Zion Narrows Hike Overview
– Uttara Vaidya
BY: FOOTLOOSE HIKERS
24TH JUNE 2012
16 MILES
CAMPGROUND #12
OVERVIEW
We are a pretty disciplined group and planned a lot of hikes successfully in the past, but this hike threw us off big time. We fell short in our research – it was hard to find articles that describe this hike in detail and what it takes to finish in time and enjoy it at the same time. Hopefully this one will give a clear picture to all the ones who intend to do this hike.
TRAIL DETAILS
Length: 16 miles (of the river). After crossing the river many times throughout the hike the total distance walked could go upto 20 miles.
Elevation Gain: 1500 ft gradual descend.
Start: Chamberlain’s Ranch Trailhead
End: Temple of Sinawava
Important Mile Markers:
Water Depth
Mostly ankle – shin high water for Day 1 (until Camp #11).
Might encounter thigh deep waters between Camp #11 to #12. This is where the river starts getting deeper. Most people will encounter this on Day 2 unless they are staying at campgrounds #10 or later.
Few deeper encounters
- Around wall street area
- Waist high for a 5 ft person
- longest was 25 ft – otherwise a few feet everytime.
Deepest Point in the river (just one such point)
- Also comes way later in the hike – just before wall street
- Chest deep for a 6 ft tall guy
- 10 meters.
Rental Gear
We rented most of our gear from Zion Adventures.
- Shoes: Apparently the best one they have for water hikes. Ankle high, supposedly good sole. Our experience? Not so good. After walking a few miles, we realized it would have been better if they werent ankle high for better movement of your feet. Your foot can twist 360 degrees throughout this hike and its best if you dont pull a muscle especially when its really bad on your knees. If you still have to go with these, make sure its 1/2 a size bigger to allow for all the water that seeps in and takes all the air space between your foot and the shoe.
- Socks: Be very careful about choosing these too.
- First of all their material is neither comfortable nor soft. They ended up giving multiple blisters to almost everyone in our group.
- They dont have a zipper – which makes it very hard to keep wearing and removing them multiple times throughout the hike. Yes, we had to do it a few times just to feel lighter on our feet by removing the water weight. You might want to just buy them off for about 15 bucks on amazon.
- They stink to the core – with a lot of people using them of course. But thats the least of the problem.
Go for 1/2 a size bigger – for the same reason as mentioned under shoes – to accommodate for extra water, but make sure to carry a lot of bandaids for all the blisters it might give you anyways.
- Life Jackets: Few people in our group either didn’t know swimming OR were hydrophobic (not a very comfortable feeling atleast for short people – 5 ft or shorter). Overall, it was a good decision to carry 1-2 life jackets for those members. Better safe than sorry and such members can atleast enjoy the hike rather than living in constant fear of encountering those deep areas.
- Sleeping pads: The ones they rent out are pretty good. So go with it.
- Sleeping bags: The ones they rent out are pretty heavy (4 1/2 LB+). We suggest carrying a lighter one that you own or rent from REI. Some of the people in our group decided to skip sleeping bags since it was high 80s to 90s during the day. Big mistake though, temperatures drop a lot in the canyon during nights and they highly recommend carrying sleeping bags. Skipping them – big no-no!
- Dry Bags: They apparently have good ones. But this is still a gamble (for the ones they rent out) since water indeed seeped through some of our team members’ dry bags.
Lessons Learnt
- Shop for good quality shoes and socks for such a long distance hike – its a must!
- LEAVE EARLY! – Never under-estimate the time it takes. Especially this one, take the earlier 6:30 shuttle. This also give you enough time to really enjoy the hike rather then rushing it last minute.
- Study the map, distances and time required for each day. Estimate based on the speed of the slowest person in the group, size of the group and the terrain. The estimates given in the map very very aggressive for a average hiker.
- Must have a cheap watch – we lost track of the time since our fancy GPS watches drained their batteries out and we were not carrying any cell phones because of the water.
- Discuss group split options beforehand. Each group should be self contained – should have enough water, food, tent, sleeping bags, headlamps and first aid.
- Discuss emergency strategy before splitting – consider the dangers. eg. If it becomes dark and we have not reached our campsite. Figure out ways to communicate with the other group in worst case scenarios – in this case it would have been great if the faster group had left more informative messages for us with the other campers.
- Ideally should have a way to communicate between split groups – Cell phones of course dont work in those areas. For our next hike, we will explore walkie-talkie as an option.
- We need to give ourselves enough travel time before and after the hike so that we can sleep early the night before, catch up on good breakfast in the morning and on time and also have time to eat something before rushing to the airport after the hike.
- Read reviews / blog by people who have done the hike and learn from their experience. Some things will never be highlighted in maps or by the visitor center that we learn from hiker reviews.
- DO NOT leave sleeping bags behind thinking its 90s during the day! Temperatures drop in the canyon during nights its and its highly recommended you carry one.
- Carry headlights with charged batteries AND one per person – dont even think about sharing them – especially for this hike. Also, weak headlights are totally useless – especially for water hike since the light has to penetrate through the water for you to see the bottom.
Good to Know
- Carry water filters and iodine tablets
- Carry poop bags
- Carry life jackets depending on the month you are going and level of comfort with water. Earlier months such as May will have deep water and if you are scared of water OR dont know swimming, its highly recommended.
- Carry extra warm clothes – in case you are drenched you have to have set of dry and warm clothes so you dont catch cold.
- Hiking pole is an absolute MUST
muksvaidya 