| On the 45 minute shuttle ride to the trailhead, which is mostly along a long dirt road. The cross-hatch pattern on the rock is reportedly from ice erosion.
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| Joe, Chris, and I near the beginning of our hike. Tired (from our 3am arrival the night before), but raring to get going.
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| Upper part of the trail, near where it first reaches the Virgin River. This part of the trail is outside the park, on Chamberlain's Ranch.
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| A wrecked truck that apparently fell off the dirt road down into the ravine.
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| Some old tractor
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| Joe, hanging out under a rock.
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| A particularly interesting carving in the rock. You can picture the water swirling here over thousands of years.
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| Robin Hood meets Little John
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| The secret entrance to the Mines of Moria.
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| Hitting the narrows on the first day
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| A waterfall obstacle to the trail, but there is a steep downhill notch that is slightly hidden as you approach.
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| Our campsite the first night.
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| Packing up for the 2nd day.
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| Big Springs panorama
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| When we started running into day hikers coming the other direction, we asked one to take this picture. Unfortunately, it was pretty dark in the canyon, and I didn't adjust the ISO setting before handing it to him. Result: blurry.
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| Cayoneers from Mystery Canyon finish their trip by rappelling down Mystery Falls.
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| Leaving the Narrows, the walls still towering
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| We finally arrive at the bus stop to take us back out of Zion. Notice the watermarks on my pants. It didn't get much deeper during our hike. Though there were certainly deeper places, they were always avoidable. River levels can get much higher, during and after periods of rain. We had great weather, really.
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| The bus shuttles hikers and park visitors to and from interesting points in Zion canyon.
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| A momentary panic forces us to jog back from the bus stop to Narrows Outfitters. While on the bus I realized that I had left my car keys with the rental shop for 'safe keeping', not thinking about what would happen should we get back after closing. We NEVER thought it would take us so long to do the hike, and we didn't get back until after 7pm. Luckily, the place was open til 8, and all was good.
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