Zion's Narrows

My aunt Janice and uncle Lou are retired school teachers and they travel with their other retired school teacher friends every fall. This year they came to Utah and toured the National Parks. It seems like they have a great time and I hope to be as cool as them some day. My aunt Virginia is also retired and she and her son Cody joined them this year. Cody likes to hike and so we applied for permits to hike the Narrows in July and actually got permits.

Dan was nice enough to go with me:) We were able to bond while driving, especially on the way home while we listened to the relief society broadcast.

The Tuesday before we were supposed to hike a 200 ton boulder fell onto the road and was blocking highway 9. The highway that runs through the park. The highway we needed to use to get to the trailhead. Why does everything have to be so complicated???? The alternate routes would take 3 and 1/2 hours to get to the trailhead, instead of the 1 and 1/2 we were planning on. We had made the decision to not do the hike because we didn't want my aunt to drive 7 hours just for us to hike so we went to rent shoes and had decided we would just hike from the bottom up and turn around. We were bummed but what do you do.

While we were renting shoes we ran into a couple that said there was one shuttle company willing to take hikers the long route to the trailhead if they could fill their van. We called and were put on the list. Luckily they filled the van and for $70 a piece we had a way to the trailhead. It was worth it but it was a little pricey.

So we got to go our hike. I had to document the awesome rental shoes.

They made a big difference and I was so glad my shoes were not in water all day. We hiked super fast because everyone said the hike takes 9-12 hours. We didn't get to the trailhead until 9:30 and we didn't have headlamos so we were a little nervous. We were hiking fast even for me and I usually like fast. We finished the first 6 miles in under 2 hours, luckily it's flat! It really is beautiful.

We hiked 17 miles in 7 and 1/2 hours. Here we are waiting for the shuttle with the couple that we hiked with. It was a crazy day but lots of fun. My feet, that are still sore from all my summer hiking, were killing. I was so happy to be done.

Cody and I got back to Virginia's hotel and I showered and the Dan and I headed back to Provo. It was a really quick trip but it is something I have been wanting to do for years. So glad I was able to get it in.