ZION NATIONAL PARK, UT
Beautiful canyon. Flat out-and-back hiking trail. Through WATER??
Check!
This hike is called The Narrows because it is the narrowest section of Zion Canyon. The namers really knocked that creativity out of the park. The gorge walls are a thousand feet tall (!!) and the river varies in width up to 20-30 feet. You need a permit to hike the entire thing from top to bottom, which I didn't have, so I did an 8-mile out-and-back.
Most people hike The Narrows in the summer when the water is at its warmest. Or you can go in mid-April when the water is 43 degrees, and on a day when the high is 64 (instead of 2 days earlier when it was 82). Why not?
First step: book your shuttle so you know what time you're going. I left at 11:30 am after working a half day, east coast hours.
Second step: arrive an hour early to the shuttle to rent neoprene chest waders, neoprene socks, water shoes, and a walking stick.
Third step: don the lovely attire. Have a woman ask you while waiting in line for the restroom if that's some sort of new hiking outfit, ha! Here's a picture of me in my waders (and others in the same rented gear) in the gorge between those 1,000' high walls. The pink thing hanging from my neck is a waterproof case for my iPhone.
Fourth step: shuttle to the Riverside Walk, hike up this trail until it ends after a mile ...
... and then, wade in!
I was surprised at how warm the neoprene gear kept me and was so glad I rented it. Let's be honest, I never even considered that NOT having gear was an option!
Apparently so! I saw a lot of people who certainly didn't seem to be as concerned about the cold water as I was, wearing shorts, quick-dry pants, sandals, and COTTON sweatshirts, all wading in, some as far as waist deep. It made me cold just looking at them. Most of them got weeded out within a mile of the gorge section.
I saw several people trip, getting their sleeves wet. One young guy (in a cotton t-shirt and shorts) did a full somersault over a big rock hidden under waist-high water. His buddies gave him a hard time, but fortunately turned back. And then another guy tripped over the same rock just one minute later! By the grace of God, I somehow made it through without tripping, although I had a couple close calls!
The scenery was pretty magnificent, with rock walls of different colors, like this one that is orange and black on one side and gray on the other.
The picture below is the area called Floating Rock. This namer definitely got promoted over the first one.
The water depth ranged from nothing, where you could walk across the rocks to chest deep, which is the point at which we were instructed to choose between turning back and hypothermia.
I soon learned it was much easier to cross where the water was smooth, just BEFORE the rapids. And then learned the smooth water AFTER the rapids is moving a lot faster than it looks, and is also much DEEPER than it looks. That was a close call!
Of course I don't have any pics of those moments because I was very focused on keeping two points (feet/stick) on the ground at all times, my arms and head above water, and not losing my balance. It never ceases to amaze my how powerful water is and how little it takes to have enough force to knock you over ... or to create gorges like these. :)
Total mileage = 7.8
Total elevation change = 400'