Zion National Park

Today we visited Zion National Park with the idea that we would finally do a real hike! We chose for the Hidden Canyon Trail: a difficult trail of approximately 3.5 km round-trip starting at Weeping Rock. To get into the Zion Canyon, you have to take a free shuttle, an initiative to keep the mass of vehicles out of the canyon and thereby restore some rest to the environment. This is necessary as it was very busy there, even outside season. Weeping Rock itself is a beautiful rock that seeps water trough the porous layers. There is a small cave underneath for shelter – meaning only a light shower of rock tears. At the trail head towards the rock we spotted a squirrel and a little girl whining 'oh my god, that's so scary' – really, a squirrel? 

The Hidden Canyon Trail itself wasn't very hard, but very steep though and not made for those who suffer severely from fear of heights. Again we saw a couple of chipmunks playing around. Not afraid of us in the least. Although very cute, it is also a bit concerning, and probably indicating that stupid tourists do feed them. Very wrong. The last part of the trail was the 'fun' part: steep cliff sides, slippery rock and only a chain to hold on to! 

The actual fun part came only then: the end of the trail was the beginning of the Hidden Canyon. This is a long 'crack' in the rock, very narrow (sometimes only a few feet wide) with high walls. We had finished the official trail in half the estimated time, so we had time left to explore the canyon. You can just keep going and going inside the canyon. We thought we had reached the end-for-normal-people when we saw huge rocks blocking the path through the canyon. But then we saw some others exploring those rocks, so we decided to go help them and together with a small group we managed to get over it. We thought the hard part was over. We were wrong. One obstacle after another crossed our path: you could just keep going. Eventually it was more rock climbing than actual hiking, sometimes quite dangerous, depending on old logs, upper-body strength, and slippery rocks, but it was nice and challenging: totally worth it. In the end we decided – wisely – that we should not push our luck and get back before sunset. The end might have been near though – or not. If we would have had more time, we could have found out. The way back was just as hard, tackling all those rocks from another angle. After all of that, the official trail was 'easy peasy' and again we saw many chipmunks that were way to comfortable around humans. 

When we got back to the car, Kevin counted four blisters! Guess wearing sandals in a desert-like environment does that to your feet! Smart move... To ease the pain (or to feed it, because Kevin went running on those fresh blisters) we saw some mountain goats on our way out of the park – which is – by the way – a spectacular route.

For more photo's, check picasa