2024 Cross Country Trip: Day 7

Thursday, August 15, 2024

We left Kanab, UT and headed to Zion National Park. We got to Zion from the east entrance and meandered our way through the park, through the 1.1 mile tunnel until we got to three visitor center.

At the visitor center they have shuttle busses that take you up the park’s canyon. The views from the bottom of the canyon are spectacular! We took the shuttle to the last stop, Temple of Sinawava. This is the stop where you can go through “The Narrows” which is probably the #1 feature in the park.

We took the trail up until you had to cross through The Virgin River. The trail up The Narrows is a 9 mile loop. Since we’re not spending several days here, we turned around at the river to get a glimpse of what it’s like. The Narrows gets its name from the canyon narrowing. At some points it gets as narrow as 20-30 feet wide. It’s something I’ll definitely have to do in the future! I didn’t go up the canyon when I went with Gabe in 2017.

We got back to the shuttle bus after doing the little hike and stopped at the cafe they have for lunch. It has a great view in the valley looking up at the canyon walls.

After having some lunch we went back to get the bikes and head back towards the east entrance to do the Canyon Overlook Trail. This is a nice little hike that ascends up a point that overlooks the valley. we hung out up there for a little bit then headed back down.

We headed back to Kanab again for the night. I wasn’t feeling good. I think I drank too many Gatorlytes over the prior days and had an electrolyte imbalance. I had an upset stomach all day and that led to dehydration. So I was taking it very slow all day and didn’t feel comfortable riding any more than we had to. We got back to the same hotel and grabbed dinner at Al’s Burgers. I felt better after a couple hours of drinking plenty of water and some Coca-Cola.