Zion National Park, Utah
Monday, June 23, 2008
Hey everybody! Right now I'm sitting in a cool little outdoors shop in Zion NP, but I guess I should go backwards a couple of days. A couple of days ago we did the backpack trip from the south rim of the Grand Canyon down to the Colorado River, camped there for the day, and then made the BRUTAL hike back up the next day. A week ago I would have found it hard to imagine that humans could survive in 130 degree (F) weather... but thats what we did all day in the bottom of the Canyon! It was seriously 130 degrees in the sun! Needless to say we spent the entire day covered in sunscreen swimming around in the Colorado River. For these hikes in the Grand Canyon we had to wake up at 3:00 am to be able to hike out while the temperatures were somewhat moderate (80-90). After that we stayed a night camped on the East rim and then drove to the Antelope Canyons the next morning for an all day photo tour. The tour was amazing becaus, somehow, we had ended up taking the tour from the Navajo people who owned and had discovered this amazing canyon (as opposed to the crappy/crowded city tour)
. We got the "special" treatment, so basically we had a guide to take us wherever we wanted to go in the canyons for as long as we wanted all day (they had to clear other tourists out of OUR way for photos! hehehe) We even got to go to a "secret" canyon where no other non-natives had been allowed to go before! Needless to say... that was just awesome! Anyway, now were camped in Zion planning for our next activities. Today we'll probably do some of the amazing shorter day hikes they have around here, and then tomorrow we're going to do an intense backcountry river canyon hike into a place called "the subway".
I hope everyone is doing well! Adios!
Comments
Hey there!
Hey guys,
Wow! It looks like you two are having fun! :) I'm glad you survived the heat in the canyon (and had time to take those awesome pictures). That landscape looks like it was created by a master artist. That's pretty cool about the Antelope Canyon too--what a blessing to be able to see it all! I'm SO glad you guys had the opportunity to visit these places. Where are you travelers headed next? I'll be waiting for your next post. :)
Your friend,
~Emily
Zion Nat'l Park ROCKS!!!
What a magnificent place! Having the sun directly overhead to capture pics of those intense shafts of light shining through openings in nature's carvings was stunning. Praise God that your mishap wasn't broken bones or worse. Carry on.