Zion's Narrows, 2

Continuing our very satisfying hikes up The Narrows, Zion National Park's upper Virgin River Canyon...

The House

Shots looking up are really difficult...but here you're looking up some hundreds
of feet, through a 10-20 foot slit in the canyon ceiling

And here we are at a side canyon that is a well- known
landmark on the hike; we'd just finished visiting with a
guided party that had stopped for mimosas on the way
and shared them and some stories with us...nice folks on
the trail

And now we are deep in The Narrows

And really narrow

Pausing for the Moment

Thus

Wall Street, so-called

Looking up again

Well beyond Wall Street now

And still quite narrow

Proceeding on

Miles of incredible erosion features, high and low

And the stream responsible

Ever onward

Another floor to ceiling shot that mostly worked

20 feet above the creek, caves scoured out aeons ago with
grapefruit- and watermelon-sized rocks left behind

Vicki and more Narrows

On the return

Petty incredible place...we'll be back

Zion's Narrows, 1

It wasn't the Tour du Mont Blanc, nor the Milford, nor the Everest trek, but we were pretty pleased with our two day-hikes up the Narrows, aka the Virgin River Canyon, in Zion NP. The Narrows are a really narrow part of the Canyon, the really interesting part of which is 3-4 miles up the creek from the Narrows parking area. Most of the hike, depending on conditions, season, etc., is down in the water, wading in the creek. On our two hikes, the water depth ranged from ankle to mid-thigh, the latter level getting interesting with the heavy current. There was a minimal shore to walk on perhaps a third of the way. Anyway, to do all this, unless you really like wading in 45 degree water (hypothermia is possible below 46 degrees), you rent water boots and waders, all of which really work; plus you get a hiking stick mostly for probing the depths and holding yourself against the current in the deeper water. The first day, we got a late start, were learning the technique--we both fell once, me in the water and Vicki on the shore--and didn't get as far as we wanted; and so resolved to do it again, starting way earlier. The second day we got where we wanted and had a great time. And took lots of pix, a few of which are below and in the next post.

Starting out

Dimrill Dale; I am in awe of those photographers who can
do canyon landscapes; handling the contrast between
brightest light and deep shadow is beyond my skill;
presently

Vicki, just beyond the waterfall, early into the hike; temps in
the canyon got as high as the low 50s

On a bit of shoreline

A rare floor to ceiling shot

Pretty much what it looks like in the early stages

Then things start narrowing...

Thus, me

Vicki at one of the innumerable crossings; note cave

Ever onward

Narrow...

Narrower...

The hike wasn't crowded, but you were never alone for very
long, and making and getting portraits made was never a
challenge

Thus; narrow but not straight

Moi, again

Undercut

The canyon-cutting ever interesting

Really big undercut

To be continued...

Zion National Park

Our final stop and national park in Utah was Zion National Park, another sandstone wonder in the southwest of the state. We'd been to Zion before, briefly, and remember walking the trail up to where The Narrows hike, up the canyon, begins. (Rebecca and Rachel will remember Prime Minister Take-a-Leakie there). Little did I know how much The Narrows impressed Vicki then, but I was to learn  on this visit very shortly. Our first couple days in Zion we did the visitor center and gift shoppe, the museum and film, and a few short hikes, up to the Emerald Pools and back up The Narrows Trail to where the maintained trail ends...

Zion's basically a canyon or two or three above which rise the
remains of the usual sandstone mountains; none of the
mountains are big--few rise more than 1,500 feet above the
canyon floor, I would guess--but they are nonetheless unusually
picturesque, comparable in that regard to the Dolomites or the
Lofotens

Ditto

From the campground; Virgin River in foreground

More canyon, more mountains

More ditto

From the museum courtyard; most of the mountains were named
by Mormon pioneers and thus mostly have names from the Iron
Age Abrahamic religions; alas, I did not bother to learn any of
their names

One of the more interesting and beautiful arches...look down
the left-side ridge to where the angle lessens

Thus; don't see that kind of thing in the Tetons or Alps; or the
Himalayas

Another view, from near the campground

It's the evening alpenglow where things get really spectacular

Not enhanced at all; that's really what you see all over the
canyon; and I have never seen more people with big assault
cameras and tripods, lining up and down the highways and
pull-outs to get these shots; it's obviously a photographer's
wonderland

More peaks; the pinnacles here are mostly sandstone hoodoos

Vicki, about to walk through the water-fall from the Middle
Emerald Pool

Middle Emerald Pool

Sideways panoramic attempt
at capturing the Upper
Emerald Pool to the cliffs
way high above

Extremely ominous foreshadowing: the view up The Narrows
from where the established (paved) trail ends...Ringwaifs: this
was for me the Dimrill Dale...