Sorry for the day’s delay, but we got back yesterday and crashed hard. Steven was nervous about the clunking sound the car made when we went off road, so we took it to a mechanic. We got a late start, but there was nothing wrong with the Saab and the mechanic did not charge us for the good news!

Steven’s friend had recommended we hike The Narrows. You hike through the Virgin River upstream. We did enough research to know we needed water shoes and hiking poles. Oops, I forgot mine, but we were able to pick up a pair at Duke’s in Kanab. You can also rent water shoes right outside Zion, but they looked a little overkill to me.

Anyway, we were very crabby for at least half of the hike in. The first mile is a paved path. The “hikers” acted like they were window shopping at the mall. It was crowded and hot. We got to the water…and it was still crowded, but at least with our feet in the water, we weren’t hot. The river bed is rocky and the walk is upstream, so it’s a slog. A slog full of people and their children—a stark contrast to our peaceful hike through Wire Pass Trail. We almost turned around, but kept thinking it would get better around the next bend. We decided to eat lunch (Goober Grape sandwiches, yum) and take it from there. Still crowded. Finally, we asked some people who were coming downstream, and they said it would get quieter ahead. They were right. We made it to the Narrows, which are stunning rock walls that rise up on either side of the river. I’m not sure I would recommend the hike—a lot of effort for a little gain—but we felt accomplished. I would definitely recommend Zion. I’d like to go back and stay awhile. It’s beautiful and sprawling. The headline of this post comes from my editorial notice of the passive voice on our informative shuttle ride. It went something like: “The original name of this area was Mukuntuweap, but in 1919 it was changed to Zion.” My first thought was “Really? Who could have done that and why?” Sigh.

We got back to Kanab a little after 8 (we had to park in Springdale, so we had to take the shuttle to the Zion Visitor’s Center and then the Springdale shuttle into town because Zion is so popular) and went straight to dinner at the Rocking V Café. Steven had a steak, which he claimed was delicious (I guess my understanding of deliciousness does not extend to steak.  What else does my competency for that using that word not work for?  If I said the grilled snap peas were delicious –which they were–would that also be under scrutiny? I fear that this is vegetarianism run amok. 😉 ) and  I had polenta cakes, which were delicious. We also tried some Utah beer. Surprisingly good. Did you know that you can’t have more than one drink per person on the table at a time in Utah? Now you do. (Our waiter, Dave, gave a long sigh when he had to tell us this,  we smiled and gulped down the rest of our first beer – but only to save him the effort of coming back to the table again.)

Then we came back and crashed, hence the late post.