Road Trip: The Grand Circle Part III
The Best is Yet to Come: 07/07-08
Soon coming to a close, our grand road trip adventure of the Grand Circle, Debra, Brittni, Kevin, and I headed towards Zion National Park, with only 2 nights of camping, 3 national parks, and ~10hrs of collective driving left.
We arrived at the East Entrance of the park coming from Bryce, and were immediately greeted with immense sandstone mountain faces. The drive-thru of the park is merely a travel road as the normal park features are now accessed by a regularly scheduled bus, but the views were all too refreshing compared to the previous sandstone canyons we had seen.
Shop dog
Photo Credit: Kevin Barnett
After a quick snafu where the gear shop where we had originally intended to get our water shoes...
was all but out of stock (and likely going out of business), we were left scuttling over to a gear shop adjacent to the Springdale park entrance, after which we pitched our wondrous campsite at the base of The Watchman with awesome views before grabbing a quick bite to eat in town.
Second to last campsite!
The view from our Campsite:
Situated at the base of a Zion Classic, The Watchman (6,555')
Photo Credit: Debra Hassse
Debra and I snapped a few pics before heading off to sleep to prepare for our big hike down the Narrows, an easy day hike through a slot canyon.
Packing up the car before heading to the bus stop
Group Bus Selfie aka is this thing on?
All smiles
Heading down the Park Avenue trail towards the start of the river
"Is this thing working?" - Brittni Thomas
Some of the weeping rocks/hanging gardens
More hanging gardens
So it begins
We got an early enough start that the water temperature was colder than expected, but our time frame was contingent on finishing earlier and avoiding the crowds of the latter part of the day, of which we succeeded in doing. Enjoy the slew of pictures from taken with a gopro!
Not so bad
It was a bit cold
Not too deep...yet...
Getting there...
Those canyon walls are terrifically tall
Here we go!
This section certainly had depths above our heads
So much for "hiking"
The "end" of the traditional day hike section where there
is a split off in 3 directions
We cruised out comparatively to our tentative walk in the Narrows, at which point was crowded with hundreds of people splashing their way up the river as we were then walking down stream and the temperatures were finally in the comfortably tepid range.
Our feet, shorts, and shirts all drenched, we felt satisfied having beat the crowds and elated at hiking something completely different than ever before.
Now we headed off towards Arizona, to see how grand the Grand Canyon really was, but first a surprisingly comfortable high campsite (6,950') at Kaibab National Forest, where we had time to grab food from the local restaurant (the only one around) and a small campfire to lull us to sleep.
Kaibab National Forest Campsite
Photo Credit: Brittni Thomas
Fire!
Photo Credit: Brittni Thomas
Debra Enjoying the moderate temps
Photo Credit: Brittni Thomas
Feeling rested and recharged, the next morning we headed out to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, after which we would have an intermediate stop to drive-thru the Navajo National Monument before heading off to camp at Mesa Verde National Park. I will have one more post to conclude our grand road trip and I hope you enjoy our photographs!
GPS data from the Narrows is not pretty, probably from being submerged frequently and the canyon walls, but feel free to take a look at it! Lastly, thanks for reading and scrolling through the pictures