Zion National Park Snowstorm February 21, 2019

I read somewhere that if you see Zion National Park blanketed in snow, that it's probably photo shopped.   I have experienced otherwise and here is my story:   In a rough never ending winter, we almost booked a trip to Florida.    Flights weren't cheap so playing around on the Southwest website, I was trying to find a place with cheap flights and thought of Vegas.   Where Vegas is a place I can only stand for a couple days, I was looking at the surrounding areas and stumbled on Zion National Park.  When I booked it in January, Zion had highs in the 50's.   Where it wouldn't be a beach vacation, it sure sounded better than the never ending winter we were having in Northern Illinois.  So I booked this amazing place that's right at the entrance of Zion National Park and we counted the days to our trip.  The week before we left the forecast wasn't looking great....Snow, cold, and unusually winter like weather was in the 10 day forecast.   We debated delaying our trip a week, knowing how fast things can change.  Ultimately we decided to stick with the original plan, but even the night before, I was scrambling for a plan B because the forecast of 1-3 inches had turned into a winter storm warning with 1-2 FEET of snow in the forecast.   To top it off we were supposed to have snow the morning we were flying out of Midway airport.   We lucked out and our flight left on time, we flew into Vegas, got our car and drove to Sprindale, Utah.  Snowflakes literally began to fall right as we pulled into our home for the next 4 nights.   We had time to walk to the Visitor's Center where we were told the park was probably going to be shut down the following day.   Knowing they don't typically get snow events like we are accustomed to, we thought it was overhyped.   But it snowed.  And snowed.  We woke up hardly even able to see the canyon walls we saw even the day before.  We took off in this beautiful Winter Wonderland and hiked the Pa'rus 

trail, one of the easiest and accessible since it's a few minutes walk from our hotel and it was amazing.  Here are the pictures of the morning.

The sun tried to break through but never succeeded.

This was seriously so beautiful today.  We have loved every single minute and I already know that we need to come back.  We are fans of going places during the "off" season and avoiding crowds and now that our kids are older, we have that luxury.   I have been so relaxed since the minute we arrived.   I've been so INSPIRED.   But most of all, I'm so grateful we didn't cancel our plans.   We have only scratched the surface here but I await the sun which is supposed to appear before we leave here and we wonder what that will reveal since the snow and low clouds have hidden so much.