Zion Park--Day 2

This morning after eating breakfast, we stopped at a couple of outfitters in the small town of Springdale (at the entrance to the park) to check pricing on wetsuits and water shoes (water temperature is about 40 degrees) for one of the signature hikes in Zion--The Narrows.  This hike begins at the end of one of the hikes we did yesterday (Riverside Walk) and follows the Virgin River up into the canyon until it is only about 20-30 feet wide (The Narrows--get it?).  We decided not to buy the packages at the outfitter and, instead, bought some water shoes, got our walking sticks, and rode the tram to the trail.  However, after watching several other people head up the riverbed (geared up in the wetsuits) and seeing that at the second river crossing, several people went in at least butt-deep, we gave up on that idea and decided to do a different hike today.  We are going to get the wetsuits tomorrow and take the hike then.

We went back to the campsite (we got one inside the park for tonight because it is supposed to be windy), ate some lunch, ditched the poles, and went back into the canyon via tram to hike the Hidden Canyon trail.  This trail goes 850 feet up the canyon wall in about 1.2 miles (meaning....steep!).  We got through the switchbacks and headed up some rock stairs built along the cliff wall (not so bad....) and then reached a section of slickrock that had a chain to hold while you climb (a little worse.....) and, then, at the top of the climb, the trail turned a corner and there was no more chain to hold!  That's right, the trail was just a rock ledge that went along the canyon wall until it turned again out of sight.  We decided that this Hidden Canyon could just stay hidden, turned around, and came back down.  I think it was a great decision, since not long after that, the winds picked up to 40-50 mph and I really would have had a bad time if we had been on that ledge when the winds came.

We took another short hike (about a mile) on the way back to the campground and cooked dinner.  While we were eating, we had two different people stop by wanting to see our little camping bus/van and talk to Chris about how he had fixed it up for camping.  I was already proud of the work he did (it really is great), but now other people were getting to see it and be impressed also......really great!

The winds seem to have died down, so I hope we have a nice calm night and the weather is good tomorrow.  Look out, Narrows, here we come!