking rock formations all around. To experience that road on a bicycle was incredible. I felt as though the world had stopped, just for that happy moment. A little ways into the park, there was a mile long tunnel where bicyclists are not allowed to ride due to the darkness and exhaust fumes from cars, so we all loaded into the van and car to get through the tunnel and rode down to the campsite.

After setting up camp, a fair amount of us went swimming in the Virgin River that runs through the Zion Canyon. It was very refreshing and a ton of fun. We all enjoyed ourselves, splashing around and playing in the mud like young children. We then ate a lovely pasta dinner back at the campsite and sat around chatting and enjoying the rest of the night and planning out what we wanted to do on our day off. We decided to wake up early and hike up to Angel's Landing, one of the most popular hikes in Zion, and then to the Narrows where the Virgin River carves through the rock at the beginning of Zion Canyon. Tomorrow looks to be a busy day.

Peace and Love,
Trekking Tito