Make friends with your camp hosts and they'll keep the riff-raff out of your site while you're off hiking trails.
Our second campsite in Zion. This is in the first-come camping area and was much nicer than the reserved area.
Heading down the trail to Zion Narrows we run across an old cabin housing a psycho 4D programmer who's name will go unmentioned. But I will say that the foundation was in beautiful condition.
Finally we get to water and make our first river crossing.
And soon after our first river not-crossing.
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The walls get higher
Ruth wonders if she can limbo under the tree without removing her pack.
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Tom filters the water.
Up
The water is very low right now.
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"Hey, check this out!"
Cool, a waterfall!
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The alternate to jumping.
Ruth
Tom
The narrow way (Ummagumma?)
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Dark
Light
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Cavulant
Another group of intrepid adventurers make it to their campsite (site 7).
Ours isn't far away.
There it is right ahead.
Our campsite's backyard.
A dry waterfall in our backyard.
Lizard water slide.
Even in our rented water hiking boots (5.10 Canyoneers) toes get all wrinkly.
Down the river from our site. (Site 9)
Up
All the comforts of home
We head out after a restful night's sleep. Well, it was restful after we stopped waking up with a rousing, "What the hell was that?". After a while we decided that the danger, from what we believe was the same marauding squirrel Ruth met earlier looking for goodies, was minimal.
Lush! (the vegetation, not Ruth, who you can just see in the center of the shot)
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Big Spring. This is a popular point to hike up to from the end of the Narrows.
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Having a shoulder height walking stick is a must for crossing deep or fast or even deep, fast water.
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Radioactive trees
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Hanging plants
More hanging plants. Isn't there enough killing!?
A very craggly area
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Floating rock
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The Bunny
More water treatment. Cool boots.
Much easier than hiking.
He barely made this without tumping over. (Tumping over: the act of tumping over)
Unfortunately he doesn't get far before a condor swoops down and carries him off to feed to her nestlings.
We carry on.
But soon, we were filled with sadness when two boys appear asking if anyone had seen their dad. No one had the heart to tell them that their dad was tomorrow's condor crap. Ruth lets out a small giggle. I'm sure it was a giggle of pure sadness.
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Now we start seeing people hiking up from the end of Zion Narrows.
Up
Hole in the wall. Dang!
The three musketeers were holding hands. "One to fall, all in the water."
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Strange
Yow! They're everywhere!
Some of them were in flip-flops. One guy was barefoot. Walking in this water makes for a great place to stub the hell out of your toes.
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This youngster suddenly and inexplicably became deathly afraid of the water, and refused to come down. He may still be there. His parents didn't seem to notice or care. Sad really.
Dad looks at us and says, "Hey, you should try walking in the water. It's fun!" We just looked at him with blank stares. We'd already walked through enough @*%&ing water.
We must be getting close to the end of the Narrows, thar be people with long pants and flip-flops.
Zebra rock
We must be getting really, really close.
Only a trickle now, the once mighty Niagara Falls carries no barrels.
Why are all those people standing there? OMG! They're waiting for us! I hope my nails look good.
The end of Zion Narrows. An incredible hike, but it's nice to make it to the end.
Hey, we took this shot before.