Photography is difficult in the Narrows. It's pretty dark and if it's a sunny day the result is that the sky and upper canyon walls are washed out or the lower canyon walls are too black to see details. In the narrowest sections that are the most impressive, getting good photos is all but impossible. A video camera might be able to capture the "essence" but not individual photos. On this hike up the river, I missed some good shots in some of the narrowest sections because I was in the water and didn't want to have the camera in my hand if I fell. (Amazingly, I never fell.) Most of the photos were taken when I found a dry spot to stand along the edge, or when there was a big boulder in the river on which to set my backpack. All in all I had pretty good luck and got a few good photos. Here's one of the couple I met who were from Grand Junction.

Hiking The Narrows is one of the best experiences of my life. It was not as difficult walking in the river as I had imagined, but still a bit tiring. A park ranger told me that it takes about three hours in the river to get to "The Narrows" from the end of the paved walking path, saying "it" is the part that is truly amazing. Well I hiked up the river for about 2.5 hours and got to see some pretty amazing stuff. People coming back from deeper in the canyon told me that there was nothing more spectacular up ahead so I decided to turn around. I don't know, but I suspect the ranger underestimated the speed at which I would cover the territory and perhaps I did get to the part to which she was referring. Maybe they need a sign in there that says "this is it, you've arrived, it doesn't get any better than this." Someday, perhaps I'll do the overnight trip where a four wheel drive vehicle is suggested to get to the other end of the canyon and hike the entire 16 mile length, one way. I was surprised after five hours of hiking in water that my feet weren't in bad shape; just wrinkly...very wrinkly.

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