Saturday, July 24, 2010

Narrows Pictures

Ok, so if you haven't seen my pictures on Facebook already, here are some of the better pictures I took on my recent camping trip to Southern Utah and the Zion Narrows.
We camped somewhere on top of Smith Mesa near Zion National Park. My friend Adam showed it to us. This is the kind of place you'd have to be a local to know about. I'm lucky to have him as a friend down there.
We ate kabobs that I grilled over the campfire on top of this rock, and sat here chatting until around 11:00 PM. I love camping, especially in remote areas where you can see the stars clearly. There wasn't so much as a headlight to spoil our view of the night, and the Watchman, the Gateway To Zion, had a spectacular silhouette against the night sky.
Chamberlain's Ranch. Pretty much everyone hiking the Narrows top-down starts here. Its about 1.5 hours away from Zion Canyon by car along a long, bumpy dirt road that seems to go on forever. Adam dropped us off. What a stud! The river in the picture is the North Fork of the Virgin River, which will eventually dig out the Narrows of Zion Canyon, as well as Zion Canyon itself. Such a little stream now, it gets much, much more powerful by journey's end. Believe it or not, this is HIGH water, almost as high as the National Park Service will allow for permits to be issued to hikers wanting to make the trip.
About five miles into the hike, the stream is only slightly deeper, but we can't walk along the bank anymore because there are rock walls on either side, or very rough terrain. The cliffs aren't particularly high yet, just straight up out of the water. We could still make pretty good time though, which was good because its a 16.5 mile trip! Getting stuck in the Narrows after dark was not an experience we were interested in having, so we had to move pretty fast. As small tributaries come in, the river has been gaining strength bit by bit until there is a pretty good amount of flow. This waterfall was at mile 6. There is a way around, but Gary jumped off and into the pool below. Gorgeous! The canyon walls are getting higher and higher, but they haven't really closed in on us yet for a long period of time. Without advanced equipment, there is no way out except back the way we came or continuing into Zion Canyon. This is a wide section of the canyon, but its about to get really narrow. Also, we had to cross the river on foot at least 30 times. While it was only about calf-deep at first, it is now at least as high as our waist in the middle of the river, and sometimes higher than that, even in fast-moving water. We really slowed down at this point because fatigue was setting in and every single step was precarious. We took a welcome break at this spring. It was truly spectacular, with the water flowing directly out of the rock. The ferns added some color, and the grotto made for a perfect swimming spot. Entering the famous Wall Street. This is the part that everyone wants to see. We took about three hours to get through this section because the water was so high and we spent a good amount of time swimming because it got deep, and there is no ground to walk on for most of it. The floor of the canyon is water, with straight cliffs coming out of both sides. The rangers warned us when issuing our permit to check the sky and the time before entering this section, because once inside we would be "committed." If there was a flash flood or it got dark, there is no high ground and no suitable place to spend a night, and navigating the Narrows in the dark would be almost suicidal. We were tired (we'd been hiking in the most relentless, unforgiving terrain for almost 8 hours at this point), but we were determined to make it! See what I mean? No high ground. Nowhere to run from a flash flood, no where to sit and wait out the night. And its getting dark in the Narrows at 5:00 PM! One of several swimming sections. I managed to find some high ground, but it was really treacherous and I would have preferred the swimming once I got up there. Navigating the boulders in spots like this was really fun, but kind of scary at the same time.
Ready, set, jump! I walked across this rock as far as I could before I had to jump into this channel and swim for it. After taking this picture, I just didn't have the energy to dig out my camera anymore (I kept it sealed in a dry-bag). We were so tired and sore! My problem on this hike actually was not energy. I had plenty of energy to spare by day's end. My body was just beat up, though! My ankles had been absolutely punished by picking my way constantly through the river, stepping on huge, slippery rocks that relentlessly twisted and strained the tendons in my ankle until they were enflamed and swollen. Better shoes would have helped with this. Also, wearing low socks was a mistake. They allowed pebbles to get into my shoes much easier. It wasn't practical to stop every five minutes and take off my shoes and socks to empty out pebbles, so I just had to deal with it, which of course, resulted in blisters. Constant strain on my knees also generated a lot of pain there, and my swimsuit caused some painful chafing on the inside of my upper thighs. I guess my swimsuit isn't meant for hiking in... But despite my lack of proper preparation for this adventure, this was one of the most rewarding, thrilling, and fun hikes of my life. I will always remember the experience, and honestly I look forward to going back, a little better prepared.

5 comments:

Dan Kuhmann said...

Nice pictures. I am a little bit jealous. That is an awesome hike.
I rode that bike race north of Santa Rosa... turned out that course was a lot longer (and steeper) than we saw. Too bad I fell several feet into a creek after coming out of the crossing. Then another guy behind me fell on top of me. Broke my chain. Fortunately my riding bag always has my chain tool now. Too bad it took a few minutes to fix... totally taken out of contention. Lost all of my motivation finishing a 40 minute lap in 57. If I would have raced in my real class (I should have gone beginner) I still would have beat two guys and an 11 year old. Instead I got dead last.

Ryan the Man said...

Haha. Hahaha. I've found nothing ruins my motivation for a mountain bike race like wrecking my Ford Explorer on the way home.

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