Day 5 - Great Basin National Park (and the Narrows)
Another North American Road Trip
Day 5:
Tuesday, June 23rd
We got up early, ate breakfast at the hotel, and were pulling out of the parking lot by about 6:30 AM.
We drove to Great Basin National Park. Up and up we drove. Around winding roads up into the mountains. I had selected the hike for the morning. A 2.7 mile loop with 600 ft of elevation gain. This Alpine Lakes Loop would take us by two lakes before returning us to the parking lot. A perfect wake up and walk hike.
Desmond decided he would be telling his cross country running coach that he has been “training at elevation.”
We saw deer, birds including a woodpecker, and really enjoyed the beauty and stillness of the morning. The first half of our hike we barely saw anyone.
There were flowers, and interesting trees, little babbling brooks and sparkling lakes. It was heavenly.
Desmond did the junior ranger program at the visitor center afterward. Then we headed toward Zion National Park. We wanted to do the Narrows hike today if we could get there in time.
Working against us was a time change we hadn’t really taken into consideration. So we lost an hour of this day.
We drove to a Chick-fil-a that turned out to be on a college campus and not available to non-students like us. Plan B ended up being Panda Express.
The whole way into Zion we weighed the pros and cons of doing the Narrows today, or doing it in the morning tomorrow. We didn’t want to be rushed. But the weather looked coolish tomorrow to be wading through the water. Finally Bryan looked down at the outside temperature reading on the cruck and seeing it creep over 100, we all decided we wanted to be in the water as soon as possible.
So we parked our rig, grabbed some snacks and water bottles, and got on the shuttle to go to the narrows.
I am so glad we did. We had a wonderful evening hiking together. Bryan set a timer on his phone so that when we had hiked half the time we had we would turn around and go back (so as not to miss the last bus back to our campsite).
We were able to hike further than we had on our previous trip. This hike was such a hit for our family two years ago, that we knew we had to come back. And we would do it again in a heartbeat.
Wading through the water with the cliffs rising up on either side, their colors spectacular. It is just such a unique experience. We love every bit of it!
We made sure to stop and take lots of pictures.
We made it back well in time for the shuttle bus (not even the last one) and headed back to camp for a late dinner of tacos.
We made it back to camp understandably tired. Between our two hikes today, we put in more than 9 miles. And it was balance-challenging, core-engaging, go up and down hills or push water out of your way hiking.
It was so hot when we got back to camp. We ate our dinner, I played two rounds of Uno with Desmond, and then we turned in for the night.
Only, it was so hot we all had trouble falling asleep. Bryan got us ice cubes wrapped in washcloths to hold against our foreheads. That helped. We were able to fall asleep then, only to be woken by the loud shaking of the tent in the wind. None of us slept very well this night. But we got up early to (you guessed it) get on the trail before it got too hot. We are becoming predictable, I am afraid. Thanks for tagging along. See you tomorrow!
Keep Traveling with the Schmidts on Day 6
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