We started the day with freshly made waffles as apparently Monday is waffle day at our hosts' :-) After that we said our goodbyes and drove to Zion National Park, this time to the main entrance and not to the part where we went hiking the previous day. It was really crowded there but the shuttle buses that go through the park run pretty frequently so we didn't have to wait very long.
We got off the bus at the starting point of the trail to the Narrows. We had to share it with lots of people, among them a large summer camp girls group. There were lots of squirrels who weren't even one bit afraid of all the people. They ran around in between the hikers, probably hoping that someone would feed them. The trail was very easy to walk at first, it went along a river and wasn't very step. The hard part came only later when the trail mostly vanished into the river and then eventually there was only the river left. There were lots of small rocks in the river which made it hard to walk there being barefoot. Some people went into the water with their shoes on or even with walking sticks which made it easier. I crossed the river twice and then gave up as I was afraid to fall into the water with my camera. If I had continued my way through the water, the river would've become more and more narrow until eventually the walls on both sides would've almost touched.
We then decided to walk the trail to the Emerald Pools instead of Angel's Landing as Marko is a bit afraid of heights. The hike took us up into the mountains and we had to walk under a tiny waterfall. The view was amazing thanks to the trees only parts of the trail were in the sun, so the heat wasn't too much of a problem. We saw lots of lizards along the trail and as we were about to leave the park, there was even a longhorn.
When we finally left the park, we took a short detour to Bryce Canyon on our way to Torrey. Unfortunately it was already getting dark, so we couldn't see too much anymore. Still we could see two big thunderstorms in the distance. It later turned out they were more than 200 kilometers away.
It was already 10 pm when we headed to our next destination in Torrey. Unfortunately we hadn't checked in advance how far away it was, it turned out it were 200 kilometers which meant three hours through the night. The route lead us right through the mountains and would've probably been beautiful during the day but as it was, it was pitch dark. We passed one small village during our drive and the rest was literary the middle of nowhere. It's unbelievable that you can drive distances of several hundred kilometers in the US without passing any cities or villages or even other cars. That wouldn't be possible anywhere in Germany. The only encounters we had were with deers, one crossed the street directly in front of our car but we (and the deer) were lucky enough to avoid a collision.
That night certainly wasn't fun, we were both really tired and were also driving almost directly into the thunderstorms we had already seen from Bryce Canyon. Shortly before we arrived in Torrey we got into heavy rain and hail but then were lucky enough that our destination was located directly between the two thunderstorms. I was so happy when at almost 1 am we arrived in Torrey. The house of our host Bob was totally dark but after thankfully he was still awake and let us in to a lovely and clean room.
Zion National Park, view from the trail to the Narrows
One of the many fearless squirrels along the trail
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| People wading in the water |
Hanging garden, there are tiny bits of water coming from above that allow flowers and other plants to grow there
Hiking trail to the Emerald Pools
There's a small waterfall coming down the wall
The Emerald Pool
Cactuses in the mountains
Best possible view
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