Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports The Narrows – Zion National Park, May 11 2015

The Narrows – Zion National Park, May 11 2015

Full gallery (50+ photos) and trip report are posted here:
http://www.hikinggeek.com/2015/05/18/the-narrows-zion-national-park-may-11-2015/

Here are some highlights:

Oh man! Do I ever want to go back and do that hike! My fantasy is to take my daughter down that canyon. I am sure she would get a big kick out of it.

I did it about a dozen years ago top-down in September. I think the flow was lower and temp likely warmer. We didn't need waders, and I just used old hiking boots (which I tossed after that trip.) With the flow and walking up stream, I can see how it was quite tiring.

Some questions: How well did your GPS work in the slot like that? I am surprised you got a decent track.

How cold was the water -- did you really need the waders?

Can you identify the picture you took farthest up stream? When we did the hike, there was definitely one place where the water was chest deep in the middle, and some found a ledge to walk along the side that was thigh deep. Some of your pics show pools similar to what we had to go through.

Another comment: I would definitely recommend two hiking poles over a single one. They really help balance when you can't see the rocky bottom.

It worked ok, but the signal bounced around a lot. I cleaned up the track using GPSVisualizer, deleting the trackpoints that were way off.

I carried it out of curiousity primarily and was surprised how much it actually tracked.



The water was about 55 degrees. About half of the people we saw did not use waders. On our way out, we probably saw about 10 people that were wearing full suits.



This may have been the pool that turned us around:

http://hikinggeek.com/wp-content/plugins...ws/DSC05018.JPG
I am basing this on timestamps and my memory.

I believe we turned around at the "4" on this map:



We met a couple hiking down as we were hiking up. They said they talk to hikers that had done the top-down hike before the big dump of rain and there were two sections where they needed to swim for about 20 feet.


I agree. There were times when I lifted one foot off of the ground and thought I was gonna go for a dunk!

I'm thinking about doing the Bottom-up hike 4th of July weekend this year. I can't seem to find a consistent timetable on doing this hike. I'm hoping that in July, the water level won't ever slow us down too much that we need to swim or get the water above our waists really. I want to start at the Temple of Sinawava, made it out to Wall Street, back down and up to parts of Orderville Canyon and back to the shuttle stop. How much time do you estimate that taking? Our whole group is pretty active, so we can probably travel fairly quickly.

Fountain,

We essentially did what you're planning on in about 4 hrs. If I were you, I'd just plan on catching the first shuttle (6:30 I think in July) and spend the entire day out there. If you're under some sort of time restrictions, 4-6 hours should be plenty of time. If you're active, you might even be able to hit Angel's Landing and the Narrows in one day, if you're not going to rent/use any "dry gear."

Fortunian wrote:
> Our whole group is pretty active, so we can probably travel fairly quickly.

When I went top-down, we had a group of 6, and three were really fast hikers. They pulled ahead of the three slower ones at first, but it was amazing when we hit the wet sections. They were so slow that we were actually walking ahead and stopping and waiting for them. Their comfort level with walking through shallow water on wet and a little slippery bottom caused them to be really slow. Over the course of the day, though, they improved significantly, and were doing fine by the end of the day.

By the way, when you go, I would recommend trying for a top-down trip if you have the time and it works out. I think you have to get the permits early the morning before, and have to arrange with the shuttle company, so it is a bit more complicated.

I have info on this, will try to post it at a later date. We're leaving for Yosemite in the morning, so I'm working on that trip at the moment.