Having vistited Hoover Dam and Lake Mead we decided that after all the eventfulness of the last few months we would hit Zion national park. The park is situated between two 2000ft canyon walls some 10 miles long and is in the south west corner of Utah. Just a quick hop skip and a jump from Las Vegas.

Straight away on entering the park we passed some deer grazing amongst the camp sites and realised that the break was just what we needed. Zion NPark hike access is through a 10 mile road that ends as the canyon thins. Its was a really easy park to navigate as there is one way in and one way out. We set up peggy in a corner of a camp site and set off on a short 5 mile hike up the watchman trail to watch to sunset over the majestic canyon. What really stood out was all the colours in the canyon walls, it was like a geology 101. Seeing the 8 layers of different rock compacted over millions of years combined with the views over the campsite and surrounding area was amazing and it felt humbling to watch the sun set amongst such natural greatness.

We stumbled back in the dark, me taking the lead with a head torch that lit up a postal stamp sized part of were ever you looked and Lisa behind with a wind up torch (thanks Lisa’s Nanna! Ever the practical one). After an hour of listening to the monotonas clink clink wizz wizz of the wind up torch and watching my shadow in front of me momuntarily show and quickly fade away to leave a a tiny point of light to guide our way, we made it back to peggy. We both sat wondering but never mentioned to each other why we didnt take at least one of the 15 torches and 40 batteries we had in the van?

The next morning we headed off early to the end of the valley to take the short walk to ‘The Narrows’ the point where access to the canyon is up the river floor. Obviously being a boy I wanted to carry on up the shallow water, equipped with my waterproof boots but Lisa quite rightly informed me that shallow water was 3 ft deep and a 6 knot current not to mention freezing, so I put my sulk face on and we headed for the ‘weeping rock’. This jut of rock had been carved out by the  waters flowing down the canyon wall from above. Eventually the lower section of the wall gave up trying and collapsed. This created a 10 ft deep 20 ft high 60ft long canopy under the falling water. Imagine standing behind a really thin water fall and thats about it. Standing there it gave you the feeling it was really coming down… but it wasn’t. It was 70’c! hahaha for all of you enjoying the cold winter.

Next on the list was Emerald pool trails, this trail lead high up to another section of the canyon wall that had collapsed under the million odd years of running water. Instead of creating an eternal ‘Mancheter rainy day’ the water had come to a rest in an emerald pool (ah these Americans know how to sell it! It was more a small green swamp truth told but hay ho). The emerald pool does have a soft sand beach which was nice amongst the harsh rocky desert enviroment, but the real beauty of the place was the 1000ft sheer canyon wall surrounding us in a half moon shape. The video camera couldnt quite get it to look as good as it did but i have posted the film anyway.

We had planned the following day to hike up 1500ft to Angels landing. The walk not only offers a birds eye view of the canyon but at the end has a thin 5 ft neck of rock with only a steel cable to support you. Dramatically this stretch of path has taken the lifes of 6 people over the last 5 years! Unfortunalty the 15miles of hikes in 24 hours had chewed up our city legs and spat them out. It would have ended in tears so we packed up peggy and headed off to Monument valley. Think John Wayne/ Clint Eastwood movies and you can only just begin to imagine it!

See what happens next on are wedding adventure!