Across Covid America - Tour of National Parks - Day 18

Day 18

15716 mileage

8:33 A.M.

29166 steps

$35 All Access Card Savings

Here's the deal: Thanks to Covid-19 the regularly scheduled shuttle that takes folks along the 8 mile road to the top of Zion park has been cancelled. Because of this the park only allows 400 cars in at a time. Therefore people start lining up to get in at 2:30 A.M. That's right folks. In the morning!

We got in line about 5:00 A.M. and only made it to a parking lot at the Zion Lodge. This is the halfway point of the road. In order to get to the trailhead of the most popular hiking trail we would have to trek 3.5 miles to the end of the road. Hmm, that sounds doable. 

It was actually pretty cool walking on the road and marveling at the landscape dotted with a few deer once again as the sun rose overhead. 

But wait. There's more. Once you get there you have a mile 'River Walk' hike before you reach the start of the Narrows. Now, once again I read up on the hike beforehand. It said that you'd should be prepared to get your feet wet. 

I completely misinterpreted that remark. You don't just get your feet wet, you walk almost the entire way in the actual river. We're not talking a gently flowing burbling brook either. This is a swift moving current river. The North Fork of the Virgin River is not for the clumsy. I think the only thing that saved me was that we brought hiking poles with us. Good thing we did because the ground is not steady. It's made up of irregularly shaped stones that twist and turn and tilt every which way. When you aren't swimming through freezing cold water up to your crotch, you are clambering over boulders, maneuvering around fallen trees, and trying to avoid all the people around you. 

We managed a solid two hours of hiking the Narrows, never reaching the infamous 'Wall Street,' before we turned around and retraced our steps.When all is said and done we walked a whopping seventeen miles this day. Please forgive the lack of pictures. I was truly holding on for dear life the whole day. 

Here's a common site found at hotels around the area. People drying out their shoes!