Kanab Utah

Just before we left Moab UT, Karol’s photo buddies, Jamie and Phyllis joined us to go to the other photo locations and National Parks.  We rented a three bedroom house in Kanab UT to serve as a base for visiting Zion, Bryce and other local photo locations.  Here is the house.

 Travelling in the area was most challenging due to time changes.  Arizona does not switch to Daylight Savings Time and when you are moving across the Arizona / Utah border frequently, it can become confusing.  To add to the confusion, the Navajo Nation does switch to DST, except in some places.  So when we went from Moab UT to Monument Valley AZ, there was no problem.  But then we went to Page AZ to visit Antelope Canyon, which is in the Navajo reservation, but stays on Arizona time (to avoid confusion) – so our tour was on local time, not Navajo time.  That wasn’t too bad, but when Peter was ready to leave, I had to drive him from Page AZ (MST) to St George UT (MDT) so he could catch a bus to Las Vegas (PDT) to catch a flight home (whew!).  Anyhow, once we got to Kanab it got to be much easier since everything was in the same time zone.

From our house in Kanab, we visited Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion National Park, Wirepass / Buckskin Gulch, the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park and the White Pocket area of the Paria Canyon.  You can learn more about each below:

·        http://www.nps.gov/brca/planyourvisit/basicinfo.htm

·        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryce_Canyon_National_Park

·        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zion_National_Park

·        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Narrows_(Zion_National_Park)

·        http://www.nps.gov/zion/planyourvisit/thenarrows.htm

·        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckskin_Gulch

·        http://stateparks.utah.gov/parks/coral-pink/

·        http://www.zionnational-park.com/paria-white-pocket.htm

·        http://www.zionnational-park.com/paria-white-pocket.htm

My favorite was Zion, where we hiked the Narrows.  The Narrows is one of the most unusual hikes on the Colorado Plateau. Hiking is done largely in the river as, for a third of the route, the river runs canyon wall to canyon wall. The walls are vertical and sheer, and often red in color. Water levels change from season to season; most hikers will wade at least waist-deep and many will swim a few short sections.

We hiked the Narrows for about 1 ½ miles upstream, which took about four hours round trip.  This included stopping for lunch and taking pictures.  Of course, most of the hike was in the Virgin River, which had a strong current in some places – so it was slower than you would expect.  Here is the canyon with the river running through it.

 

 

 

 

Here I am mid-stream...

  and our group at various points

At one point, Karol chose to stay close to the rocks to avoid the strong current midstream.

 

We stopped for lunch and to take pictures in some of the few dry spots…

 

Although sometimes there were no dry spots to set up a tripod.

 Of course, if you wanted to see the Narrows but didn’t want to get wet, you just had to find a strong boyfriend!