What is a private helicopter tour at Zion like? — featuring Changing Lanes

0:01 We just took this thing here. We're doing the cheesy. the We're doing the cheesy. Mhm. This is amazing. I mean, look at this. We're on this Butte, and boy, is it a Butte. Very, very few people get to come up here. Yeah. You can come up here. This is the way to get away from the crowds at Zion National

0:22 Park.

1:01 We left the Bryce Canyon Red Canyon area and headed to Zion National Park, an area we've been super pumped to go to. Yeah, we were there a couple years ago, but we didn't get to see it hardly at all. I know. We drove through it once, and then we had crap weather the whole time. Yeah, yeah. So, we were really looking

1:18 forward to this time near Zion, and that's mainly because his daughters were coming to visit. Yeah. We try to fly them out once a year to some new location, and we talked them into Zion because we were super stoked. We knew there were some great fun things to do there. Yeah. And we did all of them. Yeah, I

1:37 don't think that they realized how much fun was in store for them. Well, in the past, we've scheduled a couple things and kind of just winged it. This time, we had every day booked, save one. Okay. Well, we had to, because I need to say this really quickly, is planning for Zion stressed me out. This was still

1:57 during the had to get a ticketed time to get on the shuttle because of COVID. They were only doing so many tickets per day and they were selling out and it was like if you don't get a shuttle ticket, you can't go to all the hikes that everybody wants to go to the Narrows, Angels Landing. There's so many because

2:16 they're all on the scenic drive and no regular automobiles are allowed to go on that. So That's one thing that's different about Zion versus pretty much every other park we've been to is most parks you can drive everywhere. Anywhere there's a road you can drive it and go. Not so in Zion.

2:32 All the good stuff's in a place you can't get to. We decided to travel right before Memorial Day weekend which you know, I mean that's what we had to do and we were really fortunate that we got a site close to Zion which was actually in Hurricane or Hurricane as they say in that area.

2:53 So all you other Floridians out there, just switch it up. Yeah. We found a site at the St. George Hurricane KOA and it is about 45 minutes to get from the RV park into the National Park which really isn't that bad. Yeah, it's not really close to anything. If you can get into what's the

3:09 little town right outside of Zion? Springdale. Springdale. If you can stay there, great but it is awful packed. It is awfully packed there. There are a couple of RV parks but I know that everything right there super close to the National Park, they fill up probably a year in advance. So we did book early

3:26 but not early enough to get super close to the park. So there was a lot of driving in our future. It is what it is. It was worth it. Absolutely.

4:11 The KOA was very nice. We got the best spot It is absolutely Site number 138. It was a huge site. It was a back-in site, but there's nobody and there's nobody in front of you because it's all cliffs and stuff. So, that was pretty cool. That was a pleasant surprise for us when we pulled

4:28 in. Oh, yeah. You always hope it's going to be the way it looks on the map and this was. It was just nothing but wilderness out in front of us. Just a little hill. Yeah, and we're going to get into a little bit more about this park, but we did so much while we were in this area that this is probably going to be a two

4:43 or three-parter series because we just did something every single day, which is unlike us, right? Put the girls busy. We wanted to pack a lot in. Our first full day there, the girls flew in from Tampa to St. George Airport, so we went to pick them up. How excited are you? I'm very excited. We made it to the

4:59 airport. Oh. It's only about 1 million degrees out here. Holy crap. So, last week in Utah, just about 2 hours north of where we are right now, it was like in the 50s and the 60s and chilly. During the day. And right now, it's 2:30. It's 2:38 and it's 97. It's really, really hot. 97. The poor girls are coming and you

5:23 know that they would love to have a break from the heat coming from Florida, but at least it's not humid. It's always nice to pick people up from a really small airport. Yeah. We love that. I love flying out of them. I love flying into them. It's just so easy. This was one of those airports, so

5:38 it was awesome. Yay! Hello. We're actually hugging and everything. I know, right? You get to have camera hugs. Do you hate the camera hugs? I'm sorry. I think the socks and sandals. No, they had to go with these. So, you tell them. Who's here? Hey Daisy, look who's here.

6:04 Look who's here. Hey there, you're old. Hey old ladies. Hey my baby. We drove back to the RV. We let them rest, get cleaned up, freshened up because, you know, they had already had a long day, but we were we were starting the activities right away. We were really hungry after they got Yeah,

6:23 well, you know, we were just going to head towards Zion National Park and we found a place called Stagecoach Grill. My first thought was this is going to be probably mediocre food and very touristy and it was a very pleasant surprise. We had really good service and really good food.

