Hiking The Zion Narrows

ORDERVILLE CANYON FROM ZION NARROWS

The first time we hiked the Zion Narrows before ( year 2007), we loved it so much and had so much fun that we told ourselves we will hike it again sometime. Though we had been back to this nature wonder several times, but it was only this summer that we were able to do this hike again. As they always say, "love is sweeter the 2nd time around", so indeed, "HIKING THE NARROWS was sweeter the 2nd time around!" :)

Why was it sweeter? .....We learned our lessons from our first hike.

1. Hiking Zion Narrows is so unique since the trail is the river. It requires wading, walking and sometimes swimming in the river. During our first time hiking here, we were so inexperienced that we took our hiking shoes off and walked barefoot in the river. That was a huge mistake. Walking barefoot caused us too many falls from the slippery rocks on the river, bruises on our legs from the fall, and well, wet packs. :(

Rocks on Virgin River

This 2nd time around, we wore sneakers where our feet is covered, but water can go through. It's very important to have covered shoes because of the rocks. It's also very helpful to wear shoes which won't get too heavy because it allows water to pass through. Sneakers may not be the best shoes to wear for this kind of hike, but it did very well for us.

2. We had hiking poles. :) The hiking poles really helped us in balancing and steadying ourselves when walking against the current of water and on slippery rocks. The poles were also helpful in gauging the depth of water to find a route easier to navigate if we did not want to swim.

Happiness, All prepared to Hike the Narrows ( with our hiking poles )

3. We did not have to worry about losing our camera to the water this time since we waterproofed our camera and other gadgets so very well. Camera survived so well, thus, we have the pictures! :) 

THE HIKE:

We did the Bottom to Top hike from Temple of Sinawava in Zion National Park to Wall Street and Orderville Canyon. We did a 6 mile round trip hike. The first part of the hike is on a trail from Temple of Sinawava bus stop to the mouth of the Narrows.

Scenery of the Hike on the first mile, we were just looking at the river, not yet walking in it

This trail meanders along Virgin River, but does not require yet walking in the river because you are not entering the narrow walls of the canyon yet. In about a mile, the formal trail ends, and MORE FUN begins, that is walking in the river.

The canyon walls gets narrower and narrower as you go further inside. We liked the most the very narrow walls and kind of very lowlight in Orderville Canyon, which branches to the right after about 2.5 miles of hike from Temple of Sinawava.

@Orderville Canyon

Here are more pictures from our Zion Narrows hike:

a section in Wall Street 

all pictures below are already from Orderville Canyon

♥♥