The Narrows - September 2021
Summary
The Narrows is a massively popular trail in Zion National Park that follows the North Fork of the Virgin River between large rock canyons. It is a relatively easy hike assuming the water levels are low, but what it lacks in challenge, it more than makes up for in uniqueness!
This is the trail we followed for the majority of the hike, minus a deviation that we took at the fork for Wall Street. We hiked back probably another quarter to half mile down this fork and it resulted in the most remote section of the hike for us. I definitely recommend taking this same detour to dodge the crowds and get a more remote experience when hiking this massively popular trail.
Where
The Narrows is a hike in Zion National Park, which is located in Utah in the United States. The closest town to Zion is Springdale, which is just outside of the park. Zion is easy to get to by car, and the closest major airport would be in Las Vegas.
Logistics
The Narrows is a unique hike as you are essentially hiking in a river. The flow rate of the river is an important data point when choosing to take on this hike as depending on the flow rate, the challenge of the hike is impacted. Thankfully, the National Park Service does a good job of providing this information to hikers. They will even close the hike if the flow rate is too high or the flash flood risk is too high. Thankfully for us, visiting in September, neither of these risks were of much concern. The other major logistical factor is what footwear to use. Many people rented special boots and waterproof socks. Additionally, we saw many people with long, wooden sticks for balance. I think this all would be a lot more relevant if doing this hike in the Spring or Summer, as for us, doing this hike in the Fall, it seemed like overkill. I hiked this trail with trail runners, normal socks, and a single trekking pole and had no issues whatsoever. It is worth paying attention to these logistical challenges when planning to take on the Narrows, but depending on the season and weather, some of this may not be relevant.
Hiking
You start this hike when you arrive at the last drop off point for the public shuttle. You will need to walk about a mile to the start of the actual trail. This first mile is on a paved riverside walk, which is easy and offers some nice initial views of Zion, the Virgin River, and the terrain you will later be immersed in. One you get to the true trailhead, you will see a platform to change out footwear (if necessary) and the riverside, paved trail ends.
At this point moving forward, you can hike out as far as you like, then hike back. There are some general milestones along the way like the 200 foot waterfall, and some named rocks. We chose to hike to the fork with Wall Street and then branched off from there. I would guess with the paved walk as the first mile, this brought us to about 3 miles of total walking to get to the fork. The fork and this subsection of the trail was really the highlight of this trail. It was great as it started off with a big challenge where you needed to hoist yourself above a small waterfall. This challenge clearly deterred many other hikers as after this challenge the number of hikers dropped off DRAMATICALLY. From there on out, there were other challenges and obstacles to continue down this path. I found this exciting as it broke up the rather trivial hiking we experienced as in September there is not very much water in the Narrows (at least in our experience).
We finally made it to an area that required some steep bouldering and the group decided it was time to head back. At this point we were probably about 3.5 miles from our starting point, so we started the trek back to the shuttle. I made sure to take in the return trip in the subsection as I knew I would be surrounded by many people once we got back on the main trail. Sure enough, we were surrounded by people the last 2 miles in the Narrows and the last mile on the riverside walk.
I really liked this hike once we got away from the majority of the people. I’m not used to hiking with so many people, but this trail is popular for a reason. It’s very accessible, it’s beautiful, and you can pick your own distance, so it’s not necessarily a super long day hiking. All in all, this hike was a great experience, but a recommendation would be to do this hike offseason if you wanted something a bit more to yourself, or just accept this is going to be super busy and try your best to take it all in anyway!
Photos
All photos on this hike were taken with my current phone at the time, the iPhone 12 Pro.