6:40 We're off to a good start. Much better than Bryce. We had no food options in Bryce. If you saw that video, it was a struggle. You had a chicken? I had chicken marsala. I had beef stroganoff. I had his cousin. After dinner though, we wanted to take them into Zion to kind of give them a

7:01 feel of what it is and how awesome it is. Yeah. We knew it was Memorial Day weekend, it was going to be busy and it was super busy. The cars started lining up along the side of the road several miles out from the gate and this was already evening. Usually we have better luck in the

7:17 evenings, but because it was Memorial Day weekend, we were prepared for the first couple days of the girls visiting us. We were prepared for the park to be packed. Yeah, luckily at least we got a campsite at least. That was the big thing. We also knew from doing research that we might have an issue with the dually

7:33 driving on the one road that is accessible for most vehicles. They have some measurement rules and technically our truck is like right on the edge, so I was hoping they would just let us go through, but any dually's at all, they treat it like it's a giant RV. The road that you can actually drive in Zion, the

7:50 Zion Mount Carmel, Carmel, whatever you want to say, it has two tunnels that were built, I forget, maybe like 30's or 20's or something when vehicles weren't that large. If your vehicle's too large, they require you to get a special ticket and they stop traffic and they let traffic

8:05 go one way and then they shut it off, let traffic go the other way. And of course there's a fee. Oh, 15 bucks. 15 dollars. The dually automatically requires you to pay for this special permit. That's round trip though. So you come back through for the same price. You have to get back through by 8:00

8:22 p.m. If you don't, then you I mean you're not completely stuck, but you've got to take the long way home. Yeah, probably a couple hours out of the way for sure. See the hole right there? Straight ahead. Up there, that's cut out for the tunnel. That's one of the windows we'll drive by.

8:40 We're driving through the inside of that mountain right there. We're going to be in that mountain? Yeah. That's so cool. Is he coming over? Yeah. Can they see us? I know. So everybody on that side waiting to come through has to stop cuz we're just too big. Waiting for our one-way ticket

9:01 through the tunnel. We have to shut down traffic to get through with just the dually. They stop traffic. Go through the tunnel. Oh by ourselves. No stops in tunnel. Let's go. Lights on. Yep. Woo! All right, down the middle. Oh yeah. There's no lights in case you can't tell. Yeah.

9:23 Here's one of the cutouts. See? Woo! It's kind of neat being the only ones going through the tunnel. It's kind of neat, but then when you get out the other side, you feel pretty bad because you can see all the cars lined up waiting to get through the tunnel and they're waiting and they're stuck

9:39 because of us. Yeah, I didn't feel too bad though cuz because they're doing it all day long. There's RVs going through there all day long. I'm not sure what the height requirements are restrictions are, but I don't think ours would fit through there. Oh, I don't think so. No, but we do see a lot of class C's,

9:54 smaller class A's and stuff going through there. I think that drive through the park served its purpose and I think it got Megan and Madison super pumped to go explore the park in the next few days. Well, there's the tunnel. So, what do you think? I think it's lovely. They got to see the beauty and the

10:20 enormity of this area and we're just blown away by it which we were too the first time that we ever rode through there. The next day was actually Memorial Day and the end of a long weekend, but even as we were driving in in the evening, you could tell that people had gone home already for the

10:36 from the holiday weekend. So, it was definitely noticeably less traffic and less people there which was good. We were like, okay, this is feeling a little bit better. No line. What? Night and day. Hi, how are you? Hello. Good, how are you doing? Do you guys have a park pass? We do. Where are you

11:00 guys headed? Uh we're headed to the Canyon Overlook Trail just the other side of the thing. So, we know we need the $15 Yeah. need a credit card, please. And then 6 miles when you get up to the tunnel stop for the ranger. Now, it does close at 8:00. Yep. Okay, you're good to go. Thanks a

11:13 bunch. Have a good night. We wanted to test out some of the new hiking gear that we had purchased for the girls because we knew some of the hikes that we were going to be doing during their stay, we really needed some hydration backpacks and you know, some special equipment. I don't know why we haven't bought a

11:30 CamelBak or water backpack sooner because they're amazing. I don't know why. It's so nice just take a little take a sip and you're you're done. We decided to try out the Canyon Overlook Trail which is only a 1-mile trail but with spectacular views at the end and this is on the far side of the

11:47 Zion-Mount Carmel tunnels. tunnels and highway. It was on the east side I I think or something. Once you get through the last tunnel, the trail head for the hike is almost like right there. We passed it because it was such a such a crowded little area so we had to turn around. Luckily we found a parking spot

12:02 for the Dooley which was tough to get but we found one. So it was another $15 to to get through the tunnel. The next day. The next day, yeah. This new rig is comfortable. Isn't he fancy? Cameras. I got tripod.

