Zion! Slotastic!

Last weekend, I joined the University of Utah Outdoors group in a trip down to Zion National Park. A few went down good and early on Friday to get us passes to hike the entirety of The Narrows on Saturday. I rolled down to the area around 10.30 PM Friday (5 hour drive... ish). Hung out meeting people and playing corporate ladder (remember that!?) until the last car finally pulled in at like midnight or something.

After getting organized, we realized there was some tricky logistics involved in the hike. It's a sixteen mile one-way hike through a narrow slot canyon and we needed to shuttle cars to the top and start up there in the morning. We started driving along dirt roads to get to the trailhead around 1.30 AM and finally gave up and deceided to sleep inbetween the cars at a random road at 2.30 AM. Our "campsite" the following morning.



As a result of our precarious camping spot and the long hike, we got up early and took off down the canyon quickly. At first, it was just an open river rolling through farm land:



The canyon eventually shrunk down smaller and smaller... Finally, it was about 20 feet wide. If it flashed floods in here you're pretty much Done (capital D).



Since the hike follows a river through the canyon, getting wet is inevitable. At some point it's really best to embrace this and we hiked a lot (most) of the trip in the water. As we got farther in the Canyon, the water got deeper and deeper. This water is pretty much at head level.



Ideal hiking conditions:



I discovered that my backpack for some reason floats and acts like a lifevest. How cool is that?! I floated along whenever I could and this part was uber cool.

As we hiked along, more and more touristy looking people started showing up that were presumably from the other end of the canyon where you can do out-and-back hikes of however long you want. Some were pretty funny, hopefully they didn't hurt themselves.

Finally, we rolled out of the Narrows feeling a cool sense of accomplishment having taken the canyon from flatness through tight walls and back out into mountains.


The photos don't really do it justice, but panoramics kind of look better:



Have a good weekend!