Day Sixteen

Zion National Park, UT to Zion National Park, UT
June 10th, 2009

High Point of the Day....
Low Point of the Day......
Being chest deep in the Narrows
The water was was a little numbing
Miles Traveled Today
Total Miles Traveled
The Bus Playlist
Weather
23 in the bus, 10 on the park shuttle, 5 on foot
4514
Silence
Sunny with some cloud cover
Price of Gas 
(average per gallon)
Wildlife
Night's Lodging
Where this Page was Uploaded
0
Deer, Squirrels, Fish, Fuzzy Caterpillars
South Campground, Zion National Park
Springdale, UT

Daily Didactic
We woke in the midst of RV excess in the misleadingly named Zion Canyon RV Park and Campground (at least the Campground bit). It was nice, but we were looking forward to downscaling to the more modest "first come, first serve" South Campground inside the park. The South Campground has what some RV'ers find displeasing, "dry sites" without hookups. We like them.

After securing a little primitive camping for the night, we walked to the adjacent Visitor Center and checked into a couple of hikes we had heard about. The first was the Narrows, a hike at the end of the canyon that spends a good amount of its time in Virgin Creek. The second was Angels Landing, a precarious climb up a thin fin that involves handrails made out of chain. For today, Brian left sold on the Narrows. Angels Landing still has a question mark next to it on our map. We changed into water wear and jumped on the Zion Shuttle for the forty minute ride to the Temple of Sinowava, the end of the road and the start of the Narrows trail. The first part of the trail is a paved footpath, which after a mile ends and requires continuing in the creek. It was odd, it was a lot like thirty or forty folks hadn't noticed the paved trail ending. Parents were carrying children, ladies were carrying purses, and people were rolling their shorts up. Within a quarter mile there was a good "takes the breath away" moment where the water reached our chests and filtered out some of the masses. We continued on, in and out of the creek, for a couple of miles. We will come back and continue further another time, but the unseasonably cool weather here has left the creek a chilly 60 degrees and our toes were getting a little numb. It was a spectacularly scenic hike.

We eventually shuttled back to the campground and then ran back into town for some groceries and firewood. When we made back it back to camp, Theresa made spaghetti and Brian lit a fire. Theresa sketched and Brian read much more of the Daily News on his iPhone than you should. It was a relaxing end to a marvelous day.


Daily Pictures (Slide Show)

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The bus, without peer Theresa and her old lizard friend
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The nicely done Zion Visitor Center Todays bag of gear
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The Zion shuttle, running every 6-8 minutes for us Brian gets ready to hike in some 62 degree water
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The crowd was thick at first and thin at the end The deepest part is early on, the guy in the distance is about to be up to his chest
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Theresa, loving it Brian, hoofing it
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Amazing stained rock faces Theresa still loving it
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Beautiful Spectacular
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Incredible Amazing
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The trail Another nice little pool
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Out of adjectives Little waterfall
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The bus spying a deer The deer really didn't seem to care about campers
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The bus and Watchman Mountain The chef and spaghetti sauce
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Watchman at sunset


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