Campground Review:

Watchman Campground is one of two campgrounds inside of Zion National Park. It is located near the South Entrance of the park closest to Springdale, UT. You MUST make reservations online 6 months in advance to get a spot and they go SO FAST!

There is so much to love about this park!! I’ll start with the location. The South Entrance to the park is next to a town called Springdale which has so much to offer. There are restaurants, shops for camping gear, grocery stores, gas stations, laundry mat, showers, etc.…anything you could need is right there. (Super Convenient) It is also within driving distance of a bunch of other spectacular places, such as…Coral Pink Sand Dune State Park, Bryce Canyon, Grand-Staircase National Monument, Antelope Canyon, Kanarraville Falls, and many many others! So take some time to plan out a trip. There is so much to see!

The park has plenty of amenities, it is definity one of the nicest parks I have stayed at. Clean, well-stocked bathrooms on every corner, huge visitor/information center and a shuttle system inside the park as well as in Springdale.

Now because the park is such a big tourist destination, it does come with a few downfalls. There are many wonderful trails, but the majority are going to be paved so that they are accessible to everyone, which don’t get me wrong, that is an awesome thing. Anyone and everyone can go experience this amazing place, but we did miss some of the adventure that comes with a dirt trail. The Watchman trail and the top of Angel's Landing trail will give you some sense of adventure.

There are also a TON of camping sites and they will ALL be full, so be prepared to get to know your neighbors and everyone else around. There will be a lot of noise and it feels more like you’re at a theme park than camping, but if you embrace it….you will find such a fun community and leave with new friends and experiences!

We did have a permit for The Narrows but unfortunately due to snow melt it was closed along with a few others. This made for even bigger crowds at the other trails, but it was still an experience I will never forget.

Quick Tip: Get a National Park Pass!!!! We always have our National Parks Pass in our pocket because we like parks, but I found that while in and around Zion we used our pass more than ever before. There are so many National Monuments and Parks around Zion that the pass can be used for and it was nice to just be able stop on the fly and have free entrance. We saved at least a couple hundred bucks on our trip just by have our pass! Without the pass, Zion alone is $36.00 per car to enter.

Product Review:

As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get to test products from time to time. At Watchman Campground I tested the Stream2Sea Tinted Suncreen.

I was very excited to try out a new sunscreen. Full disclosure, I am what you call very fair skinned. I burn faster than the marshmallows roasting at you campfire….literally. So sunscreen is an absolute MUST for me. My first beach day of the Summer I had reapplied a 40SPF sunscreen 5 times throughout the day and still ended up a ripe tomato.

Now as I had said previously, I had a permit for the Narrows and thought that would be a great place to try it out with all the Sun and water, but the trail was closed. So my husband and I decided to take a day to drive from Zion to Lake Powell, where we rented a 2 person kayak and decided to kayak into Lower Antelope Canyon.

When first applying the tinted sunscreen, I immediately noticed the difference from other “white” sunscreens. You still have to rub it in very well, but you don’t have those white streaks running down you as you normally would. I was worried it wouldn’t blend well with my skin tone, but surprisingly it did. It also blended well with my husband’s skin who is much darker than me. I have quite a few tattoos and I noticed it did look kind of strange on ink.  It was almost like you could tell there was a film of goo over the tattoo.

So we heading out in the kayak down into the canyon till we hit land, then began hiking in. We spent about 6 hours in direct sunlight without reapplying and I will say I did not even get pink. I normally would have burned to a crisp, but nothing, no redness on my shoulders or top of my thighs.

This stuff works!

There was however one thing I did not like about it…

It felt heavy. You could tell that you have sunscreen on. You could feel it.

It wasn’t sticky at all, but it did have just a certain feel to it, that you do not get with the spray, lightweight sunscreens we have nowadays.

Overall, my skin was protected. A whole day in the Sun mixed with splashing water and it felt good to not be paying for it in the morning with a huge sunburn!