Top Down Narrows in October

Whose bright idea was it to hike the Narrows in October? Ok, it was probably mine, but the idea was put in my head after spending the afternoon over at our friends Josh and Kara's house a month previously. We met them last year when we discovered that we had both moved recently from Oregon and enjoyed being in the outdoors. I had fond memories of hiking the Narrows in October from my days working at Zion and when I was living in Oregon, the only time that I actually missed hiking it was during October. The colors are fantastic and the weather is typically warm enough to make it enjoyable.

Unfortunately the days we chose to do this hike fell on a cold snap that swept through most of the west. Down in Washington City where we live, it just caused a drop in temperatures, but was still comfortable. Up at the headwaters to the Narrows, though, it was a different story. To get to the headwaters, we had to put in the not so fun part of getting a permit by entering the last minute drawing, obtaining a ride from Zion Adventure Company, leaving home at 5 AM, riding in a shuttle with a bunch of other hikers, and then being dropped off at the trailhead. We could immediately tell that this was going to be rough at first. The temperatures at the trailhead were somewhere in the teens.
I knew that we could get a small advantage on the day if we could keep our feet dry at the first river crossing. There were no more crossings for a couple of miles after that. Unfortunately, all the rocks that we could use to cross the river were frozen. Josh tried to cross one of those and slipped in so now, not only were his feet wet, but part of his arm and gear. I tried to find a place farther downstream, but eventually just gave up and went right through. In retrospect, I should have taken off my shoes and neoprene booties to keep my feet dry, but instead I went for it. It was bone chilling cold and now I had two cold feet to continue the walk down the road.

So far, though, it wasn't so bad. We could make good time walking down the road and were even able to pass a couple of hikers that were still on the other side of the river going slow, but with dry feet. I figured the wet feet thing was inevitable, but it would have been much better to not have wet feet during this first few miles. We continued along on our way and eventually the road gave way to the river. At this point, we began crisscrossing the river many times. At first it wasn't so bad, but after a while the ankle deep water seemed like a punishment that I did not want to endure. Josh had much thicker neoprene booties, so his feet were great. Mine, though, eventually felt like two blocks of ice attached to my legs. The sad thing was, that they were well could have been given the fact that my pant legs were looking like the formation of ice on the side of waterfall in winter. It was crazy that every time our legs went into the water and came back out, the air temperature would immediately freeze the water on our legs. Josh, who was tougher than me, was wearing shorts and had ice accumulating on his bare legs.

Given the pain that I was forcing myself to endure, it was harder than normal to look around and appreciate the beautiful colors. The trees were changing and there were many times where the reds and yellows rose up from the river. What was in shorter supply at this point was sunshine. It was not until 10:15, two and a half hours into the hike that the sun finally reached us. We took a break here, but not long enough for my feet to stop being numb. It made the walking tough to not really be able to feel anything when I placed my feet down. Every crossing was painful and I didn't realize how many times I actually had to cross the river.

I would even be that guy who blazes a new social trail just to avoid the inevitable of placing my feet in the river one more time because the longer I kept them out, the more feeling that would return to my feet. I felt like a bad friend because my mind at this time was completely wrapped up in what was going on with my feet. Still, this was an awesome experience and the upper part of the Narrows was great. Eventually we were passing all the landmarks including a new one that I did not understand. Someone had a for sale sign up about a mile from the park boundary. It said that you could own a piece of the Narrows. Wow, that was depressing. I hope some selfish idiot would not buy that from this other selfish idiot.

After we went through the narrowest section, we finally popped out at Deep Creek and headed downstream. I was a bit relieved when I tested the waters because it was much warmer coming from Deep Creek than it was from the North Fork. Given that Deep Creek provides 2/3 of the water for the Narrows, this made the water significantly more tolerable. I am not sure what the water temperature was in the North Fork above Deep Creek, but it was definitely in the 30s. We found a patch of sun right after Deep Creek where we had lunch and I sat in the sun until feeling returned to all of my toes. I was actually pretty nervous at this time, so when every toe was working again at this point, I was happy.

I could now be a better friend and actually have a decent conversation with Josh. The river was swifter and deeper at this point, but much warmer. Never again did my feet go numb, but given that they were numb for over 3 hours, I was still a bit nervous about long term damage. The rest of me felt good as we had not gotten in over our knees at this point and slowly my pants began to unfreeze. We passed by and through many of the campsites and side canyons. I got to relive a few of my past adventures with Josh. He was generally excited about much of Zion and I enjoyed sharing some of my knowledge of the place while also not trying to seem like a know it all. The best experiences are always the ones that we make ourselves anyway, so I just wanted to encourage him to go out and see many of these amazing places also. As we got further down the campsites, eventually we got to a place that opened up between sites 10 and 11 where the sun was out and we were actually warm. I finally shed some layers taking off my winter coat for the first time all day and was able to take off the tights and long pants for shorts.

The warmth did not last an extended amount of time, though, and soon we were in the deeper water. After site 11, the sun disappeared and the deeper water began. It was like a switch was turned off and the sixty plus degree sunny day that we were enjoying was quickly thrown back into a world of winter. The Narrows is funny because unlike much of the rest of Utah, it is free from sunshine for so much of the year that it is definitely a different climate from the rest of Utah at the same elevation. We were surprised to see at campsite 12 that a fairly recent rockfall had occurred. I would not have wanted to be camping in that site when that much debris came down.

After site 12, the canyon immediately seemed deeper, darker, and busier. We saw our first people since early in the morning right around Big Springs. From there on out we were rarely, if ever alone. It was not as busy as a summer's day, but as busy as a summer's day 10 years earlier. The outfitters in Springdale must just be swimming in the profits because everyone seemed to have the dry pants, shoes, and sticks. They all seemed wiser than us as many times were were having to wade up to our waist in water. The thought of doing this earlier in the day would have seemed like misery, but with the warmer air temperature downstream, it was a minor inconvenience. I was cold, but not dangerously so at this point in the day.

I spent the rest of the day going back in forth between enjoying the beautiful canyon and dodging the masses of humanity. Getting below Orderville, at that point it became less enjoyable. Unfortunately this is one of the most amazing parts of the canyon, but it is almost ignored given the fact that there are so many people there distracting your mind away from the beauty. Also, the impacts of people are so bad in there that it made most of the time and effort I spent protecting that place look like a waste of time. I am not sure what the park's plan is going forward, but idly sitting by and letting the Narrows get trampled to death is not a plan. There needs to be something done about allowing everyone to just pummel that place from the bottom up.

This was one of the reasons that I had to leave the park service because I did actually care too much to just let it go when it was impossible for one person to save that place. On our hike out, I saw two dogs on the trail and many people just sitting there hand feeding squirrels. It unfortunately got me thinking of my children who would never know these places without either massive crowds or very restrictive rules. On a day like today, though, I could think back to the quiet and outstanding natural features that I got to experience with Josh in the upper part of the river with just the price to pay of having numb feet for a few hours. Well worth it and when I look back I will always remember the tranquility over the pain especially since it looks like there won't be any long term damage from my frozen limbs.