Zion National Park 2009 – Part 2 - River Walk Trail

Entrance to the “Narrows”

Kathy on the River Walk trail

At the end of the road in Zion Canyon is the Temple of Sinawava. Sinawava is a deity to the South Paiute native Americans that lived in Zion Canyon before the area was homesteaded in the mid-1800s. This area is also the trailhead for Zion’s most popular hike the Zion Narrows. The first mile of the trail is paved and named the River Walk Trail. After the first mile the “trail” is the river. We chose to walk the paved section of the trail. This is a remarkable section of the canyon and we shot more pictures on this two  mile round trip than at any other time in Zion.

Scenes along the trail

 

The above pictures shows where the River Walk Trail stops and the actual Narrows Trail starts. The “trail” continues on for 16 miles, the water is cold  and in some section the canyon is less than 20 feet wide. Many of the iconic Zion National Park pictures that you have seen in books, posters and post cards were taken further up river. Another thing that the above pictures show is how many people of all ages, sizes and shapes take this hike. Even though these pictures were taken after lunch and in the middle of the week, there are 8 people visible in this picture. One morning a field trip of 30 high school freshmen were on the shuttle, all headed for the Narrows Trail. Our visit to Zion has been in the “off season”, but we have found the park and the trails to be very busy even at mid-week.