Every Anywhere: Zion National Park

July 29
It took us the entire day to get into Zion and get ourselves set up in camp, equipped and almost ready to hike the Narrows. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Narrows_(Zion_National_Park)
There were roadworks inside the park from the east exit so it took a couple of hours to get to a campground. Once in and we had our tent up, we headed to an outfitters to get canyoneering shoes for Melissa and walking sticks for both of us. After watching the safety video and listening to all the do's, don't's and dangers of flash floods – combined with Melissa's friend's warnings for hiking the Narrows, I am quietly concerned about tomorrow – but Melissa assures me that lots & lots of people do it, so we should be fine.
July 30 – Hiking the Narrows
Today was great! Hiking the Narrows was not that difficult, it was a really, really hot day, so being in the water was great and we started out early (8am) so we were on our way back from the Wall Street section by the time most people were only starting out in that direction. Due to our general lack of preparedness, we were just doing the day hike to Wall Street and back (about 8 miles round trip). Hiking upstream was sometimes a little difficult because the current was pushing against us as we tried to cross slippery rocks but in general it was fine. The way back downstream felt much easier, perhaps due to getting used to wading through water as well, but it definitely felt faster on the way back. We even went a little way into the Wall Street section, which is much narrower than the beginning section, there is no higher ground on each side so you spend all of your time in water, and if you go past Wall Street and beyond, then the river gets really deep and you have to swim it (we didn't get that far). We were back to our tent by 1.30/2pm and headed off for lunch feeling v pleased with ourselves.

July 31 – Hiking to Observation Point
Today I was very pleased with myself to have hiked to Observation Point, the highest point you can hike to in Zion NP. It was an 8 mile round trip – not too far – but 2,000ft climb! Again we started out early (8am) in order to beat the crowds and the sun. We made the right decision because it was quite overcast in the morning so not too hot but when we were on our way back down, it was hot as hell and there were plenty of people suffering on the trail. At the top, we met a very friendly chipmunk who is clearly used to getting scraps from hikers.