The Narrows

Wow! Wow! Wow! The pictures in the link below will never do this place the justice it fully deserves! I can’t say it enough — anyone that has not been here needs to make plans to come. I had read and seen lots of pictures and info about Zion, but till you see it with your own eyes, you think it is not real.

We did the Narrows hike yesterday. The publications indicate to bring some water shoes  and be ready to get wet. There was a short one-mile walk to the river, and we got there early at 10am, as the temps had been in the high 90’s. This was where the real hike began and where everyone was crossing, so we followed. Within a few hundred yards we realized this is a bit more amazing than we thought. After about an hour, Traci looks to me and says, “this is the most amazing hike I think I have ever done!” We talk to several other first timers to the canyon and they repeat the same exact phrase, unprovoked. We spent almost 6 hours in the canyon and our feet were feeling it, a couple blisters, but it did not matter, there was no way to bring us down from this amazing place.  We estimate that we hiked in about 3 miles of the full 5-mile trip only to be stopped because we would have had to swim and this wouldn’t work with all of our gear. Traci’s pedometer for the day read 23,214 steps! This was the perfect hike for a hot day though as we were in and out of the water most of the day and shaded by the canyon.

Today, we got out earlier than the day before because of the expected heat.  We were on the trail by 9:20am and hiked to the Emerald Pools, which was a much shorter one than yesterday. However this hike was more uphill and in the heat. Wow, we were already tired; our recovery from the Narrows indicates we are not in our 20’s anymore (or 30’s)! Our legs felt like bricks, heavy and slow. We trudged up to the upper pool and I was sweating like I just ran a 5K run, it was already hot and it was only 10:30am. We hiked back, took the shuttle to the car and drove into the small town of Springdale on the South end of the park (We are staying at the Zion RV and Campground just outside the East entrance – much less croweded). We enjoyed a couple very cold beers and headed back to the MoHo to relax for the rest of the day as we are heading to Bryce Canyon tomorrow.

Hike to the Emerald Pools

p.s.  We can’t say enough about the National Park Service here. The shuttle service to the various hikes was so well organized and of course everyone was so friendly and helpful.  How could they not be when they work in paradise?!

For additional pics, click HERE.  Warning – over 100 pics, but we cut it down from over 400!  The pics are high resolution so will take some time to load.  Just click on one of them and then you can scroll through them.