Campground Review

South campground is located within Zion National Park.  The campground used to be first come, first serve but is now reservable, with sites opening on a rolling basis two weeks in advance.  This is great for a semi-spontaneous trip at a busy time of year - a little advance planning, but your site doesn't  have to be booked months in advance.

The campground is best suited for tents and smaller trailers/RVs/van setups... larger rigs should seek out Watchman campground next door.   

This is a National Park campground.  The sites are pretty close together, amenities are minimal, and it is busy.  The convenience of staying in the park and walking to the shuttle is worth it;  at least you eliminate parking and waiting to get into the park.

The campground has bathrooms (reasonably clean), drinking water, and dumpsters for trash.  Each site has a picnic table and fire ring.  Some sites are tent only, and you have to walk your tent and gear into the site.  I highly recommend checking out the campsite photos online to see which sites would work best for your equipment, especially if you have a camper or van.  Not all of the parking pads for the sites are level.   

We stayed at site 13 on our first night (close to the road) and site 82 for two nights.  Site 82 is a great site, level parking area and right off the Pa'rus trail (paved walking trail that leads to a shuttle stop and the visitor's center).  If you don't like the thought of people walking or biking by your site frequently, sites along the path might not be for you - it didn't bother us at all.  There was a path to the river right across from our site as well, which was a nice place to relax.   The views were outstanding!  We walked to Zion Brewery for a beer and to Zion Outfitters for a shower before flying home.  Showers were $4 for 5 minutes and were pretty nice.  It is a decent walk over there (past the visitor center and over the bridge into Springdale - I think it was close to a mile from our site).   

___________________________

Product Review

As a ranger for the Dyrt, I am lucky to get to test products from time to time.  At this campground I tested the Trekz Air Headphones by Aftershokz.  

I LOVE these headphones.  I had been in the market for a wireless pair after upgrading my phone and gps watch.  I rarely use headphones, mostly because in-ear headphones tend to irritate my ears, and I find them distracting when I'm running, etc.  I had been looking at these when I was offered the chance to test them out, what great luck!

These headphones work by using bone conduction technology.  Instead of ear buds obstructing your ear canal, the headphones rest in front of your ears and the sound is conducted through the bone.  The result is good sound quality without losing sense of your surroundings.   There is a pair of soft earplugs included;  using these eliminates the ambient surrounding noise and makes the headphone sound louder and more isolated.

The headphones are very lightweight and fit comfortably.  I didn't feel them at all when running, and was able to wear them with a hat and sunglasses.  I have long hair, and I was able to loop the back both over and under my braid/ponytail and it stayed put securely both ways.   I used them for some running and hiking;  the sound quality was excellent and I could easily hear and interact with people when I ran on the busy Pa'rus path in Zion;  no getting startled by cyclists or faking a weird smile when someone says something to me as I run by... I could hear everything!    I have not yet tested the limits of the battery life, but they stayed charged through a few hours of use on the trip and during a 2 hour movie on the flight home.   The pairing instructions were easy to follow and I had them paired to my phone and my garmin in seconds.  I can't recommend these enough!!