The Kolob Reservoir Drive

We got too late of a start today.  We'd planned to go walk up something in Zion.  However, by the time we got there, it was covered in people.  On a whim, we decided to take the drive up toward the Kolob Reservoir.  We were there in 2010, but we'd forgotten.  If we didn't have the blog, we wouldn't know anything about where we've been. 
This is the road through Hop Valley.  There was a trail head there, so we thought we would see where it went.

We were hoping the Hop Valley trail would take us over towards these rocks, but it didn't.  Instead, it took us to (wait for it) Hop Valley.  It was sort of a boring trail.  Lot's of sand and oak trees, no rocks.  After a little bit we decided to bag it and keep driving.

We continued up to the Lava Point Overlook.  This is on a dirt road that turns off from the paved road.  In 2010 we did not make it this far because the road surface was so bad. The view from up there is just phenomenal.  We're looking into Zion from the overlook.

Scenery on the way back to the road.

Driving up the hill, the scenery is beautiful.  However, when you turn around to go back, it's even better.  We were back to saying "Holy crap, look at that!" because we are so articulate in these areas.

It's about 25 or 26 miles to the reservoir from Virgin.  The road is extremely steep in places.  Keep your eyes peeled for cattle trucks and other big trucks because they straddle the yellow line in places.  We got pretty terrible gas mileage with the grades, but it's worth it.  It's a gorgeous drive.