No where to eat in Utah

Our last stop in our whirlwind tour of National Parks on the West Coast was Zion National Park in Utah. 

Like many foreigners, I had never heard of this park before but it was only at the insistence of my sister that we decided to visit.  And I’m so glad we did.  

Zion and Utah are beautiful – the landscape made up of an intriguing mix of green  trees and dark orange rocks that make up the deep valleys that traverse the state.  

Zion National Park is 45 minutes’ drive from St George, a small city near the Utah-Arizona border. Unbeknown to us when we booked but Memorial Weekend falls early in June and every man, women and their dog in Utah had flocked to Zion for the weekend of our visit.  This meant horrific lines for everything – an hour to wait for the shuttle within the park, no parking and hikes stacked to the brim with walkers.  

On our first day we did the iconic Angels Landing walk.  This is the most famous hike at Zion because you must walk along a narrow spine with a 1500ft drop on either side in order to reach the viewing point.  None of us managed to get the whole way along the spine.  For me it was just way, way too high not helped by the lack of safety cables on either side of the ridgeline.  My sister and Dad got further but gave up simply because there were lines of people queued up along the spine. They felt it was the path was getting too dangerous as some hikers were trying to push ahead of others. It was something of a miracle that nothing happened as hundreds of people on the path were an accident waiting to happen.  

On our second day we chose to walk to the more secluded Observation Point directly opposite the Angels Landing viewing point.  The views from this walk were spectacular – with a great view looking back towards the valley, the rock slowly changing from red to orange starkly contrasted by the dark green trees on the valley floor below.  We took pictures on a very nervy cliff edge (as can be seen by my get-me-out-of-here grimace) and ate hummus and pita bread under the shade of bam brushes. 

Speaking of food you’re now probably wandering how the title of this post relates at all to what I have written.  I promise you I wouldn’t downright lie to you like that. Maybe what this post should really have said is “ nowhere to eat in Utah on a Sunday”. 

The Church of the Latter Day Saints still plays a huge role in society in Utah and this deep-set Christianity is reflected in the opening hours of shops and restaurants.  This meant that on Sunday evening almost all the restaurants in St George were closed. Even Jimmy Johns and Subway were closed.  With no food at our Air b’n’b we were forced to seek solace not with the church but with St Georges only restaurant open on a Sunday. We gave up on the 1 hour 45 wait for a table and ordered take out from the restaurant instead, and this still took an hour !

We spent out last night in Utah on our whirlwind road trip around the states eating burgers and watching James Bond.  But you know what, there was no other place I wouldn't have been at that moment.