for a one day visit what would you see

Ride the free shuttle bus and do the Riverside walk at the end of the scenic drive. This is a pretty easy 2 mile round trip hike. If you wear shoes that you don't mind getting wet you can go a little farther by crossing the Virgin River. WARNING: DON'T CROSS IF LOOKS LIKE A THUNDERSTORM.

Then if you feel like a little more hiking stop at Weeping Rock for a short little hike or if you really feel like hiking do Upper Emeral Pool hike.

If you want a scenic location for a meal try the Zion Lodge.

Utahtea

If you go to the Emerald Pools, try to go in the evening when the frogs that croak like sheep are out.

We will be returning to Virginia from San Diego and will be visiting Zion, Bryce and the Grand Canyon. Both Zion and GCNP are about the same distance from SD, and our Virginia town is about the same distance from both Zion and Williams, AZ. As far as driving through the parks, is there any preference between starting at Zion or the Grand Canyon

We just returned from our two week vacation out west, starting at Zion, on to Bryce Canyon, and finally at Grand Canyon-North Rim. Our preference turned out to be in that same order. Zion was wonderful, very quaint and staying at the Lodge (cabins) allowed us to travel up the scenic route with a special pass, on to Bryce, where construction was a bit annoying but we mangaged, thoroughly enjoying 3 beautiful days of blue skies and wonderful hoodoos. Our final destination was the North Rim and I must say it was not my favorite part of the trip, very busy - already, but I suspect the weather played a major part as it was very cloudy and taking photos was not very successful. As it turned out we left GC-North Rim and retraced our steps back through Zion on our way to the airport in LV. Weather was lovely and glad we saw more of this area. We also had time to stop at Hoover Dam, but unfortunately it was after 5 and everything was closed. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask - all in all it was a wonderful trip, we especially enjoyed the Bristlecomb Pines at Bryce. My husband is a forester and we looked forward to that part of the trip - got lots of nice photos.

Thanks anniemoll, that was the route I felt was best also. If we stick with our plan to drive, we can come back I-40 cross country. If we fly, we'll do as you did from LV.