The Narrows...

Tuesday I traveled to Zion for the first time and hiked what's called, "The Narrows". There's a lot of construction leading into Zion, so it seemed like it took forever and the narrows actually starts at the end of the scenic drive, which is closed off to private vehicles. So I had to go to the visitor center and then take a shuttle up, which had a recorded tape informing me on the sights in the park. It started with fake bird noises... I was slightly annoyed, but also excited of course.

I finally got to the top of the park and began hiking aroun 4 pm. The whole "trail" is about five miles round-trip. The first mile is on a paved path following the virgin river, the last 1.5 miles is actually in the river. Therefore I find it applicable and very crucial that I state I bathed (at least my legs) in the virgin river. I also find the importance of this fact somewhat obscure and am still deciding the effects this bath sha'll metaphorically have on my life. Hahaha.

Anyways, the hike up started relatively open, but you're hiking against the current which made the trip up feel rediculously long and it was only a mile and a half. But you do zig-zag across the river a bunch to the banks (if there are any). That way you have less of a chance of falling into a hole in the river deeper than you expected. I didn't actually get my shorts wet, and I brought my chacos, so I felt quite prepared. It was very nice as well to put my dry tennis-shoes back on after the hike as well. Some people did it in jeans or such and so many people were wearing tennis-shoes, boots, or some other rediculous footwear.

The canyon narrowed the further up I hiked, or rather, creek-walked. It was so cool to see the canyon shooting straight up on either side above me. The major problem was that these walls also blocked out a lot of the light coming in, so further up the canyon it was like permanently dusk feeling, which gave me an "I need my glasses" headache. But the hike was amazing. There were cliff gardens clingings to the canyon walls in some places where water was spritzing out of it. The canyon view was so limiting too which kind of confused the mind a bit, as if you were trying to find your way out of a maze, but it was well worth it.

It took me a lot less time to hike out than in. The whole trip took me 2.5 hours which maintains my average of 2 miles per hour, but most of that was fighting the current upstream. It only felt like 30 minutes or so to actually hike out of the canyon. The shuttle driver on the way back down was awesome (for the tourists). She was perky and sweet and stopped at least seven times on the way back down so the tourists on the bus could take pictures of mule deer on the side of the road. Now, this annoys me anyways, but I was extra tired from hiking. If only there were some chipmunks or squirrels she could have stopped for as well. haha.

When I returned to my car I quickly discovered that I had left my lights on after driving through the Zion tunnel and my battery was of course... dead. So after brief panic, I got ahold of my big brother who calmed me and helped me get a lovely Lithuanian family to jump my car. Ultimately it was a wonderful trip... way too hot, as they are at about 4,000 feet less than Bryce Canyon, but the Narrows were AWESOME! Although, I'm still unsure if it was hiking or creek-walking. Hmmmm.....