The Narrows | Zion National Park

It’s always been a dream of mine to hike The Narrows in Zion National Park. I’ve always seen images of tiny slot canyons with a river rushing through it, and I wanted to experience it myself. A few weeks ago, one of my cousins and I decided to meet up in St. George, Utah and do a few hikes in Zion National Park. To say I was excited was an understatement!

Our first full day in Zion we wanted to hike The Narrows. I had done a bit of researching online before we went to see what all we would need. I mean, I knew the water would be freezing, which meant we’d likely be freezing all day, too. And what happens if we fall in? Or get up to our neck in water? I had so many questions.

Before our trip, I only purchased 2 things specific for The Narrows – a small dry bag and neoprene socks. I bought the dry bag because I wanted to have my wallet, keys, and an extra pair of clothes kept dry just in the off chance I fell in the water. I also bought the neoprene socks because I had high hopes that they would keep my feet dry and warm. All my other gear was my own, with the exception of the hiking sticks we rented from Zion Outfitters.

Zion Outfitters had a bunch of gear you could rent specifically for The Narrows hike – boots, neoprene socks, waterproof pants/overalls, jackets, dry bags, etc. A few times during our hike, a small part of me wished that we had rented the pants, but needless to say, we made it out just fine!

This is a picture of me and my cousin in our hotel room before we headed out for the day. We both opted to wear old tennis shoes instead of boots so our feet wouldn’t get so heavy. On the way back I regretted this big time because my ankles hurt so bad from stumbling over river rocks all day. Next time I’d probably rent the boots. We both wore shorts and then a pair of light weight/quick-dry hiking pants over them. We figured if we got warm, we could take off the pants and not have to change clothes anywhere (Where there is nowhere to hide!). Then, of course, we wore LOTS of layers – tank top, long sleeve shirt, flannel shirt, and jackets. I also bought us some waterproof phone holders so we could have our cameras accessible all day with no fear of dropping them in the water. In our backpacks, we brought lots of water, snacks, and extra clothes. That’s about it! Since we knew we’d be on our feet all day, we wanted to pack light.

To get to The Narrows, we had to take 2 shuttles. We were lucky that our hotel ended up being on the Springdale shuttle route, so all we had to do was walk outside and wait for the bus. The Springdale bus took us to the park entrance, where we had to enter the park, and then catch the Zion shuttle into the canyon. The last stop – Stop 9, Temple of Sinawava – is where you get off for The Narrows.

Once you arrive at Temple of Sinawava, you take the Riverside hike about a mile to the entrance of The Narrows hike. Riverside hike was relatively flat and paved so it was pretty easy to do. We tried to speed walk the entire way there so we could beat a lot of people to the entrance – we wanted to be first!

At the entrance to The Narrows hike, I had someone take our picture. She seemed a bit shocked that we didn’t rent the pants or boots and were just “winging it.” I told my cousin, “We’re tough, let’s do it!” and off we went! Ha!

Pretty much 90% of the hike is through the Virgin River in a canyon. Fortunately, the water was sort of low, so there were some exposed banks of sand and rock that we could wade towards. These pit stops on the rocks were helpful to dry out our feet a little before continuing on. The water was 50* and rushed at 44 cubic feet per second. It wasn’t a super strong current, but you could definitely feel it resisting as you walked!

Along the way, we stopped to take a ton of photos. I had brought my tripod, but there honestly just wasn’t any great place to set it down without it either getting wet of falling over since the ground was uneven.

It’s so hard to put in words how to describe The Narrows. It smelled cool and dank and “natural.” Not sure if that’s a thing, but the air smelled good – like a cave almost. When we started the hike, we had zero plans for how far we wanted to go – we figured we’d just listen to our bodies and turn around whenever we got tired. We started at 8am so knew we had a lot of time to explore before we’d have to head back.

Around each corner, the views were even more spectacular than the last. Huge boulders were in the middle of the river – clearly they had fallen from the top of the canyon. What a sound I’m sure that made!

The water was definitely cold, but it wasn’t unmanageable. We took our time crossing the deep spots and were glad we had the hiking poles to help steady us a bit. Neither of us fell in, but we did stumble into a few folks who clearly had a misstep and were soaking wet. The highest the water got on us was up to our butts.

We were really in awe of the Orderville Canyon, which was a split off from the main river. We wanted to hike back there so badly, but there were a lot of people starting to come out and hike, so we wanted to keep going as far as we could.

Once we got to Wall Street / Floating Rock, that is where we ultimately decided to turn around. We had heard from other people that past Floating Rock, the water was up to your chest, and we just honestly didn’t want to get that wet or cold. By this point, we had walked hiked about 3 miles through the river, so we knew it was going to take us about 3 to get back to the shuttle.

The hike back was only a little easier than the hike in. You would think with the river pushing you forward (instead of pushing against you) that it would be less effort, but it was just as much. As you can see there were a ton of rocks and every foot placement mattered. Also, the amount of people entering The Narrows as we were leaving (about 3pm) was insane! We we were really glad we started the day as early as we could.

On our way back into town, we stopped back at Zion Outfitters to drop of our rental sticks, and then stopped at the brewery next door for some lunch and beers. It felt nice to sit down for awhile! Ha!

Overall, the hike through The Narrows is one I’ll never forget. The pictures just really don’t do it justice. The canyon walls just tower over you, and feeling the river rushing around your legs is quite the experience. I’d definitely recommend this hike for all ages – we saw children as young as 5 or 6 hiking all the way up to a few senior citizens. As long as you’re relatively stable on your feet (or have hiking poles) and aren’t worried about the cold weather/water, then you’ll be fine!