Today we take a shuttle to the entrance of The Narrows at Zion. The temperature dropped 30 degrees here between yesterday and today. The high temperature will be 70 degrees today, it will get down to 34 tonight. We will be in the water for most of the day, and in the shade, if we are lucky enough to attempt this hike. There are only short sections of the canyon that offer any direct sunlight. Most of the up-river hike the sunlight falls on the walls of the slot canyon. Or, that is my memory of it from nearly 20 years ago. Raquel and I have hiked this once before. It is part of why we brought the boy back here. Now, it is uncertain whether we will be able to accomplish this as part of our trip or not.
Some of the canyon offers dry land to walk on, where the Virgin river is low or where the banks did not erode at the same level as the river over the last few millions of years. Some of it is waist deep water. One portion, known as Wall Street, has no shore at all, just rock walls going almost straight up and where the river is very narrow. Extremely dangerous in the event of flash flooding. It is difficult to know what the conditions in the canyon are at any time as they are dependent upon a number of factors, only a few of which can be easily known, and only one that I can think of this morning before having coffee - has it rained recently in any of the areas that flow into the Virgin.
.
