Zion National Park is 6 hours and 15 minutes from Monument Valley and, at some point during that time frame, our ice-filled jug broke and leaked water all over the back seat of the car. “Luckily” our pillows and sleeping bags soaked up a lot of the spillage and our camping provisions weren’t spoiled. This wasn’t much of a concern, though. We were too busy taking in the incredible mountains that make Zion a geographic wonderland.

The highway to Zion not only goes to these mountains, but through them. Since the mile long Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel was built in the 1920s, when automobiles weren’t the behemoths they are today, RVs and trailers require a $15 ranger escort. Thankfully, my compact Toyota Corolla did just fine through this narrow, single-lane underground highway.

The second we emerged from the arched tunnel passage on the other end, the park exploded with outstanding scenery. The tan sandstone was a perfect contract to the previous mile of darkness. There wasn’t an abrupt shift in elevation, as was the case when the car climbed the roads that led to Mesa Verde and Arches. But, this National Park did contain constantly snaking roads through rising mountains on both sides and a relentless sense of being dwarfed by nature.

Given a list of outside-the-park camgrounds at the visitor’s center, we chose the first campsite on the list, Zion Canyon Campground. Although located in the neighboring town of Springdale, it was just a minute from the park entrance and still contained sensational mountain views. On top of that, we were given the last spot adjacent to a babbling river, had a worn but useable grill and got a chance to set up our tent in the daylight for the first time.

On the suggestion of the kind woman at the desk of this RV and campsite, we bought two $7 innertubes for our riverside tent and extra campfire provisions at Sol Foods. Doing our best to avoid starting a wildfire, we took extra caution with the purchased lighter fluid and charcoal and then marveled at the first campfire we started like Neanderthals who had just discovered fire. We took a lot of unnecessary photos.

Cooking hot dogs over an open flame in the middle of a massive canyon could only be topped by one thing, assembling the dessert. We roasted marshmallows and Hershey’s chocolate bars, then sandwiched them between a pair of graham crackers. The guy in a neighboring tent, who humorously camped without his misbehaving teens, had our hotdogs topped by grilling a New York strip steak. But, nothing can top creating the traditional campfire treat known as s’mores.

Our steak-grilling neighbor suggested we check out the Emerald Springs when we explored Zion the next day, but first we had to tube down the river next to our tent. Two problems: The “river” was shallower than we had expected and the tubes were weaker than we had anticipated. Basically, we got sold innertubes meant for kids, so our butts touched the bottom of the river (more like a creek) intermittently. I could bear the colder than ideal water, but when I hit a rapid and flipped backwards onto some rocks, I was ready to give up. A moment later, we saw a young German woman floating behind us and thought if she could continue on, so could we.

The three of us helped each other continue down the river, but we gave up in about two minutes. That’s when we officially met Alexandra and her husband Roland, who wasn’t adventurous enough/was smart enough to avoid tubing down a shallow creek. They’re from Germany, specifically the Lake Constance area, which lies in southwest Germany and the northern corners of Austria and Switzerland. They were camping a few tents down and headed to Las Vegas, too. So, we dropped off our leftover wood and campfire supplies since we didn’t have a need for them. We also hooked them up with our hotel deal as they didn’t have a Vegas reservation yet and my cell phone number in case they wanted to meet up. We scurried off to the coin-operated showers and drove the half-mile to finally hike Zion.

Emerald Pools contains three trails: one, two and three mile roundtrip loops, the last of which has rocky terrain. Naturally, we wanted to hike all three. So, after a 20-minute shuttle ride from where we parked at the visitor’s center, we arrived at the Zion Lodge Castle Dome Café and loaded up on pizza to gain energy to complete the hike. As soon as we set out on the Emerald Pools first loop, located right next to the Zion Lodge, we noticed a lot of warning signs. Each loop contains cliff edges where hikers could easily lose their footing, especially when it’s wet. We headed the text and dangerous-looking silhouette pictures of a man falling off a cliff’s edge.

All of the waterfalls were reduced to scant trickles or were dried up completely due to the summer weather. Therefore, it’s better to visit Emerald Pools during the off-season, when cooler weather allows for gushing waterfalls. Still, we made the best of posing underneath of and next to the drips of water and thoroughly enjoyed the six-mile hike. I’m also grateful that I bought and wore hiking boots for this roadtrip. I opted to buy a pair of Merrell Moab Mid hiking boots that I originally thought were too expensive for what they’d be worth. However, now that I’m comfortable and still walking upright in these gortex-laced high-tops, I realize that my sneakers would’ve been torn up on the many jagged rocks.

The views of the intimidating mountains and steep cliffs were the real sight to behold here and, while taking photos from a scenic bridge, we spotted two deer frolicking through a riverbed. It ended up being a gorgeous place to hike for a couple hours and the complete opposite of our next destination. After posing in front of the Zion National Park sign on the way out, we were headed to a hotel with four walls, a bed with a real mattress and a shower that wasn’t coin-operated. Vegas, here we come.