We were beat today. Physically and emotionally. We had already paid our deposit for the Narrows gear and we were excited and wanting to do it, but we were tired.
The girls had Rrollie pppollies for breakfast and thankfully the gear shop was right across the street.
Weather wasn’t supposed to come in until Thursday, but when we got in, they told us there was no danger of any flash flooding, but there was a 20% chance of rain in the afternoon. Good to know. The gear consisted of 2 neoprene bootie socks, a dry suit, and a walking stick. I’ve never worn a dry suit before. It needs to be suctioned by the ankles, but boy is it tight and uncomfortable.
We took the 40 minute bus ride up to the Temple of Sinawava. From there its a mile walk on a path along the river before the path ends and you continue in the river. You can follow the river up about 7 miles, but in the river you walk a rate of about 1 mile/hour so basically you go as far as you want before you turn around. You are walking in the Virgin River up this deep canyon.
The sun was already disappearing in the sky when got off the bus so with the thought of a possible storm we didn’t venture too far up the river. It kind of worked out because it was hard work walking in a river bed and we were pooped already from yesterday, so I think we enjoyed not worrying about seeing the “spots” up ahead, rather go as far as we wanted. We turned around after an hour and a half in an since we were in dry suits we floated down the river wher we could. The dry suits had enough air in them that they puffed up around our shoulders. It was super fun. We were dressed warm enough for the temperature but our hands did get cold since we didn’t have neoprene gloves. A bit of water came in down through our necks as well as we were floating but it was worth it.
I’m happy we turned around when we did. It took as about an hour to get back down the river and after the mile walk back to the bus stop we were happy to be sitting. We couldn’t wait to get back to the RV and get out of our dry suits which were now wet inside because water flowed in through the neck as we floated down. We were cold. We were tired. And 5 minutes into the bus ride the first sprinkles came from the sky. By the end of the 40 minutes back to the visitor center it was raining pretty solid. I was feeling extremely good that we didn’t push it today and didn’t get stuck in any weather.
It felt like it took forever to get the gear off the kids and ourselves. It was raining well at that point and being so close to getting warm and dry we all instantly felt ‘too cold’.
We warmed up as the girls finished their junior ranger packets then went back inside the visitors center to receive their badges.
We returned the gear and we were off. Last night the campsite was so nice we were contemplating staying another night and leaving middle of the night/morning instead. We had been planning to go home through Tahoe, but we saw the storm was coming to Tahoe Tuesday night so thought it better to a few hours in tonight. It was easier to not feel bummed about missing another sunset in Zion. It was storming in Zion. It was time to get out.
Pretty quickly into the drive we realized…what exactly are we going to Truckee for. We do need to pick up some winter gear, but its a long drive, only an hour more to Oakland, and then we don’t have to drive the 3 hours down from Tahoe or worry about missing the storm. So instead we are driving to Oakland.
Edwin is a beast with the machine. We are driving through the night to get on home for Thanksgiving 🦃 🍁 🧡
