Day 6 - Zion Narrows

Imagine walking in a riverbed up a narrow cascade of red, orange, black, grey, green and black 1000ft tall rock walls and you will imagine Zion Narrows. March is typically too early to hike the narrows but Lady Luck was in our favor and the river flow was low due to a low snowfall year. The water is cold though so we reserved our dry suits, fleece pants, neoprene socks, rubber river boots and hiking poles yesterday in preparation for a 7 hour round trip adventure to the world famous narrows of Zion.

See the first pic of us three in our gear at the start of the narrows. Our plan was the hike out as far as we could with our dry pants-only rentals. Further would require swimming. We would add on a side section of the equally sensational Orderville canyon about half way in and then come back and continue up canyon through the "Wall Street" most photogenic part of the narrows.

Ten minutes after beginning the river walking section out jaws dropped as two mule deer trotted down the river by us, passing a few feet from us. My camera was in a waterproof bag inside a waterproof bag but Roman got a few pics on his gopro (he will send later). After turning up Orderville canyon we reached an obstacle-- a small waterfall with a deep pool. See video of page and roman climbing up this waterfall and wait for the end... http://youtu.be/6LD3MZhX3qk

The second pic shows us at the end of the passable section of Orderville Canyon. The couple that took that picture climbed up the first waterfall following us and then we followed them back down the first waterfall. The descent involved shimmying down a slick rock face, a small step under an overhang, followed by slow step by step along a 70 degree side wall. We ended up throwing our bags down to the other couple and getting a helping pole pull from them to the safe section. We then helped another couple across the obstacle with the final result being all 7 of us dry.

We planned to turn back 3.5 hours in but continued 4.25 hours before turning back because we were loving every moment and feeling good. We ascended and large rock slide at the end of the narrows and enjoyed a sunny reprieve above the crowd before turning back. Pic 3 and 4 show the surreal colors of the canyon walls glowing in the sun on our return trip. This 6 hour 8+ mile hike would be our final one in Zion and it did not dissapoint.

I wore Romans gopro for the most beautiful sections and Roman will edit and send a first person account film in a few weeks hopefully. On to Bryce Friday.

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