Zion was the first word out of almost every single person’s mouth when we asked friends where we should go on our travel trailer adventure… so we put it on the list… and we understand why.
Wow.
This place was so unique and different than our prior stops, quickly rising the ranks into some of our favorite memories thus far.
We started our Zion attack in THE Narrows. For those of you who don’t know what The Narrows are, (we didn’t not too long ago) it is a river in the bottom of a canyon where you hike upstream (depending on where you start) IN THE WATER surrounding by mind blowing rock formations. To start our Narrows adventure, we made an essential pit stop at an equipment outfitters store to rent dry suits… high fashion I might add (it was Halloween, so we figured we just went as Star Trek characters ha!).
After getting set up with our body suits (that were NOT easy to get on I might add. A guy in the shop got stuck in one and his friends were of zero help they were laughing so hard), socks, shoes, and walking sticks… we boarded the Zion shuttle and we we’re off!
The water was COLD… 30 degrees. Wasn’t as bad as it sounds, until I was drying off my feet after we were finished and realized all feeling was just gone, but don’t fret, all sensation is back! We ventured upstream, feeling oddly like salmon, having the BEST time (shout out to Josh for giving me his gloves). Where else in the world can you suit up and hike IN a river IN a canyon surrounded by like-minded adventurers for a day?
We made it to the split and veered left as instructed to “Wall Street” where the name was quite fitting since it was wall to wall water… no land. There were spots where the water would get chest high… Josh was having WAY too much fun by now, so we got pretty far before deciding it was time to turn around and venture back to warm up, dry off, and return the equipment. We would do this again without reservation.
The next day in Zion we took on Angel’s Landing, named long ago due to a traveler believing it was so high up only angles could land on top. This gave us a chance to see the beauty of the red rocks in Zion from the high concentration of iron in the formations… and play on more cables to reach the summit. The view from the top overlooking the valley was well worth the climb
Our last adventure in Zion went a bit differently than anticipated, but we sure covered a lot of ground. Our initial plan was to see the infamous Weeping Rock and then hike up to Observation Point, the highest lookout over Zion. That plan was thwarted when we found out Zion had a rock slide over the Weeping Rock trails in August and has been shut down ever since (you can see the video on YouTube under Zion Rock-slide that was taken by a hiker on Angel’s Landing… crazy!)
We were determined to get to Observation point another way, so we parked east of Zion near a ranch and decided to trail run the 3.5 miles to the peak and back… so that 7 mile round trip run/walk was a bit of a butt kicker to START the day, but the views were great, AND I got to “boop” Angel’s Landing.
After Observation Point, we made a quick pit stop at a small trail head entering Zion called “canyon overlook trail” for a 1 mile round trip that ended up being way more fun than we anticipated with the rocky terrain.
At this point we were 8 miles in for the day but had ONE more hike to go… Watchman’s Point which was SUPPOSED to be a fairly easy 3 miles with 300 ft of elevation change just to see the park from another vantage point further south. Easy 3 miles my butt… this was WAY more elevation than the stupid map said and we were TIRED… I’m pretty sure at this point our legs had lost all motor control and we had our minds set on NOT walking anymore and wanting coffee.
Watchman’s Point views were pretty spectacular, but I think the prettiest sight we laid our eyes on that afternoon was a little coffee shop to perk back up a bit before driving back to Juanita.
Zion National Park was such a unique experience that we both are holding deeply in our hearts and have already started talking about how much we would love to bring our families out here to see this beautiful place.
Next up…. Bryce Canyon!! Stay tuned as always!
Getting Lost and Eating Cake 