Flood Warnings.

Bryce sunrise. wake up at 6:30. get to 'sunrise overlook' by 7:05. does noone recall the lesson from our last canyon sunrise?? took a good half hour - at SUB-FREEZING temperatures - to get the ball of burning gas up and over the mounds of rock. I took pictures of my toes. and the sunrise too.

Hit every other overlook in the park before noon. yeah. we're motivated. what can I say.

Headed over to Zion.

John again claimed that he needed to do his applications ... so he stayed at the campsite. Of which there were only two left, out of the 200 usually there, for the record. We took the shuttle in.

The idea was to hit up a quick trail today, and do the real hike - Angels Landing - tomorrow as a group. Passed the monoliths. Passed the museum. headed in about as far as you can go ... in ... to ... the ... Narrows!

you hike in a mile, till you get to a stream. which is really a small river. and then hike up the river. until you get to places where it is so narrow that only shafts of light can get in. pretty cool idea. still young in the afternoon. tons of time.

hike in - not bad at all ... paved even!

hike up the stream - more than expected ... between 1 and 2 miles of slippery rocks, scaling the sides to avoid deep water, and trudging through frequently to change sides.

signage - good ... there really isn't anfwhere else to go. you're at the bottom of a canyon hole, in a river. lots of "flash flood zone! seek higher ground immediately if water becomes uncommonly rapid, or turns cloudy!" - pshaw. cowards.

pictures - decent ... by the time we actually reached tho Narrows, it was getting late - sun was only really hitting one side of the top canyon rim... nevt time plan for noon.

hike back out - rising water. center water more rapid. starting to get darker. everyone heading in is turning around. ...good timing.

back to john. pretended that he had been working ... but I smelled 4400 in the air ...

since they had called for rain - 70% chance all day long - and there was already signs of potential flooding, John and I set up a tarp over the campfire area. we did not tarp up the tents. we did not dig drainage ditches. we did not park the car in a location to enable tying the tarp off to it. We should have known better...