Rock/Creek Race Team member Roxanne Zobava ran across Zion National park this May. Here’s a short report — but check out Roxanne’s Zion photos on our Flickr site!
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This May, 6 of my friends and I met in Las Vegas for a 52-mile run across Zion National Park. After staying in Mt. Carmel, UT, we drove the 25 or 30 minutes to Zion. All of us were very excited about this trip; none of the group had run in Zion National Park before! We ran the trans-Zion route westbound.
Basit, who organized our trip, made sure the run coincided with a full moon, but we actually ended up running under the light of the “super moon.” Normally, we’d need headlamps for a 3AM starting time, but the moon was so bright we didn’t use them except for when running in the shadows of deep canyons or when the footing was particularly technical.
Since this is a point-to-point run, we had to drop a car off the night before. For the first 5-10 miles, we were running slowly; this was partly because there were some confusing turn-offs that we didn’t want to miss, and partly because it was a bit like running at the beach. Yep: the trail was made of sand. Once the sun began to rise, we were heading downward into the canyon and the terrain became more runnable (in addition to being downhill).
Since we had to filter water from springs along the way, I brought my SteriPen. It was actually really good, and very cold! At that point of the day, it was getting warm (without much shade). Past Angel’s Landing, we entered a forested area and followed single track to the finish.
Angel’s Landing was a must-see (10-13 miles into the run), though it takes a bit of bravery to run along the narrow single-track with a death-drop to one side. So beautiful!
This was one of the most beautiful runs I can imagine. Our group ran very casually and completed the 52 miles in 15 or 16 hours, taking in all of the scenery along the way.
See Roxanne’s Zion photos here.
Gear & food:
Montrail Sabino trail shoes
Salomon hat
Patagonia nine trail jacket (cant live without!! FAVORITE)
Smartwool tank and socks.. also my favs!
CWX ventilator 3/4 tight
Nathan pack
GU gels
Clif MoJo bars & shot bloks
Seabear ready-to-eat salmon
Steripen