The Narrows, Zion National Park – Utah (Pt 1 of 4)

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Hike Map]

After taking a day off to rest and pack for our next adventure, my buddy Luke and I drove up to Utah to do some backpacking and hiking around Zion National Park. Although arriving there later than we had expected because of road work on the I15 that slowed our commute down significantly (WHO the hell paves one of two highway lanes in the middle of the day?), we were still in good spirits to hike. Online blogs and park rangers at the information desk cautioned that “The Narrows” hike may take up to 8 hours roundtrip, but we were fairly confident the estimates were conservative.

From the shuttle stop, we had to hike on a paved walkway for about 10 minutes before entering the Virgin River. Although it may not be apparent from the photos, we were surrounded by crowds of other tourists at the start.

However as we ventured further upriver, our peers slowly thinned out, and we virtually had the narrow canyon to ourselves.

The colors here were unreal, at least since I’m so habituated to streams/rivers in Hawaii. The water almost always a turquoise color and there was very little sediment on the stream bottom. The substrate consisted mostly of boulder, cobble and sand, which were variegated with hues of red, brown, black and gray. I was also stoked to see so many different type of aquatic insects here, which are virtually absent from the Hawaiian environments.

Though some of the pools were deep, we didn’t have to submerge past our knees. I hear there are some pretty deep areas that may be chest deep further up, if doing the “through-hike,” or the one-way route from top to bottom. However to do it, over-night camping was recommended by the park ranger… which unfortunately, we didn’t have time for.

The colors in this section were probably my favorite, but I’m sure that could easily change with lighting and time of day.

This “Subway-esque” section of The Narrows looked pretty cool as well.

We were probably 1.5hrs in at this point, when we ran into a couple coming down the river.

They mentioned they hiked another 45 minutes or so further, but their favorite part was probably 20-30 minutes away, where the canyon splits… but was all gorgeous nonetheless.

Everywhere I looked, the landscape was jaw-dropping.

Turning around and facing downstream was an entirely new canvas as well.

About 20 minutes later, we could see a tributary splitting off of the main river channel,

…and could easily see why the couple recommended this section so much.

We hiked a little further, but after 6pm and a little over 2 hours into the hike, it was time to turn back.

Well, let me rephrase that… time to inflate our inner-tubes and float back. haha.

I thought that our tubing adventures back home were fun, but riding down this slot canyon was EPIC!!!

Definitely will be telling my grandchildren (or Luke’s grandchildren if I’m not so lucky) stories about this one. A little cold, but definitely worth the entertaining look at all the other tourists’ faces as we started floating past them on the way down. Haha.

We took a little over 3 hours round trip, to hike to our highest point upriver and tube back to the trailhead. Although we may not have made it to the official “end point” of this hike, I still had a blast and maybe some got some decent photos as well. I would highly recommended hiking “The Narrows” when visiting Zion National Park and/or Southern Utah, but prepared with proper gear/footwear to wade through cold water for several hours (e.g. shoes that do well in streams, neoprene socks, a dry bag, and an extra layer of clothing and/or a jacket). Probably one of my favorites of the places we were able to explore while here… so if you have questions, just ask!!!

Aloha and mahalo nui for visiting… Come back again soon!