The Narrows

I've always wanted to do the Narrows in Zion National Park and I finally got my wish. Saturday before last, we decided spur-of-the-moment to to head up to Zion after Isaac's soccer game. We did one of our favorite easy hikes at the Temple of Shinawava and when we got to the end of the paved trail on a hot hot day, that cool cool water of the Virgin River looked very enticing and we decided to head on up the river and into the Narrows.

Everyone happened to be wearing old-ish shoes that could get wet and and ruined if need be and we were all up for an adventure. I read on a website that the Narrows hike is like walking on slimy bowling balls - and that proved to be a pretty accurate description. But once we found some cast-off walking sticks and got used to the challenging footing, we all did pretty well. The kids were pretty excited about the novelty of hiking in water (at least until their teeth were chattering uncontrollably - that's some COLD water) and we all loved the unique beauty of the river-carved and beautifully-colored walls of rock that surrounded us. Mostly the water was only up to our knees but there was one spot where it got up to my waist and the twins got to do a little swimming.

See Silas swimming?

Superboy!

Liza's one tough little hiker - didn't complain once, even when she
almost got swept away when she tried to cross at a deep, fast part of the river.

See how narrow it gets? Nothing like those beautiful red walls stretching up
and making the sky small up above! See Oliver and Liza getting a cold at this point?
Nothing a few jumping jacks can't fix - Jared had them doing aerobics
to warm them up and they got lots of encouraging comments from hikers passing by.
It's so cool to look up and see those rocks almost coming together

What a fun day!

Wow, that's a gorgeous place! We only went a couple miles up into the Narrows so we'll have to do the whole 16 miles one of these days. But not for a while. Oliver told me about 20 times during the last shivering part of the hike, "next time, wets stay on the path and not walk in this cold water anymore, ok?" All the kids are such good hikers and it's so fun to have them all big enough that we can enjoy some great adventures with them!

As we were leaving the park after our hike, the lighting was gorgeous - everything really came to life and took on extra beauty in that evening light. Here's my favorite shot at the end of the day: