Labor Day Weekend at Zion National Park - Part 2 (Virgin River Narrows)

This hike has been on our bucket list for a long time. We go down to Zion National Park almost every year, but this is the first time we had the logistics in place (permits and daylight hours) to walk the narrows. Its a fairly easy walk - around 16 miles from Chamberlain's Ranch to Temple of Sinawava. You are in the water for roughly 14 of the 16 miles, although with normal water levels (40 cfs) at this time of the year, you are never in much deeper than your knees.

Its truly a spectacular walk and we were just in awe almost the entire time. Our photos don't come close to doing the narrows justice.

A couple tips if you are planning to do this...

1. Use two trekking poles. Then you can look around constantly and not have to worry about your footing and slipping.

2. Neoprene socks are a MUST have! Rent them from any outfitter in Springdale.

3. Prepare for a range of temperatures. We were COLD in the morning - wearing gloves and hats until the afternoon... and the daytime high temperature ended up being ~90 degrees. It was hot and you didn't want to get out of the water by the end.

Photos from the previous days

Labor Day Weekend at Zion National Park - Part 1 (Zion Canyon and Kolob Terrace)

Back in early July I threw my name in the lottery for a top-down Virgin River narrows dayhike permit. Our names were picked for Monday of Labor Day weekend, so that made deciding what to do over the long weekend a no-brainer (assuming we found somewhere to stay, which didn't happen until a week before the trip).

We LOVE Zion National Park. I don't want to play favorites, but it might be our favorite. I think we've made 5 trips there since we have lived in Utah.

We drove down on Friday afternoon and went for a nice run out to the Grafton ghost town. Our Saturday we did some hiking in the main section of the park (Observation Point). With crowds building due to the holiday weekend, we headed up to the Kolob Terrace after a longer run on Sunday and had the place pretty much to ourselves. Then on Monday we took a shuttle up to Chamberlain's Ranch and hiked along/in the Virgin River back to Zion. 

I'll save the Monday photos for another post - here's some from the first couple days of the weekend...

Moab in December

Delicate Arch is fantastic place to finish the day

Andrea and I would rather ski on a big fat snowpack (in t-shirts) in May/June than on a shallow snowpack, scuffing up our bases on rocks in December. With WARM temperatures (high 50s) in the forecast, we decided to drive down to Moab after work on Friday afternoon for some more fun in the desert. Southern Utah has treated us very well this Fall.

I got in a pair of runs on a favorite route (Kane Creek Road). We hiked around Arches National Park (had the place to ourselves). We rode our mountain bikes on the M-O-A-B brand trails (fun!). We stumbled across the Moab Christmas Electric Light Parade (who knew such an event existed?!). We went out for some good food (we highly recommend the Moab Brewery).

Winter is coming. I don't know when we'll be down south again, but I'm itching for some ski mountaineering in the La Sal range next spring.

The clouds parted just in time after an overcast day

Another shot of Delicate Arch

Turret Arch

Andrea under the North Window

Balanced Rock

Running on Kane Creek Road

Andrea biking on the Bar-M loop

Christmas Electric Parade in Moab. Surprisingly entertaining!

National Park Week

I get emails all the time for products / ads / information to post on this blog. Over 99% of them get ignored. But a few days ago I got a message with this infographic from the National Park Foundation that caught my attention.

Andrea and I are HUGE fans of the National Park system... if you follow Wasatch and Beyond, you already know that.

I know the parks can be crowded at times, but man oh man... there's a reason for that! The parks are one of our greatest treasures. One of the biggest benefits of living in Salt Lake City is our proximity to Zion, Bryce, Arches, Grand Teton, and Yellowstone.

For more information from the NPS, go here: National Park Week.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Views from the North rim at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

I'm currently on a Colorado road trip aka living the dream.

After getting rained out yesterday (seriously did nothing), this afternoon the weather broke and I checked out the north rim at Black Canyon NP. I've driven down to the San Juans several times, but always blew right past this area. Its actually quite a cool place; probably not worth planning a trip around, but definitely worth visiting if you're in the region.

The north rim of the part isn't very hard to get to, but it feels remote because there is NO ONE there. I saw two other people the entire afternoon. After driving in via Fruitvale Mesa (filled with small organic farms and neat little towns like Hotchkiss), I hiked out to Exclamation Point and then up to Green Mountain to check out the views.

Park entrance at the North Rim

The Black Canyon in B&W

And a similar photo in color

Looking down into the canyon from Green Mountain

The West Elks

Views from CO-92