Zion National Park: The Narrows!

After conquering the infamous Angels Landing (we of course did it in spirit only), it is only fitting that we tackle The Narrows!

We decided to rent the water socks / water boots / walking sticks for this journey. Although we looked like dorks and our shoes squelched and squished incessantly and loudly after the first time we stepped into the cool Virgin River water, it was absolutely worth it to rent the gear. Way better traction, the walking stick prevented at least four or five full faceplants into the river, and at the end of the long hike (and bike ride back down the valley to the campground) we could take off the wet gear and slip right into our own dry shoes and socks.

We set off up the canyon on the bikes again, wearing our dorky river socks and shoes, with five river sticks all strapped to Ben’s back. Worked pretty well as long as he remembered to get off the bike carefully, otherwise he got all tangled up.
For once, Mama wasn’t the pack mule!

Last known location pic and last dry pic before we all set off into the water!

Holy moly, the water seemed pretty nice, right up to the point when your lady bits first touch the water, or in the case of the guys, your giblets! Thankfully, there were only a few places where the water was this deep! Poor Chris!

It was really neat to hike between the tall, narrow canyon walls!

Honestly, it was a bit of a challenge, hiking directly in the river, watching exactly where you placed your feet, as each of the rocks were pretty slippery and in some places, the current was moving pretty quickly. The water was clear, and you could usually see roughly where you were putting your feet, but the rounded slippery rocks were really unstable, so it was slow work picking through the stronger parts of the river. For some of the older crowd, it was a rough day on the old hips. A lot of ups and downs with a lot of foot instability.

Since we were so focused on our footwork, it was important to make sure we looked up every few feet to just take in the awesome canyon walls, and the waterfalls streaming down the rock faces to the river, and even the dudes repelling from what looked like hundreds of feet above us down to the valley. Incredible place to hike!

But, if you are asking for suggestions for improvement, there were no places to go to the bathroom at all, unless you wanted to take a chance of floating something downstream into the crowd of fellow tourists.

Thankfully, we knew there was a restroom at the base of the hike, so I guess its a hold it as long as possible type of day!

After about a six mile hike roundtrip, we made it back to the bikes, with a quick stop at the potties.

With shoes squelching and spraying water, we hopped back on our bikes and rode down the canyon back to the campsite, wrapping up an awesome hike and an incredible visit to Zion!

Off to Bryce Canyon National Park in the morning!