The Narrows Hike

The day of THE hike has arrived. We were to leave civilization behind and hike 16 miles through the slot canyon of the Virgin River. Oh boy, were we excited! And a little scared, some of us more then others.

After a terrible breakfast of very stale and super expensive muffins (Ryan and Talia were smarter and went for the breakfast buffet at the Lodge Dining Room), Nick and I drove out to the Zion Outdoor Adventure store where we were equipped with proper footwear (for walking through the river), dry bags (if you fall in the river, you want your sleeping bag to stay dry), and walking sticks. The four of us climbed into the van, which after driving for over an hour, partially on unpaved roads, eventually dropped us off in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere. The driver pointed to a dirt road on the side, told us to follow it, and drove off which my camera which I forgot on the floor of the van.

We followed the unpaved road until we saw the river—the headwaters of the Virgin River. With great enthusiasm we started walking down the river. For some of us, me for example, the enthusiasm, not particularly high in the first place and already greatly damaged by my missing camera, was fading rapidly. Walking in the river was hard, I was slow and very far behind the others, and worst of all, I was getting annoyed.

In preparation for this hike we got lectured multiple times on the importance of preserving the environment and leaving everything the way we found it. The instructions were not to walk on any plants outside of the river. So here I was, struggling through admittedly the easiest part of the river, while all around me cows and farmers alike were destroying the vegetation, the natural river banks and in places even altering the flow of the river. This did not seem fair at all, and I felt cheated.

Nick and I did not want to hold up our friends with my very slow walking, so we decided that they should go ahead without waiting for us, and we would meet at our designated campsite (#6). After struggling through the water for over two hours, Nick and I decided to break for lunch.

Sitting on the muddy riverbank munching on our peanut butter and jam sandwiches we worried about making it to our campsite by dark. However slow, we have been walking for awhile, but there was still no sign of the canyon, and the pastures were surrounding us. Worried and pressured by my whining Nick decided to look at his map!

According to the map, we were supposed to walk on the unpaved road until we reached the river, which we did, then CROSS the river, which we did NOT do, and continue on this road for about an hour until the road ended. Clearly the road ran in a fairly straight line, while the North Fork of the Virgin River was snaking and zigzagging back and forth through the pastures. Since we could see the road from where we were having lunch, it was obvious that geographically we were still in the first hour of the hike, even though we have been traveling (or struggling) for over two hours already. Panic quickly set in.

We swallowed the rest of our lunch, jumped out of the water and trotted down this dirt road, concentrating on whether or not we could make it to the campsite before dark. Interestingly the road was covered with footsteps of people obviously wearing the same exact shoes as we were. We finally were going the right way. About 20 minutes later, we reached the end of the road, and climbed back into the river. Now we were pushing ourselves to go as fast as physically possible. Actually to be honest, I was pushing myself to walk in the river as fast as physically possible, while Nick walked at his normal pace waiting for me to catch up at river bends.

Quickly the banks of the river grew higher and moved closer together. Soon we were in the Narrows. The red, silver and black of the river walls shined in the sun, and blind arches looked down at us. In a few hours we reached the 12-foot water fall, and the first designated campsite soon afterwards. We now began to relax our pace as it was becoming clear that we should be able to get to our campsite before dark set in. Instead we were beginning to wonder how long it had been since our friends reached our campsite, and how they were doing without the water filter all this time.

While sunlight still played at the canyon rim, it no longer reached down to the bottom, and we were walking in the dusk. We reached a really narrow part of the canyon where the walls were of black color, making it seem even darker. This place was eerie with darkened faces coming out of the rocks in silent screams.

I remember deep green pools of water, and the bright fresh greens of the maples reflecting in the river. Unfortunately, I do not remember very much of the hike, because I was putting so much effort into trying to walk very fast. Hopefully one day we can hike the route a bit slower.

