Here is the second part of my last Blog about my Trip to Zion National Park in Utah.

After our first great hiking day in the Park we decided to Hike “The Narrows” trail on our second day: http://www.zionnational-park.com/zion-narrows.htm

Simple trail Map

We once again used the complimentary shuttle to the trail head. From there we joined a big group of walkers and hikers to commence our track. This hike is stunning and strenuous at the same time. It begins with a light walk along a paved walk way, which is used by big numbers of visitors.

It first felt like a hikers highway at this point but the masses thinned out as soon as the water treating started.

The beginning of the trail, with low water levels and dry footing

We carried our belongings inside our backpacks, enclosed in water proove containers and sacks, so to be able to protect these as well as to use our packs as floatation devices in deeper water later on the trail.

The water is getting deeper

The first 500 m were easy to manage with water levels up to our ankles but this should change soon after that.

The scenery inside this canyon is amazing and the knowledge that you are inclosed in 200 m high rock walls created some kind of humbleness in Us as well respect for nature , again, and again.

Walls of rock

We ventured on and the further we came we had to start to think on which point we return. The entire hike has a length of 13.5 km, but we where aware of 2 dangers.

First: Energy depletion. We realized soon that trekking through water, sometimes knee-high was not such an easy task and on some point our muscles were aching and we longed for some dry ground.

Our second concern was hypothermia: Although  the  air temperature was still in high twenties (celsius) on some spots, after we had our pants soaked and water splashed on our shirts, we cooled down quite fast and had to warm up in the sun.

Slightly deeper water again

But how much fun it was , especially with great hiking partners and the sun surrounding Us.

This spot, was followed by a very deep section, where Rob and I (in photo on right) were submerged up to our chin and we even had to swim for 5 meters.

Unfortunately only one  picture of those sections exists as we had to protect our cameras, in fact my camera actually got submerged, but tried later in the day again. Lucky me.

One of Us in deep water

On the picture on the left you can see the dept, even further to the right bank the water was even as deep as 180 cm

Benefits of being tall

Again Rob and Me. I realized here which benefits my hight of 182cm gives me in certain situations. Shortly after this section we began to swim.

We continued until “Orderville Canyon”, as from this point we would have to swim for about 1000m  through deep basins and up-stream. We met some fellow hikers which came downstream and we were told that the current is quite strong.

We wished sometimes to have alittle raft with us to return, guess the child comes out in all of us sometimes.

On one point my friend Rob succeeded to swim past a 10 meter high bolder, but my energy was too low and I had to stay back.

On our return we realized that we made the right decision to return. As the temperature fell, we started to cool down quite fast, and only by running down the stream, and warming up on every sunny spot did we manage not to get hyperthermia.

It was a great day and on return to our camp site we could not stop reminiscing about these 2 outstanding hikes. Our minds were full of impressions, our camera memory cards had little space left, and 2 cameras had to get a lot of sunshine to try out again.

We really enjoyed our time here, and we began , over dinner at the campsite to get excited about our drive the next day to Grand Canyon National park where a great 4 day hiking adventure awaited us.

With this I finish here, and will be back soon, with Impressions from the Grand Canyon…..