8.17.2013

Walking the Narrows at Zion

My favorite part of our Zion trip was hiking Angels Landing, but Brian's was hiking the Narrows.  It wasn't a difficult hike because it was flat the whole time, but we went a few miles along the river and then came back the same way.  We spent about four hours doing the hike and stopped to have lunch (we had packed it) along the way.
 For most of the Narrows hike, you are wading through water or walking right along the river.  Some places are pretty deep, and we saw some people wading up to their shoulders through the river.  We didn't really want to get that wet, so we tried to find shallow places to get through the river.  We also rented a waterproof bag for our camera but ended up not even needing it.
 This walking stick was the best thing ever.  A random lady gave it to me as she and her son were leaving the Narrows hike and we were just starting.  At first I didn't really want it, but she said it was really helpful, and it was!  Sometimes the water was rushing fast and it was difficult to see how deep it was.  You could use the stick to test out the depth first and then take your next step.
 When we were finished, we passed my little walking stick onto the next person- I wonder how many people have used it!
Such an amazing and beautiful view.
I bought some water shoes at Walmart the day before and had never worn them before, so I got a few blisters.  They were really useful though, because your tennis shoes would get soaked right at the beginning.  Brian wore his chaco sandals and had no problems.

We could have gone much farther (the whole hike is 16 miles), but you get tired after a few hours of wading through the water.  Some people who had gone ahead of us said that it gets much more narrow as you go, so next time we go to Zion we want to do it again and see more of it.  

2 comments:

Tisse said...

Seriously!? These pictures are insanely gorgeous... I would LOVEEE to do this hike!

Brian and Rachel said...

Thanks! The hike was so awesome- I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Zion!