We reached our campsite a little before 8pm, and to our great surprise our Ryan and Talia were not yet there. Their absence could only mean that we passed them when we walked on the dirt road. Their absence presented a serious problem since they were not carrying enough potable water to last them through the day, and we had both the water filter and the iodine pills. The possibility that they would be waiting for us somewhere up the river made matters even worse. However, the darkness was coming soon, and it would have been much slower to walk up the river, so Nick and I decided that all we could do was wait for them.

As the sun was setting beyond the walls of the Narrows, we laid our bright orange waterproof bags on the rocks and put up a flashlight pointing toward the campsite number to make it more visible. Our campsite was just South of the Kolob Creek, which for some reason was completely dry.

By 9:30pm the darkness was complete, and we gave up. Surely no sane person could be still hiking the river in the dark. We hoped that they found a safe place to camp. Perhaps they asked hikers up the river to share their campsite, since most campsites were designed for more then one tent, and none that we passed were full. Perhaps they asked these same hikers to use their water filter. We knew there were only 8 people camping up the river from us, but we were still hopeful.

Gone were our hopes for a fun camp out in the canyon. We ate up the tuna packets we carried, supplementing them with some gummy bears and granola mix, and crawled into our tent for the night. We could hear something falling down around us. It scared me since whatever it was sounded like little rocks. A little tent was not likely to protect us well in case of a rock fall. Thankfully I was soon sound asleep.

We woke up around 6:30am. The morning felt gray, cold and damp making it hard to get out of our sleeping bags. Slowly we started moving again, washing up, munching on granola mix and Balance bars for breakfast. We only had about 7 miles to cover today and we were not in any rush to leave. We were hoping Ryan and Talia would still show up, catching up with us.

Around 7:30 Nick spotted Talia and then Ryan walking down the river. What a joyous occasion that was. We were really happy to see them alive and well. Experiences of the previous day were told time and time again. Ryan and Talia kept walking down the river till 9:45pm the night before—well after Nick and I decided that no one could possibly be walking the river in this complete darkness. They pitched a tent on a tiny piece of dry land only half an hour walk from our campsite, and boiled river water for 10 minutes so that they could have drinking water.

The sun still has not reached the bottom of the canyon when we continued our hike down the river. The air was still chilly making walking in the river water a little less pleasant, but the canyon walls shimmering in morning light made up for this small inconvenience.

Unfortunately it did not take us long to reach the Big Spring water falls. The Big Spring pours out of the face of the rocks above the river. This is also the point up to which the day hikers are allowed to go when traveling up the river. We left the wilderness behind, and now were surrounded by people bathing, and tanning on the rocks.

Not having gotten real meals recently was starting to show, so Nick and I decided to use Ryan’s little stove to have a nice warm meal, and let Ryan and Talia go ahead. The expected meal of mushrooms and rice turned to me a mushroom and rice soup, which was a bit disappointing, but it was still rather filling. The day hikers walking by us gave us strange looks wondering why the heck we were making a hot lunch in the high noon, but what did we care.

With our strengths replenished, and our moods significantly improved, we continued down the river. We passed the famous Wall Street, where the walls of the Canyon are only a few feet apart. Several springs have joined the river by now, and it was deeper and faster in most places.

We could tell how close we were getting to the end of the canyon by assessing the progressive lack of correct equipment in the people hiking up the river. We knew we were almost there, when we spotted a heavily pregnant woman hiking through the river. I was glad we were done, but at the same time I was sad. I wish I could have gone without worrying and rushing. I wish I could have taken more time to look around. Leaving the river did not only signify the end of the Narrows hike, but it was also the last real hike of our vacation.

We took the shuttle from the Temple of Sinawava, out of the park, and to the Outdoor Adventure store in Springdale to return our equipment. My camera was waiting there for me in its rented dry bag, which it now did not need.

All four of us had a plentiful meal in a Chinese restaurant in Springdale, and Talia and Ryan went off to bed soon after. Instead of doing the same, I convinced Nick that we are in desperate need of some ice cream. Since all the ice cream places in town already closed at a terribly late hour of 10pm, we grabbed a Hazen-Daz bar and an ice cream sandwich at a gas station, reminisced about a similar situation in Iowa 2 years ago and could not be happier.