Canadian World Traveller / Summer 2016 Issue

Canyon Village, approximately 7.5 miles
from the park’s entrance. Helpful staff and
ultra-comfortable beds made it an ideal
base for our hiking trip. We also loved the
vintage photos of early tourists exploring
the canyon in the rooms and hallways.
Accommodations inside the park include
the historic El Tovar and Bright Angel
Lodges. For the true adventurer, there is
Phantom Lodge that lies at the bottom of
the canyon. Reservations are necessary and
can be made up to 13 months in advance.
The Narrows at
Zion National Park
Unlike the Grand Canyon, I knew very little
about Zion National Park in Southern Utah.
But as I planned our Grand Canyon road
trip, I came across stunning photos of this
wilderness area and knew it was somewhere
we had to include in our road trip.
Zion was named when Nephi Johnson, the
first permanent European- American settler,
declared, “A man can worship God among
these great cathedrals as well as in any
man-made church – this is Zion.” Its heavenly
landscape does look like it’s been
carved from above with its fiery red and
orange sandstone cliffs and canyons.
Warning: It’s very hard to keep your eyes
on the road as you drive through it.
Hiking in the 229 square mile national
park can range from easy paved trails like
the Lower Emerald Pool Trail to the challenging
Angel Landing, where you’ll have
to navigate steep switchbacks and vertigo
inducing cliffs to reach the summit and the
reward of a jaw-dropping vista of Zion
Canyon.
We decided to do one of the parks most
famous hikes, The Narrows, an excursion
that’s different than most as the trail is a
river. With cold water that can be up to
waist-high deep and varying currents, it’s
essential to prepare for this hike.
Fortunately, there are several outfitters in
the nearby town of Springdale that can set
you up for a Narrows hike. We visited the
Zion Outfitter, just outside the park’s
entrance, and came out wearing a bib dry
suit that looked like rubber overalls, neoprene
socks and water shoes and holding a
wooden walking stick. Among the other visitors
wearing shorts and a t-shirts, I felt
somewhat conspicuous as I boarded the
park shuttlebus to the Temple of Sinawava,
our point of departure and last stop of the
shuttle. “They’re doing The Narrows hike,”
I heard one woman whisper to her friend.
“That’ll be the day,” I heard the friend whisper
back. Although she could have said,
“I’d like to do that one day”. I was a little
worried about what I was getting myself
into.
The hike began with the Riverside Walk, a
paved trail that follows the Virgin River. But
instead of turning back at the end of the
trail, we stepped into the water and proceeded
from there. Because of the currents
and varying depths, we’d often wait for
others to cross before we tried to traverse a
particular stretch. Other hikers did the
same and at one point, where the water
seemed particularly fast, another couple
stopped. We all looked at each other with
the unspoken question hanging in the air:
“Who’s going first?” It didn’t matter in the
end, since not far behind us were a group
of young college students who crossed
effortlessly. I tried to follow their lead, but
my knuckles were white from gripping the
walking stick so tightly.
It was well worth the effort, however, for the
incredible soaring views. The deep orange
cliffs towered above us at heights of up to
200 feet and the width could taper to 20
feet at spots. I felt completely dwarfed by
the grandeur of it all. We trekked for about
two hours before turning back, but more
ambitious and athletic hikers could go as
far as Big Springs (a five-hour hike) without
a permit.
However the hike was enough time for me
to forget any problems at home, work or
what’s on the nine o’clock news. Enough
time to appreciate just how incredible these
National Parks are. And to know that I need
to spend more time hiking.
If you go: We stayed at the Best Western
Red Hills in Kanab. Once again it was a
comfortable base for our South Utah excursions,
and the helpful staff gave us excellent
recommendations for dining and hiking
within town. The town of Kanab is an
ideal hub for exploring as it’s in easy driving
distance of some of America’s most
scenic wonders including Lake Powell,
Bryce Canyon National Park, Grand
Staircase/Escalante National Monument
and, of course, Zion National Park.
www.grandcanyonsquire.com
www.grandcanyonlodges.com
www.visitarizona.com
www.visitsouthernutah.com
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Photo: Tom Till - Zion National Park
Canadian World Traveller Summer/Fall 2016