Part two of the Zion trip, we headed to the iconic Narrows, hiking up the canyon upstream on the Virgin River.  During busy season, the main part of Zion is closed off to all road traffic, and you are shuttled by buses from one stop to the other.  We work up early, but not as early as the day before really missing the sunrise timing, to head to the visitor’s center in Zion National Park.  There we took the shuttle to the last stop, The Temple of Sinowava, and headed down the riverside walk to the entrance of the Narrows.  The riverside walk is a easy 1-mile marked path, but once you hit the Narrows you are greeted only with water, and the canyon walls.  This is the Bottoms-up hike, which no permit is required, but a backpacking trip is also available from top-down and reservations are required.  Day hikes are only allowed to Orderville Canyon or Big Spring, which is only a 2.5 mile hike, but the rocks and river bed really slow down the pace.

We had to make sure to wear our water approved shoes as well as having clothes are are easily dried.  There are sections where you can be waist or even chest deep, but it really depends on the river flow and the time of year you are there.  Here is Sarah walking through the typical terrain through the Narrows.

I was searching for places to photograph, although just being there you are greeted with wonderful small trees surrounding the river with thousand foot high walls.

The diversity of the hike is what really attracts all the people here, the walls change from jagged to smooth at every turn.

Our group photo for the day, courtesy of my tripod!

The girls hiking up, with some golden glow from the reflections off the canyon walls.

Try number two.

Our plan was to hike the whole section, from Big Spring to Orderville Canyon and back down.

Melody fording the river.

And another river crossing.  Most hikers walk on dry land until there is a river crossing to speed up travel time.

And we headed to the beginning of Wall Street, a narrow section of the Narrows.

The entrance of the Narrows.

The walls become smooth, and the walkway is completely engulfed with the waters or the Virgin River.

More views as we hiked down toward the end of Wall Street.

Here we saw a few more people, but the masses of people we saw at the beginning of the hike really dwindled as we kept on going.

There is a split off as well, to get to Orderville Canyon, so we decided to check that out as well later on.

And Wall Street, one of the photogenic sections of the hike, so I placed my tripod down to get a few more photos.

As you can see, the walls stretch high, with a person seemingly small in comparison.

Just for reference on how large the canyon really is at that section.

And we headed back after this, to check out the other section.

When we turned away from the main section of the Narrows, we headed to Orderville Canyon, where the landscape really changed from what we saw earlier.  I headed up and over, this very slippery section to check out a waterfall just yonder.

The little falls  with a pool at the end.  This would have been a great place to relax, if only the water wasn’t so frigid.

My own secluded area, an amazing waterfall and pool.

We headed back, and out.  This is just a photo to show the drastic differences throughout this canyon.

Afterwards, we decided to do a little more hiking, up to the Emerald Pools, were we saw a few of these little frogs all over the place.  It really is becoming more and more rare to see amphibians, but frogs specifically due to a lot of changes in the environment.  So this was a welcomed sight!