Day 93: Zion National Park, UT

Good morning from Zion, land of peach-coloured sunrises and pure white moon flowers that bloom in the dark and close as soon as the sun shines on them. It is a wild and wonderful place.

Our adventure today was hiking the Narrows. Starting at shuttle stop #9 - the Temple of Sinawava - we hiked down to the Virgin River via the Riverside Trail which runs through the slot canyon. We then hiked through the riverbed, in and out of the water, for three kilometres until we reached Floating Rock before turning back. The hike was very easy for the adults with no cardio at all. It was a welcome change from hiking up mountains.

We reached our destination of Floating Rock.

Alistair, who excels at hikes with elevation, found this water hike really tough, especially on the way back to the trailhead. With his small body size and little legs, he was pushed around by the current more than the rest of us and it zapped his energy. He had three tumbles on the slippery rocks and skinned his knee. At one point, he tripped over the sandy bank, face planted and got sand in his eyes. We rinsed out his eyes, carried his pack for him, held his hand in the sections with strong current, and offered lots of praise and encouragement. And he made it back! After we cleaned and patched up his knee and changed him out of his wet clothes and shoes, he was a new kid and was ready for his next adventure.

After a late lunch of grilled cheese, we waited out the daily afternoon monsoon thunderstorm inside the trailer while playing cards and watching the latest SpaceX launch live from Texas on Ian’s phone.

We then attended the Junior Ranger evening program at 7pm. We learned about the colourful community here at Zion in an activity packed session filled with a paint chip colour matching scavenger hunt, colour by number landscape drawing, and a community building post card exercise. It was great fun.

Our evening concluded with bat and canyon tree frog sightings and watching the moon rise over Watchman mountain. It has been a very full, very hot day.