Day 31
States: Utah, Utah, and Utah
Total Miles: 7500 or so
Time Zones: 1, 4 total
Today we headed into Zion NP and hiked up The Narrows. The Narrows is a pretty famous hike that can be done a few different ways. With a permit we could have either day hiked (entire day & maybe some night) down the entire canyon or camped overnight halfway down. Instead, we did what thousands of other people have done which is to start from the bottom of the Narrows, hike up a few miles and then return the same way. The interesting part of the Narrows is that most of it requires walking in the the Virgin River that created the canyon. They say it's like walking over slippery bowling balls, which at first sounds pretty stupid, but once you've done it, you might agree. The scenery was amazing and it was fun just seeing what was around the next bend in the river.
Part way up, there was another canyon that we hiked up for a while (I think it was Orderville Canyon) which had a few waterfalls that required some canyoneering skills to overcome. Eventually we got to a waterfall that we were not able to get past. Actually we didn't try too hard. We only saw 3 people make it up while having lunch, 2 of which had help that couldn't get up after them and one that managed some pretty impressive climbing.
On the way back, we passed an incoming canyon that was high up on the Narrows wall. This was Mystery Canyon and this time there were a few people rappelling down it. Mystery Canyon is supposedly a pretty tough canyon to hike that needs some canyoneering, route finding, and climbing skills. I'd like to try that one next. Well, maybe after the Subway. You'll have to stay tuned to the next Zion trip to find out about them.
Where the bus and road ends and the paved trail begins:
Where the paved trail ends and the Virgin River hiking begins:
Up Orderville Canyon:
Near the ultimate obstacle:
Rappellers down Mystery Canyon into The Narrows:
Hiking the West Rim and climbing to Angel's Landing next...