12:43 The entrance to the Canyon Overlook Trail is really literally like right past the tunnel when you when you get out of the tunnel. So look for a spot. It's on the east side. Yeah, look for a spot immediately. There are so many different hiking trails within Zion National Park ranging from

13:00 easy to extremely difficult. Yeah. The park rated this 1-mile trail actually moderate and I think it's just because of the steep climbing in some areas and some of the drop-offs and stuff. So it was short but it was still you're still getting a good feel for what's to come on some of these other

13:16 hikes that we're going to do. Hey, remember yesterday this is where we saw the Oh, the goat. the sheep. Sheep? You got to keep an eye out for goats or sheep. They are sheep. Oh, yeah. There's one right there. Look up. Huh? There's one right up there. Yeah. There's three of them.

13:41 Oh, hello. What's up, buddy? Hello. Is that yummy? It was spectacular. I mean, the views were amazing. And I think it was a really good test of the girls' new hiking shoes and our new

14:06 hydration packs and your new camera gear setup, your whole rig and everything was great. There's nothing between us and death except for a couple pieces of wood. A little bit of Home Depot plywood. Yeah, I know.

15:00 I bet this hike yesterday was crazy crowded with people. But today, there are still some people, but it's not bad at all. No. It's nice. This is pretty cool. This is really cool. I cannot use my feet today. My feet are not cooperating. This is the best place to be Like your feet not cooperating.

15:25 We made it. We made it. The views when we got to the overlook holy cow, you could see the whole highway from up above. was really neat. Mhm. Because we did come through the tunnel, we had to be done with that hike and back through by Yeah, so the whole time I was like kept watching my watch like, "Oh my gosh, we

15:43 better hurry up." We would wait until later in the evening to go into the park hoping that the crowds were less and it was easier on the trails and less crowded and it was blazing hot. It was so hot when we were there. I mean, it was 100° and just hot hot hot. There was no relief in sight. Really

16:09 hardly any clouds. I mean, it was just hot. Oh yeah, water. How about we all break into a chorus of Coming Round the Mountain? Okay, you start. I don't think you're going to get six-way horses through here though. Oh my gosh.

16:34 Got that stupid Coming Round the Mountain song in my head now. You did it to yourself. I did it to myself. What do you think, girls? Did you like it? What do you guys think? Hey. What? That was great. That was amazing. We made it to the tunnel in time. 7:45. We're in the queue. Yeah.

16:55 I got to say that all the park rangers here are super nice. I mean, and they're in a really good mood even though they've had a really crazy busy weekend. Yeah. That's impressive. Yeah, they're all just outstanding. rangers. Outs- tanding. The next day is a big big surprise for the girls. They have They don't know

17:14 what's going on. No. We've been teasing We've been teasing them for weeks about some big surprises and and these are big surprises that we had booked and we were we were excited about them, too, because we don't often go on huge adventures like these. of money. The once-in-a-lifetime type of

17:30 things and it's worth it. out and making memories, you know. That's right. That was happening later on in the day. So, the morning came and there's that hill with a little trail right in front of the RV that we see people hiking on. There's a trail right there. We don't know where it goes, but

17:45 we're going to find out right now. We're right outside our RV, by the way. Yeah, we see the trail. Yep. It might go into Quail Creek State Park. We'll find out. Might go nowhere. Might just go down in the bushes in there. So, we thought that it went up and over and into Quail Creek. Yeah, we passed Quail Creek on

18:00 the way in. Yeah, so we're like, "Well, let's just go explore and see what we see." Turns out it goes nowhere. I don't even know why there's a trail there. I do think that some people might climb up and over that big hill, but that's not the kind of hiking we were in the mood for in the morning. So, we got

18:24 in the truck and we just drove around the corner to Quail Creek and there are all kinds of dirt bike trails and paths and stuff all through the hills and we just walked down to the water. The water felt really good. It was nice and cool. It was a neat park, though. But it was a neat park, yeah. You can

