Belittled by The Narrows

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I’m retroactively blogging a trip my brother and I took around to some of the National Parks in the US in August of 2005. I wanted to put some information out about these amazing places, as they are, in my opinion, the highlights of the US.

We drove from Boise, Idaho south to St. George, Utah the next day. It was a long day of driving, but at that point we had gotten pretty good at the long hauls. We were excited about all the amazing things we had heard about Zion National Park and were determined to make it there by the next day. We spent the first day setting up our campsite and doing the Angels Landing hike. Well, I should say I did the hike, Darren stopped half way, as after the Crypt Lake trail in Waterton, Alberta, he didn’t feel like testing his fear of heights here. However, the trail was about a foot and a half wider, a whopping three and a half feet and had a gentler slope for a few feet before it hit the one thousand foot shear cliff on one side and the 800 foot drop on the other. It was a fantastic introduction to the park.

The following day we hiked the Subway. It was a five-hour hike up river, literally in the river, jumping from boulder to boulder up to a breathtaking canyon. The rock formation that you reach is a huge oval with a slit at the top where the canyon opens back up, making it look like a subway tunnel. The colors in the rocks are breathtaking reds, yellows, blacks and even some green. There isn’t a defined river here, and the water pools up in certain parts, and dies down into a half inch of water trickling over the riverbed in others. Supposedly, if you bring enough rope, you can go from the top to the bottom of the canyon, but D and I had to walk back the same way we had come in. Not too hard of a chore though, given the scenery.

Then, on the third day in Zion, we hiked the Narrows. This is what I had come here for; it is one of the most spectacular hikes in the US, and definitely one of the most astounding natural sites I have ever seen. It is a river that runs straight through an amazing canyon with shear cliffs, completely vertical for 2,000 feet straight above you. It is one of the most belittling experiences of my life to walk along the river with these mammoth cliffs towering over you. Again, you literally walk in the river. In some places the water hardly covers your shoes, in others it is over your head and you have to swim up a fast flowing river. It is a really dangerous hike, as well, as flash floods are fairly common and you need to discuss the upriver weather with the local rangers before you embark. Also, you can hike in from the top, walk with the current, and spend a night in the canyon, or you can hike in from the bottom, walk against the current, and hike out the same day. Again, we did the later, and it was absolutely astounding. Unfortunately, the cliffs are so massive it is hard to get a good photo of the canyon, and I’m not the most articulate, so my description doesn’t do it justice. So, you will just have to go there and experience it for yourself.

We made it back to camp that night and just crashed. The weather is hot during the day, but at night it cools off enough to be great sleeping temperature. After those hikes, I was able to pass out without a problem, and slept like a baby for twelve hours straight. It was phenomenal.

After those hikes we decided to head onward to Bryce Canyon…

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Photos

Red rock, blue sky
I love the contrast of the amazing blue sky and the red rock in the Southwest.

View from Angel's Landing Trail
Looking back down Zion NP.

Me on top of Angel's Landing
Quite a few people have this shot, I'm sure.

Pools of the Subway
The river at the end of the Subway causes amazing formations in the rocks.

Belittled by the Narrows
This at least provides a bit of a perspective on the hiking conditions.

A perspective on the Subway
Gives you a better idea on the size and the shape.

End of the Narrows for us
After 6 hours of hiking up river, we decided to turn around at this point