Zion National Park

California is nice. They have a lot of produce, people we love and Yosemite National Park. But what Cali doesn't have is the scenery of Southern Utah - which was a drastic change in pace from every other place we had been visiting so far on this nutty trip.

Sailing into the town of Springdale from a night in Las Vegas (a well intentioned exploration of Sin-City that confirmed every expectation of not really liking it at all...) we got some information at the wilderness desk of Zion National Park and eventually found a campsite at Mosquito Cove. The cove is.. deceptive. While driving through without many people in attendance, it seems nice, flat, next to a river and best of all: free. Once you have picked a spot and pitched a tent, though, some exploration only finds the worst side of free camping. Trash, used toilet paper, dead chairs, sometimes bullet casings (but no dirty diapers, at least) were strewn about like some urban johnny appleseed had made his rounds but the night before.

Zion Sunset

Tired of such grossness after only one night, the morning saw us waking up and directly finding a spot in Zion proper. We were once again directly next to the same river, but wading in it and not finding the remnants of a case of Mountain Dew made the required afternoon cool down much more palatable.

The final push up to Angel's Landing

 After relocating, we made our way up to the top of Angel's Landing with about fifty million other people (or so it felt). Angel's landing is a crazy hike that uses a network of chains to keep people from falling off the edge, though apparently someone had done so even just earlier this year. To make matters even better, about halfway up the tall and final portion, a fierce rainstorm picked up and began to soak and chill us with some nasty winds. We sat it out, and discovered a small blessing of the storm: most of the people behind us gave up their hopes of summiting and turned around. We enjoyed the views of the Zion valley over lunch and eventually picked our way back down to camp. The rest of the afternoon was spent in a local coffee spot doing homework (doug) and adjusting pictures (liz).

The view atop Angel's Landing

 Earlier that morning, we had gone to the wilderness desk again, in order to obtain a permit to do the full 16 mile day hike of the Narrows for the following day. Upon inquiring, we were immediately (and effectively) talked out of it by the ranger on duty. She told us that it was longer, wetter and not nearly as fun as it sounds, and we were better off saving the $70 it would cost us (permit plus private shuttle fees) to simply walk up nearly halfway to the Big Springs feature in the river valley and come back down. We were disappointed to not get the whole experience (and will do it in an overnight next time - though we need some partners to help plant a car!) but she appealed to my cheapness, which usually tends to win.

The Virgin River in the Narrows

So, for our second day we rode to the top of the valley in the park's shuttle system, and headed up the five miles of the Virgin River attempting to lose as many large groups and families attempting to do the same thing. After mile 2, most dropped off and we were set to the challenge of walking upstream of a river that at times was very deep (some portions, though avoidable, were easily deeper than my height) and consistently cold.

Ever use a river as a trail?

Narrows Congregants

 We watched the walls come in and out, saw the way the sun moved across the small sliver of sky above and got utterly soaked. Turning around at Big Spring, we decided to skip the whole 'walking' thing, and after triple-wrapping the camera swam as much of the river down as we could. It wasn't all the much faster, but it was much more fun!

Big Spring - Not just a Clever Name!

 It turned out that the ranger was completely right - by the end of our little 10 mile day, we were pretty tired of slipping on rocks and only wanted to something warm to drink. Overall, though, the hike was one the most interesting and unique things we've ever gotten to do, and really really want to give it the two day treatment in the future.

(Here's all of the shots in the Flickr set)

In Love in the Narrows