Hiking the Narrows: Zion NP

We broke camp extra early on Wednesday morning, around 7am, we had a big day of hiking ahead of us.   We made the one hour drive West into Zion National Park and the town of Springdale.  To get through the park, we had to go through 2 tunnels.  One was constructed in 1930 and vehicles our size were only allowed through from 8am to 8pm and all oncoming traffic had to be stopped, we had to drive down the center of the tunnel to fit – 1 mile long.  Outside the tunnel we found ourselves in a gorgeous deep canyon and had to drive switchback roads to get out of the park and into the town of Springdale.

There we went to Zion Adventure Company to rent special neoprene socks, river hiking shoes, walking sticks and waterproof backpacks.  After the 1 hour fitting, instruction video for hiking the Narrows and filling our backpacks, we left the RV and took the city shuttle into the park.  We then transferred to the park shuttle for a 45 min drive to the start of hike. 

At 11:15, we arrived at the temple of Sinawava, we had a one mile paved hiking path to the beginning of the Narrows.  Along the way we encountered virtually tame squirrels that came inches within visitors and a buck, doe and fawn. We entered the Narrows at 11:45am.  It was pretty crowded.  One of the most visited destination spots within Zion.  

We immediately had to cross the Virgin River approx. 30 feet on grapefruit to watermelon sized rocks up to our knees in 55 degree river water.  The idea was to stick to the shoreline of mostly dry rocks and cross to other dry spots or where there was no shoreline at all, with the river right up against both sides of the canyon, hike straight up the river.  Within 15 minutes we hit a spot where there was no shoreline and the water depth was up to our chests (except Ellie-she couldn’t touch).  This is where at least 50% of the crowd turned back; people who didn’t prepare for the intensity of the hike and the water.  The girls were having the time of their lives splashing through the water and running up hills of rocks.  We had to keep calling Ellie back from the areas of near rapids. 

 We hiked in this manner 2.5 miles upstream until 2:30pm with a few rest stops and longer stop for lunch.  Along the way there were deeper spots in the river where the girls and David swam.  There were also several places where huge boulders made good jumping platforms.  Ellie and David tried one of these out – we have the video to prove it.  We saw beautiful canyon walls straight up above us which changed as the day went on and the sunlight moved overhead.  We had a mixture of shade and sun which was great.  It was 102 degress in Zion, but about 87 degrees in the canyon.  A few times we even put on the fleece pullovers we brought with us.  We made it to the fork in the canyon and then just before the famous “Wall Street” area the girls “dropped out” of the hike.  David and I wanted to press on to see Wall Street.  So we left them on some rocks in the sun and told them we’d go around the bend and be back in a little bit.  Turned out to be 3 or 4 bends, but it was well worth it.  Wall Street is one of the most photographed areas of the Narrows.  It was beautiful and by then we had very few fellow hikers so we got some pristine photos of the scenery.

At that point we turned back to hike our way back the same terrain.  It was almost like hiking a new canyon, while the floor was about the same, we were seeing it from the opposite direction and the lighting was totally different.  In many areas water literally oozes from the canyon walls above and in one place there was a small waterfall.  The hike back was also painful. By then we were all quite tired, our feet ached and so did our hands from the walking sticks.  We almost lost Ellie during a river crossing through rapids – she was so tired, but David caught her and hauled her to shore.  Though easier than climbing on the rocks, the 1 mile hike back on the paved road to the shuttle pickup seemed to go on forever, we were all completely exhausted.

We headed straight back to the outfitters to return our gear.  Everyone was thankful to get the boots and socks off our feet. We feel badly for the people who had to clean those socks, the odor was something else. We walked barefoot back to the RV.  By then it was 7pm and we had to retrace our route East back to the campground, including through the park and the 1 mile tunnel.  About 15 minutes after the tunnel we encountered stopped traffic.  At first we thought it was road construction.  Then we saw the Desert Big Horn Sheep running between the cars.  They eventually ran up the cliffs and the traffic cleared to where we had a great view of them up close and personal.  They seemed to like all of the attention.

Started dinner about 8:30pm, roasted some jumbo marshmallows on the campfire and turned into bed (except for Mom who stayed up until 11pm updating the past 2 days blog - still 1 day behind :().