It's Tuesday morning and we are relaxing in our first motel of the trip, after a luxurious night in Bashful Bob's motel in Page, AZ. We already failed on our first attempt to get permits into The Wave. Only 46 people showed up for the 10 person lottery today. Maybe our luck will be better in upcoming days. The last two days we had been hiking the top-down Narrows trip in Zion National Park, and I was simply too exhausted to write. The Narrows top-down is a two-day hike in the Virgin River, consisting of 16 miles and an average time of 12 hours. The hike is mostly in the river itself, with water temperatures in the mid-50s. We rented hiking sticks, neoprene socks and canyoneering shoes to keep our feet warm and help us in the rocky riverbed. We also rented dry bags and packs for our gear, as a slip can put you in water neck deep. The first day we left at 6:30 AM via shuttle for 90 minutes to the trailhead, which starts on private property. Only 12 campsites are available for this hike, and back country permits are required. The first day was beautiful and completely alone as we wandered down the river into deeper and narrower canyons. Careful route planning kept the water below our waists for this trip, plus the luck of not falling down. We made it to campsite 8 around 2 pm, laid out our sleeping bags and promptly took a nap from our exhaustion. Our dinner of freeze-dried backpacking food was the best we had made in days. Here are some photos from our first day of 10 miles.
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| Old Settler's Cabin |
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| Trail Friends |
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| Canyon Walls Beginning |
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| Taller Walls |
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| Our first Narrows |
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| It's fall in the upper canyon elevations |
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| More Narrows |
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| Waterfall; luckily we hiked around. |
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| Starting to get deeper... |
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| More Narrows |
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| Deep Creek joins the Virgin River - Time to Treat Some Water |
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| Virgin River Hiking |
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| Camp |
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| Our natural tent |
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| The River alongside camp |
Day 2 we woke up and were back in the river by 9 am. The final 6 miles are much more difficult as the river flow and speed increases dramatically after Deep Creek joins the Virgin River, and the riverbed rockier and deeper as the slope of the river increases towards Wall Street. We had the first few hours to ourselves, but within Wall Street (narrow, steep cliffs, no shoreline) we began meeting hikers coming up from the bottom trail head, which can be done in a day and does not require a permit. The scenery was gorgeous but we had destroyed our knees and ankles by this time on the slippery and uneven rocks. The hike ended sooner than expected, and we were on the road to Page by 4 PM. We arrived at our motel a couple hours later and took nice long showers and grabbed some dinner. The hike was a hard but rewarding experience that I would do again in the future. What was probably the hardest hike of our trip was completed without any injuries or falls into the river, so I think it went as well as possible! If you have the chance to make the hike, it is recommended.
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| Big Spring - Fresh Water |
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| Virgin River |
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| View of things to come - Treece is in the lower right |
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| Dark and Cool in the Canyons |
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| Wall Street |
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| Deepening Canyons |
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| The end of Orderville Canyon |
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| Exiting The Narrows |
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Exiting the "Wall Street" portion
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