I guess I knew there were several National Parks in Utah. I guess I had visual expectations for Arches and Bryce Canyon. I had no idea what Zion was about. That’s partly why it’s now solidly in my “top 5”, and maybe as high as 3rd after Glacier and Denali. To be sure, we had 2 top 5 hikes here.
Zion is essentially a more approachable Yosemite. Zion is a Navajo Sandstone canyon carved by the Virgin River. To me, it feels like a smaller Yosemite Valley, but because the vegetation is shorter and more sparse, when you are in the canyon, you are treated to 360 degree views of the rock. It’s amazing. It’s also smaller and “cozier” than Yosemite.
We camped at the Watchman campground, just inside the park, which was great. Nicely sized sites, electricity hookups, great views of the canyon, plenty of wildlife etc. Because it was still in season, and we were there over the weekend, we were not able to drive our Jeep into the Canyon until Monday. That simply means that you catch the shuttle at the visitor center (short walk from our camp).
We spent 3 days here, and it was amazing. Day one: did the visitor center (kids got Jr Ranger books, and we watched the video), then rode the shuttle to the “Grotto Trailhead” stop. We ate our lunch there, and did the “Angel’s Landing” hike. It was quite a climb… 1500 feet up. The first 1/3 is pretty steep, long sweeping switchbacks, the 2nd third (thankfully) is relatively flat trek back through a slot canyon), and the last 1/3 is quite a steep set of switchbacks (21 of them). Actually, then the last 1/2 mile is steep climbing on mostly unimproved rock, with just a chain to hold.
Kane and I did the entire thing, the girls stopped prior to the last .5 miles up to the landing. I was pretty beat when we got started on the last 1/2 mile to the landing, but I didn’t notice it, I was running on adrenaline! Kane had no problem doing this hike, but he’s a great climber, and (mostly) careful. When we got to the top of the landing, we finally saw our first California Condor overhead. These guys are endangered (~200 in the wild), and have an amazing 9 ft wingspan. This hike was an amazing experience for all of us.
Gallery of Angel’s Landing Hike:
The next day, we did school in the morning, and drove over to the east side of the park to do another shorter hike… to the observation deck. It was a nice little hike with great views. One thing I really enjoyed about it was the drive over. There’s a pretty winding road over, and then a tunnel through the rock. The tunnel is listed as 13 ft, 1 in in the middle (it’s arched). I had been told that our RV was 13 ft 6 inches tall. Coming over allowed me to scope out the road and tunnel, in advance of potentially taking it out of the park. This tunnel (Zion Mt. Carmel tunnel) is simply the best, by far, way to get from Zion to Arches/Canyonlands. More on the tunnel later.
The third day was epic. Ever since we saw our first picture of the Narrows hike at Zion, we’ve (especially Kane) have wanted to do it. The Narrows is a slot canyon at the North end of Zion canyon. It runs anywhere from 10 to 15 feet wide and up to 2000 feet tall. It’s absolutely stunning! The main challenge with hiking the Narrows is that in most places, the only place to hike is in the Virgin river. That may be a mostly welcome environment in the heat of summer, but it’s late November now, it’s 50 out and the water is 40 (degrees F).
So when I found out we would need to rent drysuits, walking sticks, and special water hiking boots (to the tune of 200-250 bucks) in order to do the Narrows Hike, I really questioned it. Most hikes are free, couldn’t we find a nice free hike (like Observation Point?)? Kane and Kim wore me down, and we rented the gear Sunday night.
Monday morning, we got up early, got our gear on, and drove out to the “temple” section of Zion canyon (at the very North end). We hiked about a mile on a paved path along the river, then sort of anxiously started testing our water gear.
I’ve worn wet suits before, but never dry suits. Immediately, the kids complained that their suits were leaking. I can kind of see why. Any part of your body in the dry suit that is under water, especially, fighting 81 CFM (cubic feet per minute) flows at 40 degrees, does indeed feel wet. It just takes getting used to. Thankfully, we all got used to that feeling, and eventually we reveled in it.
The lady that rented us the gear, said we’d have to make a couple of crossings. She was wrong! Easily half the hike was in the water, we made dozens of crossings, in rapids. Kane led the way, and only needed a bit of help in a couple of deep/fast spots. Kim kept her eye on Kane, and I took Kat. Kat and I did the rapids together, and she did great. I only felt like I was dragging her a few times!
Our goal was to see “Wall Street”, which is the 15-20 wide section of the slot. Right after we hit Wall Street, Kat was cold, and the rapids were getting deeper. We decided to separate. Kane and I pressed on, going probably 1/2 a mile further. It did get a bit tougher, and then ironically a bit easier. We messed around for 45 minutes or so, then headed back to try to catch the girls.
We caught up with them at around the spot were we had lunch (maybe 1/2 way back to the start of the river hike). It was fun to be back together, and soon, Kane had taught Kat his new trick. On the way back Kane had started “floating” back down the river. There were definitely spots where this was best done, deep enough to float, slow enough to be manageable. We had a great time hiking back down the river. It’s actually quite a bit easier to hike with the current!
Anyway, these pics speak for themselves. I didn’t have my DSLR, only Kim’s Point-n-shoot, but you get the idea. This was one heck of an experience for us all!
Gallery of Narrows Hike:
So Zion blew me away, and we did decide to take the Zion Mt. Carmel tunnel. I looked up our RV height on the internet, and it was listed as 12 ft 10 in. This left us 3 inches clearance, what could go wrong? So, we had to pull out of the park and back in, to buy a pass for the tunnel. They actually have to stop traffic for you, you can drive down the middle of the tunnel (it has curves too!). There were some “white knuckles” going through that tunnel, but we made it!
