Zion Narrows

March 29 – April 1, 2018

Zion National Park

The Narrows – Top down

A day after we had completed the amazing Subway canyon in Zion, we had permits to day hike the larger, wider and longer 16 mile canyon called the Narrows. The Virgin River cuts through the high canyon walls and winds it’s way slowly down to the main area of the park. Most people choose to backpack the Narrows as an overnight trip but we chose to do it in a single day – why carry all that extra stuff?!

Entering the Narrows, the upper portion of the river was still frozen. Laura, Brian and I found ourselves walking on thick melting ice on the banks of the river. We quickly put on wet suits and began to make our way down river. We had estimated that the entire day would take us 8 hours or so, but weren’t moving as expected.

The canyon was interesting and the walls amazing. We took our time and soaked in the unique 1,000‘ tall walls while wandering down the 20’ wide canyon. Thinking about time, we stopped and looked at maps and determined that we had only gone 8 miles in the first 6 hours! Shit, we better get moving! We took off, picking up the pace for the following few miles.

Working our way down the river, we must have crossed back and forth at least 100 times. The progress was slow, but we eventually made it to the spectacular final sections of the canyon where once again we met lots of day hikers. This is the area that 95% of visitors come to to experience the Narrows. We felt fortunate to have experienced it, uninterrupted and without any other people for the previous 8 hours. 

Arriving at the Temple of Sinawava, we changed out of our wet suits, warmed our feet and ran the one mile back to the bus to head back toward the car Big Momma had left for us earlier in the day.