We were mostly packed and the bunk beds made a lot of noise anytime someone moved so we got out pretty early. We just got dressed and got in the van and headed toward Zion. We ate pop tarts and little banana bread cakes on the way. Zion is a big park and you can’t drive most places. Parking in the park is really limited so many people park at a nearby city and ride a shuttle in. Luckily we were early enough to find a parking spot in the park. We got the kids ranger books and then started ridding the shuttle up into the park. We started off with a very popular hike to some ponds.
It was hot and very sunny and pretty crowded and the ponds were not that exciting. Pumpkin was not in a hiking mood. I think there were 3 ponds but after the first we made a detour. We left the main trail and started hiking toward the next shuttle stop instead of to the next pond or back where we came.
This turned out to be a good decision.
It was really pretty
way less crowded
and ended by a little creek people were wadding in.
We cooled off for a bit and then wondered over to some picnic tables for lunch.
We were far from the van so had packed a lunch of pb roll ups, hummus and jerky.
After lunch we took a shuttle up to the farthest stop in the park. Then we hiked in for about a mile on an easy trail.
At the end of this trail we took a quick break and removed our boots.
Then we hiked one of the most famous hikes in the park called The Narrows.
It’s 9 miles in 9 miles out in a narrow canyon and you go in and out of water a lot.
Pumpkin loved the hike and wanted to do the whole 9 miles.
But that’s way to far for her or any of us probably so after some particularly cool curves we turned around.
We really rushed our way out thinking we could make it to a ranger program back near the van but ultimately we figured out it was impossible to hike out and have the shuttle get us there in time. So we stopped to play some more just before the end of the hike out.
Eventually we had to move on and leave the stream. We took the shuttle back down to the van.
We got in the van and drove a loop around the parking lot then found the place we wanted to go most was just a walk across a little creek so we parked again and walked.
There was a great brewpub right there with good beers and food.
That was about it for the day. It was late and we had an hour drive back to the cabin. Heath and I split another big beer before bed.