92 miles down the road we are now are at Zion National Park.  All we can say is NARROWS!  We typically do easy to moderate rated hikes but hiking the narrows (a difficult rated hike) was a must.  The Narrows is a out and back day hike located in the lower section of the famous Zion Canyon Narrows, where North Fork Virgin River runs beneath thousand-foot walls of Navajo sandstone that centuries  of erosion have sculpted into some of the most beautiful rock forms in all the American Southwest.  The hike is 5 to 9.4 miles round trip depending on how far up the narrows you go.  Hiking in the river comes with inherent risks.  Wading in the river with slippery cobbles and water as high as waist deep in some sections, during certain times of year you need to be watchful for flash floods.  So we loaded down our backpacks with 3 liters of water each, food, dry bags filled with towel, dry shoes and shirts. We also rented canyoneering boots specifically designed for slippery conditions that maintain grip while  wet and provide proper ankle support.  The boots are worn with neoprene socks to insulate your feet and prevent the blistering and discomfort that happens while hiking in wet boots. 

 

We headed to the park at 6am with all our gear so we could find a parking spot and catch the shuttle that takes you to the start of the narrows.  Once there we had a 1 mile hike just to get to the beginning of the narrows (also being so early allowed us to not have a lot of foot traffic on the trail)  And we are off, we dipped our feet in the water and started up stream trying to be cautious of every step we took as not to slip, trip or fall. 

Not sure if there are enough words in the English dictionary to describe what we saw, the beauty was amazing, the adventure was exhilarating and the personal satisfaction we were able to accomplish the 9.4 mile trek will be a memory that will never fade.  If this is not on your bucket list, it should be!!

The next day we were a little sore and thought we would take it easy and went for a drive in the park and experience the Zion-Mt Carmel Highway. The Zion-Mt Carmel Highway and tunnel are engineering marvels, it provides direct access for travelers between Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon and Zion National Park.  In 1930 the highway and 1.1 mile tunnel through the heart of the sandstone cliffs was completed.  In 2012 the tunnel  was designated as an Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

In case you were keeping tabs on how many times we seek out a Camping world, well  after our drive through the tunnel we kept on going because we had another water issue that needed to be fixed, but this time with hose that brings water into the RV.  Off to the Camping World in St. George, UT for more parts we go, hi-ho, hi-ho.

June 25

While we have been enjoying our adventures we need to step back into reality.  Our next stop was to Fallon Nevada to visit daughter #3 and family but with sweet sorrow.  Our oldest grandson was in a life-threatening car accident.   He has a long road to recovery but with the strength of a superhero and the support of family he will make it through.  We cancelled a few of our next stops and shifted gears so we can spend some quality time with the family to provide support wherever we can before we hit the road again where we will end up in Idaho. We took the most direct route we could find to get to Nevada, this lead us to HWY 375, the “Extraterrestrial Highway” through the town of Rachel, maybe we will see ET on the way.