Zion National Park & The Narrows

Traffic Jam at the Narrows

Friday, June 15 - Zion National Park, UT - 0 Miles Today, 6482.4 For the Trip

While I didn't make the first shuttle up the canyon at 6:00AM, I did catch one a little before 7:00. Since I had picked up my water sox, canyon shoes, DSLR dry bag & hiking stick yesterday evening, I didn't have to go into Springdale. The shuttle was full, but most of the people got off at stops along the was with the majority heading for Angel's Landing. The cool of the morning is the only time to make that hike this time of year. There were 2 couples ahead of me on the Narrows Hike. Since they were both faster than me they were soon out of sight & I had clear photos. Probably not as good as they would have been with the Nikon D700; I chickened out and took my back up D200. I missed the additional width the full frame D700 produces, and it has a better dynamic range.

In any case, I hiked for a little over 2 hours, and started back a little after passing Orderville Canyon. While there were only 2 couples ahead of me on the way up at 7:30AM, the way down was a different story! The river was filled with everything from little kids that were not tall enough to ford the deeper pools to a woman I talked with from India who was walking barefoot & in a saris. She decided to turn back at the first deep pool!

Anyhow, there are a bunch of photos at today's LakeshoreImages Page that are pretty much in the order of the hike.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do after posting this - I do have to take the hiking stuff back to the Zion Adventure Company (which, by the way I do recommend - I've hiked in streams before & their boots are superior to any I've worn; not all that comfortable for the 1 mile hike into the start of the Narrows, but great in the river.) Returning the gear sounds like a great idea - the car has AC! After that I'm going to as little as possible until it is late enough for a picture run up the canyon.