The Narrows - Zion National Park

So this is me, hiking the Narrows at Zion National Park on Labor Day weekend. The place was quite crowded until you hiked farther and farther into the Narrows. This is a section of the Virgin River which has carved its way deep into the canyon walls. The website says the hike is 60% in water. Don't believe it. I was easily in the water 93.7% of the time. Which wasn't bad at all if you like walking on bowling balls size rocks...and actually, I do. Well, maybe not for as long as I was in it for. You can easily roll an ankle.

The place is abosolutely beautiful. Beautiful is actually an understatement. You are awe-struck by the sheer magnitude of the canyon walls and are amazed at the power of the water to create such a gorge out of the earth and rock.

The purpose of this trip was a scouting expedition. I wanted to visit more areas that I know I want to shoot in. Zion is full of possible locales. Its going to take me a while to check out all the places I want to see. Emerald Pools, has 3 different trails and I want to do some at Angel's Landing. The Narrows takes priority. I can basically do the other trails anytime, but to do the Narrows, my model is going to have to get wet and thats not the best thing to do when it gets cold. I can handle one or the other, but I hate being cold and wet at the same time. I get flashbacks to my Army days.

I got to meet several people including two who want to consider modeling for me. I also met some new friends from Romania, Bogdan and his wife Irina (spelling may be off). We got to hang out for the last quarter of the hike and even afterwards, we did another mile hike at the canyon overlook. I did it barefoot because my boots had worn sores on my achilles tendons. It wasnt so bad. All in all, I got to see where I wanted to bring a model and place her. The trick is going to be in finding someone willing to drive out 2 hours away and then walk against the current and over huge rocks. Old women and kids were out doing it over this weekend, so its really not that bad, but we'd have to go deep enough into the Narrows as to avoid the public. Doing it during the week may help with that. I didnt do the whole thing which is 16 miles at an estimated 10-14 hours. I am not sure how far I did but I hiked for 5 hours. Any takers?