Zion

Sherri and I got away for our first overnight trip away from the North Rim. Lizzie and Jessica took care of Ryder and Zeke...thanks. We went to Zion National Park in southern Utah, it's about a 2 1/2 hour drive from the North Rim. Here is one of the rock formations as we entered from the east:

 In Zion the main attractions are in the valley with the cliffs towering overhead, which is different from the Grand Canyon where most people stand on the rim and look down. Since the day time temps. are around 100 this time of the year we took a nice cool hike. Hiking the Narrows is a much differnt hike, it is between narrow cliffs in and along the Virgin River. This picture is close to the trail head:

The picture of Sherri is the first river crossing in calm and shallow water. The below picture shows where the water is deepest in the hike, which is a short way into the hike. Notice the hikers toward the back of the picture, the water was chest high on me and we had to put our packs on top of our heads.

This deep water quickly weeded out the less serious hikers. The hike can be very tricky as some of the river crossing are in waist deep rapids, but the 65 deg. water and mostly shade made for a nice hike on a hot summer day. We hiked for about four hours and covered four miles. Here are some more photos from the hike:

After our hike we had a nice dinner in the lodge and spent the night in a very nice "cabin". Friday morning we headed over to Saint George Utah for an oil change and to do some shopping. Sherri needed a new pair of hiking shoes and we needed supplies to last for another month. Before we left Zion I got a shot of the sun coming up:

It was great to get away and have a vacation from our vacation.