It’s hard to believe that this time a year ago I was in my last trimester with baby number four. Not only that but hiking through Zion National Park with three little ones in tow. It wasn’t necessarily planned that way. However, we’d had a friend trip planned for a year. So when we found out we’d be going just two months before my due date I was really glad that we had decided to go with a vacation rental rather than camp. We stayed at Zion Ponderosa Ranch and Resort and thought it was the perfect vacation rental for families!
zion ponderosa ranch and resort
After looking at a lot of different options we decided to reserve a vacation rental at Zion Ponderosa Resort. Located outside Zion National Park’s eastern entrance Zion Ponderosa Resort offers everything from tent camping to vacation homes. We reserved the Ranch House which boasts 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and a large loft area that offers additional sleeping.
| Click here to read about our family’s stay at Camp Curry in Yosemite. |
the vacation rental home
The layout of the house was perfect for four separate families with nine children under the age of ten. I wish that our kitchen was slightly bigger because it was hard for more than a couple of people to be in there. There were a couple of grills out on the deck too which allowed us a little more cooking room. We brought a lot of our own paper goods. If we hadn’t brought them we might not have had enough dishes. We had lots of different cooking and prep utensils, but limited room for actually storing the food we brought.
zion ponderosa resort amenities
The resort itself has a lot of nice amenities, including a great pool area with two spas and a fun water slide! They also offer a climbing wall, zip line, various tours, mini golf, and horseback riding. However, we were so busy just hanging out together and going into the park that we didn’t take advantage of them.
| Click here to read about 5 National Parks you should take your kids to! |
I would say my biggest issue was that for the whole resort there were only two washers in the laundry facilities. Although some of the rental houses have their own. The wait for laundry machines was always ridiculous. I also was not a big fan of how far it felt like it was from the park’s eastern entrance. The website says it’s a 10 minute drive, but the resort is set pretty far back from highway 9. It always seemed like quite the meandering road to get back home at the end of the day.
I would say that I would definitely recommend Zion Ponderosa Resort. Especially for a large group with kids like ours. It just makes it so much more enjoyable when you’re not having to chase kids around a dirty campsite. I would be interested to see what other options like this were in the area, but all in all it was a great experience!