Day 8: The Narrows

Early bird gets the parking spot. We were up at 4:45 a.m. and in-line for the park shuttle by 5:40 a.m. Our spot in line was much closer but still took nearly 90 minutes to get on the shuttle.

We walked the first mile on the paved riverwalk in Crocs/sandals, then filled up with snacks and changed to our rented water boots. Both boys were very concerned about the possibility of a flash flood, and Nicholas read a sign there were leeches, so he added that to his worry list. We were able to slowly work through these concerns and get on our way again.

Nicholas was concerned about falling over, so he held one of our hands any time we were in the water, which was often. I loved the hand holding time, which is too rare these days. There were definitely other people doing this hike, but it felt like a regular hike versus the summer chaos on the way in. Our goal was to hike to “Wall Street,” and we made it, but we were all ready to go back at that point, too.

The hike back was crazy town, especially the last half mile in the water–so many people. Our hiking was getting sloppy from tiredness, and we were so glad we had the rented boots, neoprene socks, and walking sticks to help us through the challenges of hiking through the river.

Our total trip was 6.5 miles in just as many hours including snack stops. Rob’s GPS said he traveled 15 miles due to the GPS signal bouncing off the high walls.

We waited a bit for a shuttle back, but got on one just as the reward Tootsie Roll Pops were being finished up.

The boys finished up their Junior Ranger packets at the visitor center and got the badge. While there, we asked about the bathrooms and were told that 75% of their custodians quit, so currently there are only two people to clean the whole park. The secret, according to the ranger, is that the porta-potties are cleaned daily by the vendor, so they’re the cleanest in the park.

We once again went back to the campground for a little pool time, then defrosted smoked pork for dinner with cold s’mores for dessert (no fire so we could all get to bed earlier).

We can’t believe the luck of our timing to visit Zion park. It was 107 degrees the day we arrived and a flash flood closed the park within a week of us leaving, but while we were there we enjoyed high temps in the mid-80s and blue skies. We are very grateful.