18:37 see it's used by a lot of the locals for boating and all that good summertime stuff. The water was very refreshing and it was cooler down by the water, too. And then that was it. We just chilled out because we knew we had a big night ahead. Mhm. It was time for the big surprise and the

18:55 big adventure. It's the big surprise. The moment's going to happen soon. First big surprise. They've been wanting to know and we wouldn't tell them. So, we made them write down their guesses. we think it's bigger than it is? You'll be disappointed. Get used to it. It's life. We have one guess

19:16 Okay. We wrote down different things just in case it was not one thing. if one of you gets it right, the other one is still wrong, just so you know. Wait, my guess is closed. Are your eyes closed? We're pulling in. I KNOW I KNOW WHERE WE ARE. ARE YOUR EYES CLOSED? YES, MEGAN. SHOULD

19:29 WE OPEN THE NO. NO, DON'T open them yet. Don't open them till we're I know where we are. I know WHERE WE ARE. NO, I think I know where we are, too. Okay. 1 2 3 open. Open them up. Where are we? WAIT. I KNEW IT. I KNEW IT. I KNEW IT. I KNEW IT. WAIT. WAIT. WAIT. Which one is it? It says

19:46 Which one is it? We don't know. Which one is it? Which one is it? What are we doing? What do you mean? Is it Is it four-wheeling or is it helicopter? Those are both of our guesses. Wait. Which one is it? I think it's helicopter cuz helicopter is big. Unless we're wrong. I don't know. I think it's helicopter. I

20:05 I think so, too. So It's both. Wait. One's today, one's next day? Yeah. Similar. However, the thing you don't that you probably didn't guess about the helicopter is it's a private tour. Yes. Oh, yeah. And it's going to land on a private butte and let us hike for like 30 minutes. What?

20:27 Private what? Oh, there it is. OH MY GOD. THAT'S SO EXCITING. ARE YOU GUYS EXCITED? YES, very excited. We're taking a helicopter tour out to a butte. We're landing on the butte. We're

20:52 taking a little hike. Then we're flying back and we're flying around stuff. Yes, stuff. We're at Zion Helicopters in Virgin, Utah. It's about 20 minutes west of the south entrance of Zion National Park. Really close to where we're staying in Hurricane, though. So, it's awesome. The staff there was

21:11 amazing. Yeah, they were really cool. Mark was great. He's the manager. Ashley told us all about their different tours. And our pilot, Briac, who was also very awesome, very informative. All right, we are getting ready to go on our tour in about 15 minutes. But, while we have some time, we're going to chat

21:27 with Ashley, and she's going to tell us about the different tour options that they offer here. Yeah, we have a range of different tours. So, we have four main options that are most popular, but we also do a lot of customized Oh, that's cool. So, like what you guys will be doing, the Butte Landing, is another

21:43 add-on addition that we do to our longer tours. And we have a range of short tours and longer tours. So, it's very customizable to what everyone is wanting. These are our four tour options. Okay. The first one's highlighted in yellow. We call this one a more of our introductory tour. It's our 15-mile.

22:02 It's approximately about 8 to 10 minutes. And this gets you to an amazing view of the panoramic views of Zion National Park. Okay. Once we raise up in the helicopter here, you immediately see that iconic view of the West Temple and everything. That's awesome. The next one up is our

22:17 35-mile, and that's highlighted in the green. Difference with this one is it does travel up the west border up going towards the north. Okay. Okay. So, you get all these west side views. And that one's approximately about 20 minutes. Okay. The next one up is the one you guys will be doing, which is our

22:32 55-mile. This is our most popular one, just based off the volume that we get from this one. Cool. The main difference with this tour is it goes down into what's called the Canaan Mountain Wilderness Area. A lot of locals know about it, but not a lot of people visiting the area. So, the

22:48 last option we have is our 100-mile. It's approximately about 55 minutes. It's in the pink. It goes all the way around the national park. Oh, oh, wow. They also do tours that will take you up and around Bryce Canyon National Park, which is where we just were. Which can you imagine seeing that from the air?

23:05 like Wall Street and stuff. That'd be cool. So cool. And they do one for Lake Powell, too. And they do them all from right here. They're a little bit longer tours. Your safety is our number one priority. So, please watch this brief video presentation. It has been designed to make your flight even more enjoyable.

