Zion National Park and a little bit of Moab

Well now, we're down to the final week. Anne and I can't believe we only have 7 more nights on the ground before we head to Colorado Springs, to meet up with Camp Eagle friends for a conference.

We left you last time as we were headed into Zion National Park. We spent two days and three nights exploring Zion. I was so astounded by the endless amount of quality rock, we had to spend the first day climbing. Since it was our first real taste of desert sandstone we spent the day cragging on single pitch climbs. We concidered it our training ground for our visit to Moab; although I suppose most people would do that the other way around. Either way, we had a blast. The second day we rented dry pants, neoprene socks, and river shoes from a local outfitter and we headed up the Narrows. The Narrows is a popular slot canyon carved out by the Virgin River. Anne and I joked it was the most expensive hike we've ever been on, but well worth the money. We began the hike down stream, at the mouth of the canyon, and hiked up stream three miles into the famous Wall Street area. The hike takes you through narrow sections of the canyon were the walls are 500 feet tall and 25 feet apart. We left Zion the next morning excited for Moab but regretting we hadn't even scratched the surface of what Zion had to offer.


We are now in Moab for our third full day. Our first day here might have been my favorite day of climbing for this trip. We decided to start our Moab adventure off right by climbing the Kor-Ingalls route, on the ever famous Castle Rock. (a.k.a. Castleton) Castleton is a tower of sandstone that is very similar in size to a 40 story sky scraper. The Kor-Ingalls route was given number 37 in a well known book called, 50 Most Classic Climbs of North America. The book is sometimes referred to as "50 most crowded climbs of north america". Both titles rang true as we stood on the summit with 6 other people, 8 in all. However, this came in handy as we were able to fix rappel lines the whole way down with so many ropes. We spent our second day cragging at Indian Creek. (Probably the most famous climbing area around Moab.) Today we went mountain biking on the Sovereign Trail and the Salt Wash trail. It turns out that the Sovereign trail is much easier and less painful.

Right now we are washing cloths in the nearest laundromat with free wifi. Tomorrow Nate and Val Cozart will meet up with us, followed by Jimi and Jen two days later. We're planning to have plenty more adventures here involving towers, mountain bike trails, Indian Creek, Arches National Park, and Thanksgiving Dinner until we return home.

Thanks everyone for your prayers and contact with us while we're on the road. We're looking forward to hanging out and telling stories soon. Happy Thanksgiving!
scott