Orderville Junction

Orderville Junction
8" x 6" Oil on canvas panel


This is Orderville Junction.  Orderville Junction is the merging of the north fork of the Virgin River and Big Spring in Zion National Park, Utah; a section of The Narrows hike.  I added a little patch of blue sky in the top of the painting to allow for exit, but the canyon is actually 2000 feet deep at some points and so narrow in places that you can spread your arms and touch either side.  You're not allowed to attempt the hike if the water flow is above a certain threshold; Sarah and I had waited for three days for the river to come down to a safe level.  We didn't think we were going to get a chance to do the hike, so we went ahead and did a different, nine mile hike.  However, as we were loading onto the shuttle after our hike, we heard that the Narrows had opened.  So, after hiking nine miles up and down Zion Canyon, we decided to hike another 6 miles; three upstream and three back, mostly in waist/chest-deep water, over bowling ball sized basalt boulders.  Oh, and the water temperature was approximately 55 degrees Fahrenheit.  That aside, the hike was amazing and definitely worth the effort.  I will never forget bathing in the Virgin River; air temperature105 degrees - water temperature 55 degrees.

Here's a photo of Sarah and I at the end of The Narrows hike.  Sorry for the gratuitous shirtlessness.