Half way between California and Colorado is Zion. So Brit and I booked a night at the Cable Mountain Lodge near the entrance to the park.  We rose before the sun to squeeze in a hike through the Narrows.  The first mile was paved.

The trail disappeared with the sidewalk.

Surely, the trail will pick back up around the next curve in the canyon.

Brit wades deeper.  The trail guide did say something about expecting to get wet.

And to guard against hypothermia.  The sun is slow to warm up the canyon.

We hiked up the Virgin River for maybe a quarter mile.  The cold, deep water didn’t turn us back.  The canyon walls drew us in like sirens to the rocks.

But we had to get home to Colorado by nightfall.  We’ll return for sure to Zion when we’re not just passing through.

We skipped the high speed Interstate for Hwy 9 through the park, connecting later with highways 89 and 12, traversing Escalade, Boulder, the Dixie National Forest and Capitol Reef National Park.  A virtual lifetime of vistas.  Barely out of Zion, just past the tunnels, we saw a rock that had to be climbed.

Brit preferred walking the sandstone barefoot to her sandals.

She finally made it to the top, after me.

Brit celebrated her climb with a namaste.

I just did my best to keep my balance.  I don’t have words to describe the splendor of our remaining drive through Utah.  We saw flaming orange aspen in the Dixie Forest and petroglyphs in the cliffs of the Capitol Reef rocks.  If you get a chance to drive between Colorado and California, do yourself a favor and skip the Interstate. Take the scenic byway.