Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Zion Pictures

After baking at the Valley of Fire we headed to Utah and Zion National Park.  We were hoping it would be cooler and I guess it was but only by 3 or 4 degrees. I didn't really know what to expect. I had spent time researching the first half of the trip but didn't really spend any time on the back half.  Of course it had beautiful scenery but we've seen a lot of amazing things on the trip and I might be taking it for granted a little bit.  I had to take a step back and really try to pay attention to appreciate what a spectacular place it really was. 

The drive there was another scorcher and we worried about overheating the truckster.  We got our first engine light of the trip right before we pulled into Zion so that was fun.  I had them pull and clear the code when I got the oil changed and it's something with the fuel pump.  Hopefully it just got too hot, everything seems to run fine yet so we're hoping it doesn't come back and it'll make it until we get home.  Stay tuned to see how that turns out.

It was 110 degree heat while we were there so hiking was limited to the morning and we didn't take any long trails the first day.  Then we hiked the narrows the seconds day, well technically hiked up to and just inside the narrows but it looked pretty much the same as what we walked all day, really wasn't as narrow as I expected.  That must be upstream more.  Overall it was a 5 hour hike up and back so that was enough for us. On the way up stream we worried about hypothermia as Marcus got pretty chilled and needed to be carried for a ways to keep him out of the water.  Then on the way back we had to worry about heat exhaustion as we were running out of water and it was getting really hot out.  Lucky we were in the river and we took some of the deeper routes through to keep everyone cool.  It was an awesome hike and I'd highly recommend. 

Here are the pictures from our time in Zion.


Our Campsite at the Watchman Campground in Zion




Waterfall on the emerald pools trail





Hanging Gardens





Sam trying not to overheat


Virgin river by our campsite, an escape from the heat and the boys favorite place to be.



Lucas floating down the rapids

Starting out on the river trail to get to the Narrows



 
Ready to begin the real trail


From here it's in the river

Except it wasn't all in the river luckily there were a few dry banks to get out and warm up



Waterfall



This rock was a landmark with a name but I don't remember it

Look a named rock

This is when we made it officially into the Narrows proper.  Only went in a little ways and there was reportedly a spot up to peoples chest so we turned it around.

View above us


Warmer so willing to get into some of the deeper water

Taking a swim to cool off

Loved the hike

Now lets get out of here and find some lunch

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