Adventures in Florida: The Callihans Take Tampa: Westward Bound: Vegas, Zion & Bryce Canyon

Hello again!

If you recall, when we last left off, we had taken our initial exploration of Zion.

The next day, Matty and Julie went to hike Angel's Landing, which is an insane hike - especially at the end where you have to hold on to chains to keep from plummeting to your death (which many people have done). Both turned around before they got to the top, although Matty made it through the first set of chains, and then turned around when he realized there was farther to go. Glenn and I opted to go over to St. George for a much easier stroll over at Dixie Rock in Pioneer Park which overlooks the town.

I assumed the "D" was for Diane, but it may stand for Dixie.

That's Glenn!

Our meals had been largely disappointing up to this point in Utah, but based on Mom and Dad's recommendations, we went to the Painted Pony for dinner that night and all had a FABULOUS meal. Julie raised a toast to the Ackermans for giving us such good advice. It was so good, Glenn and I went back there for dinner on our own a few nights later.

The next day, Glenn surprised me with a hot air balloon ride over St. George (well, he told me the night before since we had to get up at 5am). This was an anniversary surprise which was very surprising since our anniversary is in July.

The ride itself was over St. George which is under a huge amount of construction, so not as scenic as Napa, although there were mountains in the distance. Still, it was a lot of fun and we got to not only see the balloon being inflated, but also got to go inside of it while it was still on the ground.

Here are some videos the ground crew gave us:

So that was awesome. Matty and Julie left that afternoon, so we had the rest of the trip on our own.

The next day, Glenn and I drove back to Zion. We stopped in Springdale on the way in so Glenn could rent what were essentially waders with waterproof socks, boots, and a walking stick, as he planned on hiking the Narrows. More on this in a moment.

Once we got to the park, we took the shuttle to the stop with the Zion Lodge, and took a short and scenic hike to the lower Emerald Pool.

Other than some squirrels and hummingbirds, this deer is the only wildlife we saw on our trip.

This is me reading the sign at the pool. The pool was nearly empty and not at all Emerald, but still a nice walk.

So once we got back from that little hike, Glenn hopped the shuttle to go to the Narrows stop, and I stayed at the Lodge, bought some stuff at the gift shop, had a lovely lunch at their restaurant on the outdoor deck and basically people watched on the lawn.

My lunch view

Not a bad place to hang out.

Now - about the Narrows. The Narrows is the narrowest section of Zion Canyon. This gorge, with walls 1000 feet tall and the river sometimes only 20-30 feet wide, is one of the most popular areas in Zion National Park.

The nice thing about the Narrows hike is that it is not a loop - it is a straight, long gorge so you choose how long you want to hike and then turn around and go back. The woman who rented Glenn the waders said it would likely take him about 3 hours round trip if he turned around at the first waterfall. The hiking is slow because at times you are walking through water that is nearly waist high, and there is a pretty strong current.

So anyway, here are (some) of Glenn's pics from his hike. He met me back at the lodge in about 2 - 2.5 hours and was very tired. He said he didn't take pics where the water was high because he was afraid he might get knocked over and drop his phone.