By the Rivers of Babylon, There We Sat Down. Yeah, We Wept, When We Remembered Zion.

The day after the Subway hike, we were all exhausted. We decided to just take the shuttle to a couple of shorter, easier hikes for the day.

The first hike we did was in The Narrows.

The Narrows is an area that is mostly creek bed where the canyons get more narrow as you hike through it.

This year, the water was a lot higher than normal.

So, the hike was a little more strenuous than we had hoped. Coadster hiked a little with us and then headed back to rest on a bench.

John and I carried on a ways. We didn't want to do the entire hike, because we didn't want to leave Coadster sitting by herself for too long.

At one point, John decided to escape the crowds on the main artery of the stream, by taking another route with a faster current.

I foolishly followed him, and by the time he got to the other side and was going to tell me not to risk the current, it was too late.

I did make it safely to the other side, but it was a "fun" little adventure.

We headed back and met Coadster. We decided to get out on the shuttle stop that was just a little hike to the stop where there was a short little hike to a lodge where we could get ice cream - very important.

 On our little hike, there was a family behind us and the guy was apparently in a hurry, and apparently, a jerk. We were on a narrow path with on a ledge and the guy along with his wife and young son scurrying behind him, came whipping around us and John lost his balance and almost fell trying to move to the side. The woman half heartedly apologized, but had to almost run to keep up with her jerky husband. So annoying.

 By the time we made it to the lodge, then hopped on the shuttle, and had cold pizza for lunch in the parking lot at the visitor's center, Coadster and I were officially fried.

As I've said before, going on these trips with John, I have to be strong about telling him that I'm too tired to do strenuous work-outs all day every day and I have to rest. I finally told him that day.

So, we headed back to the Ponderosa Ranch and Coadster took a good long nap, while I laid around and read and took dips in the jacuzzi and the pool here and there. It was exactly what we all needed.

In the evening we decided to go to Springdale for dinner. We were on the other side of the park from it, but it has nice little restaurants, so we ate Mexican food, and then headed to the Canyon Overlook trail on the way back to the resort.

This was a short but beautiful hike.

The colors and shadows were even more beautiful as we approached sunset.

We thought about sticking around to actually watch the sunset, but we didn't bring any flashlights and it would be hard to navigate the hike back in the dark. So, instead we headed home, and packed up as much as possible before we left for Bryce Canyon in the morning.

One of these years, I'd love to go back to all of these places and spend a hell of a lot more time there and see more of the beauty. I feel like we barely scratched the surface in Zion.