My adventure camping and hiking.

A picture story.

I didn't get any pictures of the drive to Zion because it was midnight. But this is what morning looked like.
I was super angry at Julie for waking me up.
It may look like I'm smiling but I'm actually glaring at her.

I smiled for the picture but was not happy to be awake.
What did make the situation better was the beautiful scenery upon exiting the tent!

Our campsite with that massively huge mountain cliff-face right behind it.
You can't tell in the picture but we were so close.

We had to take a forty minute bus ride through the park to get to the trail we were going to hike.
Moments after this picture was taken a guy sat down behind us, next to that chick, and started telling her all about Mormons and how they worshipped a guy named Moronee. It was hysterical. If he wasn't clearly semi-Autistic we would have corrected him but it was all good.

No camera can fully capture the intense beauty and amazing geological features in Zion.

Just one of the many beautiful views on our way.

At the trailhead! So it was a mile walk along the river on pavement to the actual Narrows themselves.
This is the start.

This is what we were hiking through majority of the time.
A river!
This log is the aftermath of flash flooding. Glad we didn't get caught in one.

The gang! Jared, Shanel, Julie, and I all went down and had a blast.

The Narrows. Hundreds of feet straight up on either side and a river in the middle.
The geological forces required to carve this out absolutely astound me.

Just, ya know, livin' the dream.

The current got pretty rapid in some spots and Jared let me use his hiking stick.
I did not like using it. I much more appreciated roughing it. ;)

Another beautiful spot.

We took a branch-off slot canyon and came to a really narrow Narrows. Shanel, Julie, and I were about to pose for a picture...

And there it was. Our perfect jump. I kind of love this picture, haha.

This rock is so much bigger than it seems in this picture. It was in the middle of the river and it was a good four feet deep all around it. We waded to it and climbed on up after numerous failed attempts.

When we went down the alternate slot canyon that was way narrower than the main Narrows we came across maybe five waterfalls like this. We had to climb up them to keep going. That was way intense and super fun.

On our way back down the tiny canyon we slid down a waterfall like a slide! The water was about six feet deep and I went straight in. Luckily the water isn't terribly cold this time of year and is super clean.

The gang.

Can you see how freaking cool this is?!?!

Wading through the water for thirteen miles gave me gnarly blisters but was well worth it. Look at this place!

The Narrows goes on for miles and miles and miles {like 17} and doesn't really end so much as go into the cliffs so everyone just turns back when they're done. This is us when we got back to the trailhead.

After hiking for seven hours and thirteen miles this accurately describes how I felt.
Dead.
But super happy and good sore.

Basically. Holy amazing.
I am so grateful that I went on this trip.