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Published: September 24th 2008
After a long day at work and a 3 hour class afterwards, Kevin and I set off at around 11pm Thursday night for a long drive to Utah. For the past few weeks, we had been planning out a long weekend trip up to Utah's Zion National Park. Our goal was to do 2 of Zion's famous hikes, up the Virgin Narrows as well as to the top of Angel's Landing. Throughout the night, we drove across California's Mojave Desert before finally arriving in Las Vegas around 5am. Unable to get any substantial sleep along the drive, I was surprisingly still in a good mood as we pulled into the Venetian Hotel. Kevin had never been to Las Vegas and wanted to stop to try his luck on some gambling. We walked around The Venetian's casino and were unable to find a Black Jack table with a minimum bet of $5. So we decided to walk over to a less upscale hotel to check out their casino. The Treasure Island Hotel was right across the street and we were able to quickly find a good table. Almost immediately, it was quite apparent that Kevin had never gambled. When the dealer
Zion National Park
The view along Riverside Trailgave him the yellowcard to cut the deck, his response was priceless. He was obviously confused as to what to do and when told he had to cut the deck with the yellowcard, he simply tapped the deck with his finger. Once the dealer explained to him what to do, he tapped the deck again. We played for about 30 minutes before we each lost our initial $20 buy-in. With our wallets slightly lighter, I took the reins as driver and headed back towards Interstate 15 towards Utah.
We crossed the Utah state line and drove into the town of St. George. From there, we exited the Interstate to Highway 9 and drove through the towns of Hurricane, Virgin, La Verkin, and Springdale. The town of Springdale is the springboard into Zion National Park and it seemed like everything in this town was catered to tourism. It was as if every other business we drove by was a bed and breakfast, a souvenir shop, or an adventure outfitter. Surprisingly even here in ultra-conservative Utah, there were a huge number of Obama yard signs and not a single one for McCain. The entrance fee into Zion was $25 and
The fattest squirrel ever!
Obviously well fed by all the tourists. we immediately drove to Watchman Campground to check in at around 9am. Our campsite was pretty basic. We had a fire-pit and a picnic table but we were too exposed to our surrounding campers. After setting up our tents and getting everything situated, we set off to hike up the Virgin Narrows.
In order to prevent the traffic congestion that is problematic at other national parks, Zion has established a mandatory shuttle system to transport visitors to the various sights. It starts at the Zion Visitor Center, right next to our campsite, and continues deep into the canyon where it finishes at the Temple of Sinawava. After boarding the shuttle, it was about a 40 minute drive to the Temple of Sinawava where our hike to the Virgin Narrows would begin. First, we had to hike along the Riverside Trail for about a mile before reaching the start of the Narrows. Most hikers who are here on a day trip stop once the Riverside Trail ends. More adventurous hikers like ourselves continue into the river. The hike itself was not very strenuous and for the first hour we were amongst many other hikers. Many of the other hikers
in the canyon with us were European. It was as if we were out numbered 2 to 1 by European hikers. Apparently, our weak dollar makes it much cheaper for them to visit America. As we got further into the Narrows, the amount of people began to thin out. Also, the further into the Narrows we hiked, the canyon got much narrower. That along with the vertical canyon walls which rose more than a thousand feet above the canyon floor made sunlight become very elusive. Most of the time we were hiking in the river, the water was about ankle deep. However, there were parts of the river that were waist deep. I tried to stay as dry as possible but there was a point in the river that was about thigh high and the water was flowing relatively quick. I lost my footing trying to balance on a rock and practically submerged my entire self in the river. Once I got back on my feet, I lost my balance yet again submerging myself even more in the river.
About 2 miles into the Narrows, we came across a slot canyon that merged into the Narrows. This canyon,
I would later learn is called Orderville Canyon. This canyon was very different than the main Virgin Narrows canyon. It was much narrower, darker and there was not as much flowing water as in the Narrows. However, there were several deep pools, some which required swimming in order to cross. Also, there were many obstacles such as rock formations and boulders to scramble over in order to continue further in the canyon. We reached a small waterfall about 6 feet high which seemed to be a good point to stop going further. The waterfall emptied into a small pool and we spent some time here getting ourselves immersed under the waterfalls. Kevin also found the strength to jump into the pool a few times despite the freezing water. Afterwards, we retraced our steps back through the Narrows to return to our campsite. Back at the campsite, we just relaxed and rested our weary bodies. After making dinner, Kevin decided to hit the bottle quite early. He was downing shot after shot of Tequila while I was taking it easy with a few shots of vodka. We just sat around the campfire making smores and talking about ridiculous things. Apparently, we
were quite loud for our elderly neighbors. Suddenly out of the darkness, our neighbor confronted us and asked us to go to bed as we were being quite loud. He and his wife were unable to sleep and could here every word that we were saying. Embarrassed by some of the crude things we were talking about, we listened to his request and retreated back to our tents for the night. Needless to say, I knocked out pretty quickly since I only had about 30 minutes of sleep the previous night.
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travelbuffs
Transient Sapiens
Came here after a comment from you on my blog. When we visited Zion in 2005, the Virgin was impassable. Crazy snowmelt created a ban. In any case, anyone who went close to the river would be washed away. It was ferocious. I am glad you could do not just 1, but 2 crazy hikes in this beautiful park. :-) travelbuffs