Tuesday, August 21, 2018

New Playground

Since our daughter Stacy and her partner Ruth Ann arrived for a 5 day visit with us, we have all been playing tourist at Bryce Canyon National Park (Utah), with a side visit to Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument.  In doing so we have been able to check several things off our wish lists:  Stacy and Ruth Ann to visit/revisit Bryce Canyon, Duane to hike down into Bryce and wander among the hoodoos, and me to visit upper Escalante.  For our last day together, we all fulfilled another wish—to revisit Zion National Park and hike The Narrows.

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Bryce and Zion are different in several ways.  In Bryce we drove along the side of the canyon and viewed it from the top or hiked down into the canyon.  In Zion we drove and hiked along the bottom of the canyon carved by the Virgin River.  In Zion there is more white, tan and gray sandstone and less of the red for which Bryce is famous.

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To access the park we drove through a short tunnel and a mile long tunnel through the heart of a mountain.  This tunnel had several windows which give glimpses of the park.  Exiting the tunnel we snaked down the side of the mountain

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which gave us an opposite view of the window above.

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Inside the park we parked at the visitors center and hopped the shuttle for the rest of the trip to our trailhead, which was at the end of the park.

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This shuttle stop was called the three patriarchs for the biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (l to r).  Abraham is tallest at 6890’. 

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After a ride of 30 minutes or so we exited at the last stop, the Temple of Sinawava.  From here we walked the River Walk, a mostly level, paved, and very pleasant 1 mile path along the Virgin River

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before we reached its end where the canyon walls draw closer together.

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.Here was the beginning of our real hike—The Narrows.

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We sloshed upstream along and through the river for an hour or so before we decided to take a break for lunch.

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After lunch we continued through the slot canyon, enjoying the cool water, the changing air temperature, and the changing canyon walls. 

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After about a mile of slowly negotiating the rocky uneven river bottom, Duane’s new knees worked wonderfully, but his tendons and muscles had had enough.

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We girls went  another mile and a half, walking on the sandy or rocky shore or through the water, enjoying the rock formations and colors.

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When we reached this confluence, we decided to explore into the right hand canyon a bit before turning back.

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View straight up

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Just inside we found a little cascade, a popular spot to climb and continue walking for a bit or for standing on the top for a photo before getting wet sliding down the waterfall.  The girls weren’t afraid of a little water.

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We slowly made our way downstream, stopping to explore, take photos, or pose for them until we finally found Duane again

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and returned to our starting point for a “we did it” pose.

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We retraced the River Walk to the shuttle and left the driving to them while we rested and enjoyed the scenery, taking occasional pix through the windows.

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At the visitors center I stamped my Passport again while Stacy and Ruth Ann perused the gift shop before we piled into the car to find some dinner in one the two nearby towns, not hard to do since all of them are good.  Back on the road we headed home,

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saying hello to the rising moon (on the mesa top on the left),

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and good night to the sun just after we arrived home.

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Tomorrow we part ways.

Louse, Duane, Ruth Ann and Stacy





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