23:31 When departing our terminal to board the aircraft, you will be escorted by our ground crew. For your safety, please remain close to our ground crew. When approaching the helicopter for boarding, proceed calmly unless directed by our ground crew. Do not move it towards the tail or rear

23:49 of the aircraft, and keep your head down at all times.

24:30 We started off on the western side of Zion National Park, and we flew all around. You can see the Kolob Canyons off in the distance, and you can see the Kolob Terrace Road that goes into the National Park. The Zion Mountains from 3,000 ft to almost 10,000 ft, which is Kolob Peaks.

24:51 They probably just dumped slightly on the on the right hand side. If you take this road that's coming up below us, it's called Kolob Terrace. That will take you on the west side of the park. Shortly into the helicopter tour, Brecht points out this kind of look like a green mountain to me, but it was a

25:09 volcano. Yeah, it turns out there were like seven volcanoes in that area. Obviously, all very long since extinct. Yeah. And once he tells you they're volcanoes, they look like volcanoes. And you can see some of the towns like Virgin and Springdale and oh gosh, there's several others that he points

25:31 out. You can see the Virgin River. You can see several different buttes. What an amazing way to see such a massive, massive area. So left hand side coming up, that's two of our volcanoes. So there's a small one on the right hand side and a bigger one on the left. There's a wall because in

25:50 between them. What is that called of Terrace actually? You guys are quiet back there. This selfie good in. Oh wow. How cool. That is cool.

26:23 Wow, so cool. So so green. And it's called Water Canyon. And for the 4th of July, they do fireworks on top of the cliff here. Oh really? Can you see the flag there? Oh yeah, there's Oh that's so cool.

26:48 So beautiful. Green down here, you know. Yeah. A wild mix of dry air and rock and green. I think I prefer to travel by helicopter from now on. Instead of the RV. And then Yeah, then the big the big plus. This made the helicopter tour so special. Is that where we're going? It's called the Beutus. This is a

27:14 private domain. Yes. That's so cool. Crazy. This is fun. So cool. I know. So pretty. It's hard to believe that any of this is even real. it doesn't look real. Got to get dusty.

27:52 Very nice. Okay, so we just have to wait for the shuttle. Only it will take 2 minutes and then I will come outside and open the door for you guys. Okay. Crazy. That was fun. It was so fun. So fun. The fun's not over. We're out of gas. We have to walk back. Welcome to your private butte. I mean,

28:15 this is pretty crazy. So cool. Like we just landed on This helicopter landed on this private butte with just us and Chad's daughters. And them. Who are out exploring already. We had to get away from the crowds of Zion. This is so cool.

28:42 This is a hike that most people don't take when they come to Zion. Surprise number four is we have to repel down. Wow. This is so cool. This is so cool. I love it.

29:08 Wow. There's champagne in here? What? And everybody here is over 21. Nice. Wow. Cool. This is crazy. Hey, cheers. Cheers. Oh, yeah. Oh, sure. Yeah. Thank you. I know this sounds really strange, but I'm kind of choked up by it. Such a unique experience. It's cuz I'm here. I know.

29:35 Flew in, we landed on this view. Very very few people get to come up here. Yeah. You. Can come up here. I'm speech- I'm speechless. I mean, I I can't even This is breathtaking. I I am choked up. Look, you're crying. You're crying. I am. What did you think of the surprise? 10 out of 10.

29:53 10 out of 10. Yeah. That was I don't even know what to say, honestly. It's even better than I thought it was going to be. And I didn't know I was going to have champagne. Right. Did I just hear you guys say that you're pretty speechless, too? That's how I That's how I feel. I'm all We don't even

30:09 know what to say. I know. So fun.

30:35 This was awesome. Amazing. Amazing. Who's everybody? It was amazing. Highly recommend it. If you guys decide to take any tour with them, just tell them Changing Lanes sent you. We don't get a kickback or anything for it, but

31:00 not sponsored or anything like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but we just think they're awesome. That's all we have time to share with you in this video, but like we said, we did so much while we were there that we have at least one, maybe two more videos coming because we go and we do some phenomenal hikes.

31:17 Yeah, we do the big ones. We do The Narrows Yes. and Angel's Landing. Cool. Angel's Landing is ridiculous. Oh my gosh. I don't even know how they let people go up there. It's scary and exhilarating and awesome all at the same time. Did I say scary? Cuz it's very scary. It's very scary.

31:33 Mhm.