ZION National Park | The NARROWS Hike

Good morning. It is just past 6 30 a.m and we are here at Zion. We drove up from Kanab. It took about an hour to get here through the winding streets entering into the park. It was beautiful. Stars were out and we have arrived because we are getting the first shuttles into the Narrows. There's a bunch of people setting up here. Yesterday, 24 hours in advance, we went online exactly at 9 a.m and got the 7 o'clock shuttle. So people are grabbing their sticks, grabbing their head torches, filled up a backpack. There's also a waterproof bag in there. I got some water shoes on that I'm sure you'll see later. But we're gonna go get checked in and jump on this shuttle. Here we go. We're gonna walk through a river for a few hours. Let's go. You guys can't see it but there's beautiful mountains poking up. Right off the bat, the key to exploring Zion National Park is the shuttle. Unless you're staying inside the park at the lodge or visiting during off hours, you'll most likely need this to get you to the different trailheads and attractions. I talk about an alternative vehicle option in the Angels landing video coming up next. But in the meantime, shuttle tickets need to be reserved months in advance or booked almost exactly at 9 a.m the day before you want to visit, which is what we did. All right, first one's out. Let me see the setup. Okay, well of course I didn't bring waterproof shoes because we decided to plan this at dinner the night before. But we got our trusty sticks. These got a parrot on it and this is from Honey's grocery store. Shout out, not sponsored. And my dry sack, also from Honey's. Thank you Honey's, you saved my life. All right, we are heading out. We have a mile walk first before we get into the water. It is chilly this morning. Luckily, the owner of the restaurant last night that we were eating in, you saw him, he told us, listen guys, it's gonna be very cold in there. And of course, we were gonna come with t-shirts and shorts on. Yeah, he wasn't kidding. So we're bundled up now. I got a fleece on under this and there isn't many people on the trail thus far. It's pretty good. Yeah, I think it's a one mile hike to the actual narrows where the river starts. This landscape though is incredible. We're here. This is the entrance. Here we go into the narrows. In total, the narrows trail is a 15 mile stretch where the north fork of the Virgin River carved its way through these massive rocks, leaving behind this incredible slot canyon. As someone who's had ankle issues his whole life, this is like a walking gauntlet for me. But the views distract me from the sheer fear that I have. So as long as I step sturdy and don't mess with my camera, and just really have two hands free, then I'm good. But as they say, vale la pena. It is a rapid. Whoa. You got it. I'll get out of your way. You are beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. I wonder what was going around. All right, we have made it to the fork in the road. We can either go right or we can go left. A little bit more traffic up here. This is where a lot of people turn around. Tyler's just hanging out, enjoying it. Look at this. That's where we came through. I believe that's Wall Street. Keith Field found a nice little beach. And we're going to keep going this way. This is insane. We are just about the two mile mark now. We went past the fork in the road. Fork in the river, I should say. We're just battling the stream. Going up river like the salmon in the fall. And we are pressing on, and it is just every turn immaculate. There's some bigger watering holes coming up. We're just keep moving on this beautiful, beautiful landscape. I got to keep my eyes on the ground though, so I don't fall. All right, we're just switching back and forth through the water. Sun is starting to shine. This is crazy. Miami is floating rock, and we have virtually the whole place. There's one, two, three, four, five people, including Tyler and myself. So this is a perfect location. The further you go up, the less people follow, so you get all of these views to yourself. The water is still cold, but I can't complain. So I'm hiking along, minding my own business, and all of a sudden, I stumble upon some wildlife. This is Bob Larson. This is a guy I went to college with, and we're right here in the middle of the Narrows in Zion, just hanging out, enjoying ourselves. Do you like it? I'm loving it. I'm loving it. It's a little cold. The water is a little nippy on the toes, but once you're about five minutes in, you're not going to feel it. It's just a beautiful landscape, and it's just a beautiful thing, so I recommend everyone do it. Just make sure you bring a stick. That's it. Words are the lies. Let's keep going. Everybody up there is trying to make a decision what they're going to do, and I think we've made ours. This is our highest point. We've made it past floating rock, past Wall Street, past all the beauty. The sun is starting to come in now. Everybody else is like, should I go? Should I stay? This, according to the map, is the most scenic part of the whole trail, so anything past this is going to be up to chest deep water, so I'm not really prepped for that. That's it. We have officially made it to the end of the Narrows. Well, the end for us, anyway. We're going to head back, jump on the shuttle, and keep this adventure going. All right. After a crazy day over in the lunch, a very late lunch, this is Oscar's. All right. We're over at Oscar's for lunch. This was recommended to us by the owner of the restaurant we went to dinner last night in Kanab. He said, if you're coming to Zion, you have to stop at Oscar's Cafe in Springdale, and we have massive nachos. Tyler got the Hawaii burger, and I went with the specialty of the house, and that is pork chops and green chilies with rice and beans. Let's give it a taste. He was right. A little kick from the green chili salsa. Pork chop, so tender, delicious. Rice and beans. Nachos are aggressive, but we need it after a long day in the Narrows, and with a view like this, it's a good stop. All right. We're going to dig in. All right. Last stop of the day. After a full-on adventure in the Narrows, and then Oscar's for a very filling dinner, we came over to the bridge here, a very popular location for sunset, and I can already see why. This is awesome. Look at this. Look at this. It was the perfect first day here in Zion, and tomorrow, we're up early again for a sunrise hike to the Canyon Overlook. We find a fun way to explore more of the park, and then hopefully climb up to Angels Landing for sunset. Stay tuned. We got the whole place to ourselves this morning, virtually. There's a big lineup at the toilet because they were washing it this morning, so the men's room's backed up. The way we figure it, our orifices will be pretty tight, so I'm going to hold it. This, again, won't make the cut, but it's good to know. This is from my memoirs 50 years from now. There was one time I wasn't in Zion. I had to hold it in all day. A true Teddy Roosevelt story right there. He probably did the same thing.