Zion National Park, Utah

We arrived in Zion National Park in Utah late afternoon, just in time for the wonderful sunset that illuminates these magnificent rocks. Our campsite was right along a small river where people were peacefully tubing down the small rapids. Behind the river, a string of majestic mountains bolted towards the sky. We quickly set up camp and brought our lawn chairs to the rivers edge and watched the sunset play its fading light against the rocks. Little words were spoken between us as we were speechless taking in this beautiful scenery. It was a spectacular evening. We started our first day in Zion with a shuttle ride to the Narrows Hiking Trail. Our feet were adorned with booties and neoprene shoes as this hike is 90% in the Virgin River which flows through the park. We hiked about a mile upstream in ankle to waist deep 60 degree water. It was a strenuous and intense hike. The trail split and we continued left about another mile to the Wall Street Trail which is pictured here on the left. The walls reach 1000 feet up and in some places were only 3 feet in width. The scenery was breathtaking and we never really noticed how cold the water was. The 4.5 hour hike ended back at our starting point. We were tired and our feet hurt but we were richer for the experience. The next morning we awoke at 5:00am to get an early start for our next hike. This hike named Angels Landing climbs 1500 feet and if you don't finish the hike by 11:00 am you are in direct sun....and with temps soaring near 100 degrees, heat stroke is a real threat. The hike was intense and steep and included several switch back trails. We arrived at Scouts Landing and rested for awhile and took in the scenery. The remaining 0.5 miles was the most intense as it involved chains as your only stability. As you can see pictured to the right, the steep incline and the 800 foot drop behind me. We climbed along these chains and made slow progress as my mind started playing tricks on me and the fear finally overtook. I decided to descend back to Scout's Landing while Guy continued on. I was disappointed that I couldn't muster the courage to continue. Just last month a girl fell to her death, so knowing this only confirmed it wasn't worth the risk to me. We finished the hike by 11:30, so only the last few steps were in the direct path of the sun. Our final and 3rd day in the beautiful park was spent taking our bikes on the shuttle to the top of the mountain and riding the 8 miles down. We stopped more than we rode to enjoy every nook and cranny of this park. We did a couple of short hikes along the way as well. It was a wonderful overview of the North side of the park and we saw so much more this way. We concluded the day and agreed that the only way to beat the
scorching heat of Southern Utah was to take a lazy
ride down the river. The water was cool and refreshing and our bodies were worn out and tired.
We then packed up the RV and headed through the mile long tunnel back out of the park. Because the RV is too big for two way traffic thru the tunnel, they shut it down for the bigger rigs to go through.
We sadly said good-bye to Zion as this has been one of our favorite stops. We had a wonderful lunch about an hour outside of the park where we dined on Bison and fresh organic home grown veggies and salad. yummy! Next stop....Bryce Canyon!