Paria Canyon, Day 2

Family picture.

The mornings and evenings of our trip were the best for light and picture taking; the red sandstone comes to life in that in-between light. On day 2, we started pretty early and planned to camp near one of the downstream springs. Along the way, we met the two other groups that we would see, off an on, throughout the remainder of the trip. One was a family of three from Sun Valley, Idaho, whom we had conversations with various times and shared a kinship with, and another was a group of six with members from various places around the Western US. Oh, and there was also the pair of fellows we did the shuttle with, from Southern California, who we didn't see again after leaving the trailhead.

The kids are barely kids anymore.

One of the best shots of the trip in the morning light.

The hiking in Paria is pretty easy: slightly downhill and mostly on water-hardened sand. So it's not hard to make miles. On the other hand, the midday hiking gets uncomfortable when you're out in the sun and the temps get up into the 90s. We all took dips in the creek when the heat got too much.

Cooling off midday.

The kids were keen to do another 10 mile day, so rather than stop at the spring at the nine mile mark, we continued on another 2 miles to a camp site below Wrather Arch canyon. This was the first point that the canyon opened up.

Nice pose Ellie.

Jen showing Ellie some yoga moves on night 2.

PS: I write Paria Canyon Day 2's blog from my flat in Helsinki, where I'll be living for the next 3.5 weeks. It was a long trip from the Salt Lake yesterday, but I arrived this afternoon, greeted by the kind of perfect summer evening that only the northern latitudes can produce: clear as a bell, sunny, but cool with soft light.