Yi's Blog: Zion National Park - Virgin Narrows

On 4th of July weekend, I went to Zion National Park with 5 friends to hike the Virgin Narrows and it was amazing. The hike was a 2 day, 16 mi trek downstream through the narrow canyons of Zion. Sometimes, we could walk beside the river and other times, we had to swim through it.

On Friday, we rented a mini-van and it took us 12 hrs to get down there. Along the way, we passed a wind farm, a barren desert, and even witnessed a car accident (just a minor one). We also watched The Hangover in the van, which was very fitting, given that we had to pass through Las Vegas to get to Zion. We got in around midnight and we stayed at the Zion Motel just 5 min away from the park entrance.

A shot of the highway we drove on.

A wind farm that we passed along the way. This was one of the biggest wind farms I have ever seen.

A train that we passed. I always wanted a shot like this.

One of the many Joshua trees that we passed along the way. I like this one because it looks like it's growing out of the train tracks.

Sunset in the desert.

We woke up around 6 AM the next day to breathtaking views of the park. The mountains around us were gorgeous and it was a beautiful day too. After packing our bags, we went to the Visitor Center to get our permit, however, the line was really long so Adrian and I went back to the motel to check out. While driving back, we actually ended up in the middle of the town's 4th of July parade. All the spectators were having a good laugh and shouting out things like "Yay white mini-van!!!" since we were the odd ones out.

One of the mountains that can be seen from the motel parking lot.

The motel that we stayed at. I like how this HDR turned out.

Me and my 5 friends. From left to right: Me, Dmitry, Adrian, Diego, Brandon, and Eli

Taken near the visitor center. I love the detail in the leaves.

After taking care of the permit and hotel, we took a private shuttle out to the trailhead. The beginning of the hike was actually pretty boring since it was on a dirt road. There were no canyons or river to walk through, just cows and some random barb wire. When we actually hit the river, things got more interesting. We had to cross the river many times and the current was actually strong enough to make it a little challenging. We also passed a lot of crazy rock formations and interesting textures along the canyon walls that I really liked.

Diego really looks like an explorer here.

Some random barb wire that we saw along the trail. Eli is "crawling" through it.

Diego bet Eli $100 to touch a cow. This is Eli's second attempt (he failed).

At certain points, the river was actually pretty deep and the current was pretty strong.

After lunch, things got a lot more awesome. The canyon walls started getting higher and closer together. There were also lots of different kinds of textures along the canyon walls, ranging from smooth, wavy surfaces to hard, and almost alien-like surfaces. During the "narrows" portion of the hike, the canyon walls would be no less than 20ft apart with just a slit of light coming through from the top. It looked like the gates of hell to me. It was very scary.