This last weekend, Mark and I went with some of my family to hike the narrows in Paria and Buckskin canyons in Southern Utah. It was so incredibly beautiful and so incredibly difficult! My brother Danny and I had backpacked it overnight before, but we decided to try and day-hike the whole thing this time... 21 miles! The first 14 miles are slot canyons - beautiful narrows of red rock cliffs. There's a huge risk of flash-flood danger, but we carefully checked the weather forecast before heading in. It was sooo neat. Here are a million pictures from our great day!
The Group, at the trailhead:
We weren't alone: Here are some jack rabbits and some rattlesnakes! eeek!
Here are some more group shots in the canyons.
We had a few obstacles to get around as well: This huge boulder was right in our path:
This is called the "Rock Jam." It's a huge jam of boulders and sand that have been washed into this spot by flash floods. The only way down is via rope:
JJ showin' us his moves:
We let the "young ones" scramble up this little cliff. Us "old folks" knew that we wouldn't want to expend any more energy than necessary:
This quote really says it all. Unless you're there in real life, you really can't quite appreciate the beauty of it. Literally every turn of the canyon walls displayed more beautiful scenery. After taking dozens and dozens of pictures, we finally just had to soak it in, because we could have been snapping away all day!
Needless to say... something like this just always reaffirms my belief in God. This beauty didn't happen by chance or some big boom. It was incredible!
We weren't alone: Here are some jack rabbits and some rattlesnakes! eeek!Here are some more group shots in the canyons.We had a few obstacles to get around as well: This huge boulder was right in our path:This is called the "Rock Jam." It's a huge jam of boulders and sand that have been washed into this spot by flash floods. The only way down is via rope:
JJ showin' us his moves:
We let the "young ones" scramble up this little cliff. Us "old folks" knew that we wouldn't want to expend any more energy than necessary:
This quote really says it all. Unless you're there in real life, you really can't quite appreciate the beauty of it. Literally every turn of the canyon walls displayed more beautiful scenery. After taking dozens and dozens of pictures, we finally just had to soak it in, because we could have been snapping away all day!Needless to say... something like this just always reaffirms my belief in God. This beauty didn't happen by chance or some big boom. It was incredible!