September 6, Day 4

Colby: I think we'd better start with waking up at 5.

Maria: No, I think we need to start with when I woke up up at 1 to go to the bathroom.

Here's what happened.

Maria: Psst - Colby... will you get up with me? I have to go to the bathroom!

Colby: Just wait. They'll come wake us up in a few minutes anyway.

Maria: What?? Who? Colby, are you conscious?

Colby: Yeah! It's a backcountry thing. If you're camped close to the road they wake up up first and make you leave.

Um, he obviously wasn't so conscious. But his subconscious is sure creative!

AFTER we woke up for real, we had breakfast at McDonald's in Cedar City and headed off to Zion, early early. We were on the trail to Angel's Landing just after 8. The first two miles were very straightforward (read: straight UP) and we thought, hey! We're almost done! Then the last half mile scared the bejeebers out of us. We now know why no mother ever wants to know about her children attempting this trail. The last half-mile to the summit of Angel's Landing pretty much consisted of skirting rocky cliffs and crags by hanging onto a guide chain for dear life. We felt like we were clinging to the iron rod. Except that Lehi's dream didn't include the danger of dizzing cliff falls.

We didn't turn around, though, and we didn't fall off. The view was AMAZING, completely worth the terror on the way up. We found that the trip down was much easier on the nerves.

After we finished, we had lunch at our campsite and pretty much took the afternoon off, listening to our book-on-ipod in the car and relaxing for a couple of hours. Then we headed back to the park and the shuttle to see some more of the sights. The Riverside Walk was nice, but it's also the entrance to the Narrows and that pretty much just made me super depressed we didn't have time to do the whole Narrows. Looks like the coolest hike EVER.

We did a few more little stops and then moved on to the highlight of the day: "bathing" in the Virigin River. Mmmm. The water was cold and refreshing and we felt SO CLEAN afterwards! It made us feel like rugged pioneers, bathing in a creek.

That night we went to the campground ranger show, about wildlife in Zion. Then we went to bed and the wind just RIPPED at our tent all night. We woke up to a cloudy and dismal sort of day, glad we were getting on the road (and not hiking the Narrows after all).

Colby showing where we were going to be hiking - we felt pretty hardcore.

A pretty impressive view from about 1/2 mile from the top.

See that ridge behind us? We hiked up that. There are chains all along it and we pretty much scrambled to the top. And it pretty much scrambled our nerves.

After we made it to the top!

Pioneer style bathing in the Virgin River - SO refreshing.