Zion Canyon: Ice cold feet in narrow waters

Yes, Zion is downside up if you had a stay in the Bryce Canyon before. There you’re looking from the top to the ground, over the colored summits and peaks. But Zion is different, another world, another way to get in touch with the magnificence of nature.

This National Park is a dream come true for everyone who in care für the environment. If you are coming from St. George, you only have to drive to Springville. This small and beauty town full of bars, restaurants and tourist shops are a dead end street for every private car who will go further to the National Park Entree. No chance.

You have to take the shuttle bus into the park – one line picks you up outside and the driver brings you to the Zion Canyon Visitor Center, where you start your Zion Canyon experience with getting maps and permits for exploring the canyon. A few steps on the other side another line drives you through the whole slot canyon to the Narrows, a very small canyon where the North Fort Virgin River flows.

It’s an adventure to get along the Weeping Rock Trail, Hidden Canyon Trail, and Observation Point Trail, because they’re all closed since a very hard rockfall damage in summer. Tons of rock are coming down and you can see how the trails are destroyed.

These closures are indefinite at this time, says the bus driver, a very talented comedian who ist giving his guests a lot of riddles and jokes on the ride. He also knows everything about the old paths where ancient native people and pioneers walked, the massive sandstone cliffs of cream, pink, and red ant the animals and plants who live in the park. Two main campgrounds along the street, both have restaurants, gift shops and rest rooms.

But you are here fort he nature, for the Watchman trail or other hiking tours. To the Watchman tower you have to look up: It´s 2500 ft/1995m above the canyon floor and it`s looking like a real castle in the sky who is watching all the park.

It has need millions of years of erosion to build these magnificent Navajo sandstone towers and cliffs. Here at Zion Canyon is one step of the Grand Staircase that begins at the Grand Canyon and ends at Bryce Canyon. A short hike takes you to the base of three sandstone monoliths named after the ancient old testament patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These are the Emerald Pools, green and blue and inbetween the rock walls.

So when you cry a „Hello“ you get back as many „low-low-low-low“ as in Jon Bellions Song „All Time Low“.

But the best of all ist he water trail along the the Narrows, where the North Fort Virgin River flows. Watch out for flashing river signs before you start! . Because this gorge, with walls a thousand feet tall and the river sometimes just twenty to thirty feet wide, is a one-way-trail. Starting at the Temple of Sinawava you can wading upstream for just a few minutes or for an all day hike. Be not surprised: The crystal clear water of the Virgin River is cold a sice. And you must get your feet wet since the whole trail.

So you are a wanderer in frosty water, barefoot and with icy bones after five minutes. What a nice trip!

More pictures under the link-section.

Follow me on my journey through America:

Bryce Canyon: God's glowing stones
Las Vegas: Home of Bad Luck
Red Rock Canyon: Road under the ocean
The dry throat of the desert
Mt. Withney: High on thin air
Eating flies on Mono Lake
80.000 miles of steel wire
Beyond the everlasting trees
Crazy climbers at El Capitan
The wonder of the Sierra Waves
Into the home of horror
Where Easy Rider is alive
Blue skies over Alabama Hills