After our lovely, peaceful early morning of relaxing on our back porch, we all headed to the Zion Visitor's Center, since we hadn't been able to do so yesterday. My goal was to watch the informative, 22 minute film about the park. Unfortunately, said film was NOT at the Visitor's Center, but at the Human History Museum the bus stop before...Gilligan did get a great hat for hiking, though, and there was a ranger there letting kids feel horns, antlers, and mountain lion pelt, so I guess it wasn't a total waste of a trip.
We returned to the room to pack up for our "hike up the Narrows." I was quite skeptical about
this little excursion, since I had read somewhere that 60% of this hike is wading/swimming in very cold water...For those of you who've never been to Zion, it is the Virgin River that has carved out the canyon that is Zion Canyon. At the high end of the canyon, there are spaces where the walls are incredibly narrow, which the river runs through. The pictures I've seen of it are quite spectacular. Of course, we had no illusions of making it anywhere close to where it gets that narrow with 3 kids, but we did want to start the hike and see what it is like. All hikes to the Narrows begin at the Temple of Sinawava mountain/cliff formation at the River Walk, which is a really nice, easy walk. The River Walk 
ends where the Narrows Trail begins--right in the river!! So we did cross the river once, then I sat with the backpacks while the Professor and the rest of the crew walked across again, a little farther down. Although it actually felt wonderful on my sore feet, I was really concerned about the instability of my ankles, with the wiggly rocks and the current of the river. It was a lot of fun, though, and if we had proper equipment, I'd certainly be game to go farther up.
We returned via the River Walk, and headed to the Weeping Rock trail to see the hanging gardens at its terminus, then headed back to the lodge and had a little ice cream refreshment. The boys stayed and hung out in the room while Ginger, the Professor, and I went to the Human History museum to see the film and look
around there. I thoroughly enjoyed the film; I think the other 2 tolerated it for my sake. But at that point, the Professor decided that we would throw caution to the wind and try the drive up through the tunnel (the tunnel road, Hwy 9, is closed weekdays from 9-4 because of road construction). After some really spectacular views of a different area of the park (and some sweaty palms and clutching of armrests on my part), we headed for the town of Springdale to a place called Pizza and Noodle for dinner. Such a cute town...I really wouldn't mind living there!! In our retirement, we could live there and volunteer at the park. Yes, of course I'll be doing some research!
We've packed up quite a bit of the car in preparation for our departure tomorrow morning, to
Las Vegas. We're looking forward to a bit of reminiscence, as I haven't been to Las Vegas since we moved from there in July of 1994!! I know a lot has changed since then, so of course we plan to take the kids by our old house, probably out to Nellis AFB (maybe the Thunderbirds will be there--doubt it, though, since they're probably out doing air shows), see the "new" (well, it's new to me) Freemont Experience, and some of the newer hotels on the strip. We'll also be dining at In and Out Burger--yum!!
We returned to the room to pack up for our "hike up the Narrows." I was quite skeptical about
this little excursion, since I had read somewhere that 60% of this hike is wading/swimming in very cold water...For those of you who've never been to Zion, it is the Virgin River that has carved out the canyon that is Zion Canyon. At the high end of the canyon, there are spaces where the walls are incredibly narrow, which the river runs through. The pictures I've seen of it are quite spectacular. Of course, we had no illusions of making it anywhere close to where it gets that narrow with 3 kids, but we did want to start the hike and see what it is like. All hikes to the Narrows begin at the Temple of Sinawava mountain/cliff formation at the River Walk, which is a really nice, easy walk. The River Walk 
ends where the Narrows Trail begins--right in the river!! So we did cross the river once, then I sat with the backpacks while the Professor and the rest of the crew walked across again, a little farther down. Although it actually felt wonderful on my sore feet, I was really concerned about the instability of my ankles, with the wiggly rocks and the current of the river. It was a lot of fun, though, and if we had proper equipment, I'd certainly be game to go farther up.We returned via the River Walk, and headed to the Weeping Rock trail to see the hanging gardens at its terminus, then headed back to the lodge and had a little ice cream refreshment. The boys stayed and hung out in the room while Ginger, the Professor, and I went to the Human History museum to see the film and look
around there. I thoroughly enjoyed the film; I think the other 2 tolerated it for my sake. But at that point, the Professor decided that we would throw caution to the wind and try the drive up through the tunnel (the tunnel road, Hwy 9, is closed weekdays from 9-4 because of road construction). After some really spectacular views of a different area of the park (and some sweaty palms and clutching of armrests on my part), we headed for the town of Springdale to a place called Pizza and Noodle for dinner. Such a cute town...I really wouldn't mind living there!! In our retirement, we could live there and volunteer at the park. Yes, of course I'll be doing some research!We've packed up quite a bit of the car in preparation for our departure tomorrow morning, to
Las Vegas. We're looking forward to a bit of reminiscence, as I haven't been to Las Vegas since we moved from there in July of 1994!! I know a lot has changed since then, so of course we plan to take the kids by our old house, probably out to Nellis AFB (maybe the Thunderbirds will be there--doubt it, though, since they're probably out doing air shows), see the "new" (well, it's new to me) Freemont Experience, and some of the newer hotels on the strip. We'll also be dining at In and Out Burger--yum!! 
No comments:
Post a Comment