Thursday, August 13, 2009

High Water



On morn' of Thursday July 30th, we threw our plastic wrapped items and backpacks into the truck and headed for Zion at 4am. Our trip was temporarily put on hold while police officer Levitt, in Hurricane, wrote out a ticket. Thankfully it was not for speeding and only for not having a front license plate. We arrived at the visitor's center 9:30 sharp, picked up our overnight permit and caught our shuttle to Chamberlain's Ranch.

If you want to hike the Zion Narrows there is nothing better than starting from the top. We started in a rolling cow pasture, following the Virgin River, slowly watching it carve below the surface. Taya insisted we tell stories the entire length of the trip

The first day we past through the first narrows, my favorite section. We also past the waterfall, which is a great place to swim. We also past Kolob Creek, where the water gets warm and slippery, deep and murky.

There are twelve designated campsites in the Narrows, our permit was for twelve, but due to lack of sunlight we camped at ten. Our site had dozens of spidery dandy-long-legs, which kept me from sleeping most of the night.

The next day, I awoke to find that a squirrel had eaten most of my remaining food. Luckly, Taya had packed enough food to feed a family of five, including vienna sausages, jerky, bagels, energy bars and extra cereal. I had no idea I would be craving vienna sausages!

The journey out was beautiful. We had to swim through a few areas, which was fun. We filled our water at the Springs, which taste delicious. We didn't take too many detours and were home by 9pm and ready to sleep in our beds.

3 comments:

  1. I am so jealous! I love the Narrows and remember how much fun it was so many years ago. I'm glad Taya enjoyed it. Does she still complain that you are a cruel father for making her hike?

    T

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  2. When we hiked Yosemite and Mt. Rainier she vividly recalled every hot coal that had burned her and every blister she got from hiking and camping, but underneath it all you could tell she was enjoying herself. I thought for sure this year would be no different, but she did not utter a single complaint:)

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  3. I am so glad you got to do this together. Someday I hope to do it too. That picture is fabulous. Glad you survived the night of spiders. Really, that would have been a tuff one for me.

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