Zion has a much hyped, but admittedly pretty special hike called the Narrows which involves walking about 3 miles along a river bed (the Virgin river) into a canyon with steep and beautiful walls. The ranger advised us that we should hire some kit as the hike is in the shade and the water is cold (9ish degrees, so quite warm for most UK rivers). We hired canyoneering shoes, dry suit trousers and the obligatory hiking stick.
In the Narrows we saw many people both more and less prepared than ourselves. In order to conserve the riparian vegetation you are advised to hike as much as possible in the water, despite this most people seemed to spend only around 40% of the time in the water. This might have been understandable for those dressed in shorts and shivering (it seems this is some sort of manliness test for Mormon boys – as we saw a few shivering children lagging behind their dads), but many were dressed in the Star Trek like full dry suits (which we wanted but were sold out) and walking along the banks of the river. This was quite annoying as sections on the way back were floatable if we had suits.
Walking in the rapids was really fun and Ralph only had to be rescued once!
Waiting for the bus
Ready for action us with fellow campers and Narrows hikers Dan and Natashja
Star trek suits
Some people in drysuits floating back downstream
Ralph in the raging rapids
Oops, nearly over the top of the trousers
A katydid
Finally Ralph takes a dip having been itching to do so all day
Mission complete
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