Sinclair Snapshots: Day 37: Grand Western Adventure

Day 37: Monday, May 19th
Narrows Hike Zion

Since Mike joined us on Sunday, we decided to take the Narrows Trail in Zion National Park. Zion is a really cool park. During most of the year, no cars are allowed within the park canyon, except for those staying at the Lodge. Everyone else must take a shuttle bus which stops at all the trail heads and points of interest. The town of Springdale, just outside the park, also has a free shuttle bus that will pick folks up at their hotel and take you to the park entrance. This helps the traffic flow smoothly.

The Narrows trail started at the end of a 1 mile paved Riverwalk path.

The Narrows trail IS in the River. All the way. Realizing that the water temperature would be about 55 degrees, we decided the night before to rent waterproof pants, neoprene socks and boots. Definitely a Great idea.

We stayed warm and dry all day. At first, I wasn't sure because the daytime temperatures looked like it would be in the mid 80s. But in the shade of the steep canyon walls, it dropped to much cooler temperatures.

Included with the rental shoes were these wooden sticks to help keep your balance while wading the river, which came in very handy many, many times.

This was an especially popular hike.

In just a relatively short distance, the canyon walls really rose high. We were in the shade from here on out.

Every turn in the river bend brought new and interesting formations in the canyon walls.

The Narrows trail actually was part of an 18 mile overnight hike that people take and camp along the river with a backcountry permit. Most people like us, however, start at the bottom and hike as far as they want up river during the day time and turn around at about the 4 mile mark and return back down the river to where they started.

Our waterproof pants and shoes are really stylish, aren't they?

The hikers who didn't have waterproof pants and shoes did look very uncomfortable in the cold water. We did see some very red looking legs.

The further up river we went, the rocks we encountered became larger and the river crossings became harder.

I won't say who took a tumble in the river....

This is a beautiful picture of the steep canyon walls.

Then, we heard this loud boom.

If you look closely though you'll see a small dot about 1/3 from the top. That was a canyoneer who dropped a bag with a rope into the water and then proceeded to repel down the canyon wall.