Zion National Park: The Narrows

after arizona we headed to southern utah and visited zion national park. kenneth and i hope to visit all the national parks in the united states and we are slowly checking them off our list. we were on a time crunch because we wanted to get to provo, utah for my best friends wedding reception so we had one day to spend at zion's and it was definitely worth it!

there are a few different hikes you can do at zion national park and we chose to hike the narrows. we've had some friends hike angel's landing and we were debating which hike to do between the two because none of them had hiked the narrows. angel's landing looked pretty but after kenneth and i researched it, we thought the narrow's looked cooler are plus we are just more water people haha.

we loved it! it cost $25 to get in to any national park. once you pass the gate, the drive in is beautiful. i was in such awe. i kept my camera away and just took it all in. parking was a little difficult to find so if you plan on going, i suggest getting there early. you can't drive to a lot of the areas at the park but they offer a free bus ride that goes around the entire park and the buses are running a lot so you don't have to wait very long which is nice.

kenneth and i's entire road trip consisted of a lot of 'spur of the moment' type decisions. so the night before we headed to a random grocery store and bought cheap water shoes to wear. once we got there we noticed that there were stores that rented out hiking/water shoes and walking sticks. if we had to do it again, we definitely would have spent the money to rent those shoes. our feet were so sore at the end of the hike.

once you get off the bus they have bathrooms you can use and then you start on a mile hike down to the beginning of the actual hike. at first there were a lot of people. kenneth and i went during a weekday too and it was crowded. we're not big fans of the crowds either haha. but after 20 minutes in, it calms down a ton because a large majority of people just hike a little bit of it to get the experience. the further we hiked, the less people we saw which was nice.

the deepest the water got was mid-thigh so i would suggest wearing pants/shorts that dry quickly. there were parts that would cover your entire body, but there was always a shallower way around it. i had my go pro with me but i also had my nice camera so we avoided getting too deep. i really need to invest in a dry bag because i normally stuff it in a big zip lock bag and multiple grocery bags and then just cross my fingers it stays dry haha.

it's hard to see where you are walking because you're feet are almost always under water. there are tons of rocks and sometimes it gets slippery and uneven and lots of people fell. luckily we were cautious and didn't slip but i could see why having a walking stick and heavy duty hiking shoes would have been nice. we would have been able to hike a lot faster too because we wouldn't have had to have been so cautious.

i loved seeing the light reflect off of the walls, it was so pretty. i think we hiked 12 miles and we would have loved to have done more but we didn't have time. plus there is only one entrance/exit so the further in we went meant we had to hike that same part back out. by the end of it, our feet were really sore! our shoes were full of sand and small rocks and it was such a relief so take them off. we definitely passed out on the bus ride back to our car haha.

we packed snacks which i'm super grateful for because it gave us the recharge we needed halfway through.

the narrows was so so so beautiful. i'm so glad we went! i'm sure we'll visit again and hike angel's landing next time, but i'm glad we did this one first!