Zions National Park is one of my absolute favorite places on earth! Every time I come here I am just in awe with the magnificent mountains, trees, and rivers. There is just so many amazing creations in this one little park! And although I’ve been to Zions probably 8 or 9 times during my lifetime, I still feel like I have seen just a fraction of all of its treasures!
One place that I have been to several times but never hiked all the way through was the Narrows. I remember going as a kid and having to walk in the water. I remember the water was cold and I even remember being a little scared at times when the water got deep or the current got a little stronger. But I also remember that we didn’t go very far, and turned around pretty quickly. Mostly I remember going to the visitors center to get some snacks and maps or something and loving looking at all the artwork, knick knacks, and toys! ha ha.
Another memory I have of the narrows is when we hiked up the 1 mile path with our Jurashics group back when we each only had a few kids (I think we had 3 and Dawson was a baby) but we mostly just walked up the trail to the mouth of the narrows and then hung out and played in the water with the kids. I remember I fed a squirrel some nuts I had in my backpack and then reading that it wasn’t allowed. Oops. And I remember Joey and Missy kissing in the water to commemorate some special occasion they had enjoyed at the narrows in their early married or dating years.
But to date, I couldn’t for the life of me remember ever really hiking the narrows for more than a few minutes and so I was super excited to get to explore more of this great canyon! It made it especially fun to get to go with some of our favorite cousins! đ I loved the views as we hiked!
This first batch of pictures were taken during the 1 mile hike up the trail.
Below are the pictures once we got to the mouth of the canyon where you had to walk through the water to continue seeing the narrows.
The water was pretty shallow at first but then had parts where it would get up to your knees and thighs. We ended up having to carry Ady through a few deeper spots.
We loved this cool waterfall coming down the canyon walls.
After hiking for about an hour up the narrows the Dads in the group deliberated about when we should head home. Parris mentioned that if we left right then that we wouldn’t get home until 9:30 pm. Say what? After hearing that the Mommy in me kicked in and although I would have loved to continue to explore the narrows, and was loving every minute hiking up them, I realized the kids were going to get super cranky fast. Not only was it getting close to their bedtime, but they also had not had dinner yet (only snacks left over for lunch), and several of them (Dawson and Ady) had already told me they wanted to go home. And I too was getting really hungry as well and we still had an 1.5+ hour hike and drive back to camp. So I told Adam I thought we should probably head home. Adam wasn’t quite wanting to go yet though, and wanted to hike some more with his family, but in the end came back with me and the kids so we could get kids fed and to bed before melt downs occurred. Still Adam was very disappointed about having to leave and upset with me for insisting we get kids home sooner than later because he felt like he was missing out with time with his family. I felt bad cutting his time in the narrows short, but sometimes you just can’t push kids past a certain point and that point was quickly approaching. Adam ended up mad at me the rest of the night though and didn’t say more than two words to me all night. đ So it kind of ended our time in the narrows on a low note. Ady ended up melting down pretty fast after we headed back and Adam carried her on his shoulders most of the mile hike back. What a good Daddy.
The views on the way back were just as stunning!
We all sure did love our hike through the narrows and being surrounded by such amazing creations! God sure is an awesome artist!
