The pictures speak for themselves. The last few miles were nothing short of amazing.
Over two beautiful hours we finished the last few miles of the hike, and walked through the most dangerous and stunning stretch of the canyon. In places the walls rose 2,000 feet above us, blocking out the afternoon sunlight. It was a humbling experience, and one I look forward to doing again. About 10 hours into the trip at this point, we remarked on how long it had been since we had an electronic weather reading, and how easy the weather could have changed without us knowing. We finally understood the rangers' warning that if a flash flood occurred, we would die... no way around it. In the bottom of the Narrows, with sheer rock faces on either side, we could see first hand that there was absolutely no high ground. If weather had changed anywhere in the neighboring states, a pop up rainstorm could end us. As a group, we talked again about the signs of a flash flood: the water changing color, an increase in debris, a slight change in water level. If we saw any of these things, we may be given a couple extra minutes to get ahead of the wall of water, and avoid the untimely fate that consumed 7 people in 2015. Thankfully, we were totally clear, and experienced a wave of relief when we began to see other people walking from the bottom up, an indicator that the park rangers saw no risky weather on the horizon.
(Above) Can you see how small we looked!
