Zion Narrows Hike Guide

The flow rate in CFS (Cubic Feet per Second) is your key to understanding how deep the Virgin River will be. You can check the flow rate at the Visitor Center or online at the USGS flow rate for the North Fork Virgin River .

Even if the water levels are reasonably low, there are still areas that can be deep.

Here you can see a bottleneck along a shallow part of the Narrows. The people on the left are skipping the line by going deep. Under normal (under 70 CFS) conditions, it’s rare to be chest deep.

Summer is a great time to hike The Narrows, but crowds can make Wall Street seem more like New York City than the Zion wilderness. Crowds thin out the farther you travel upstream.

Let’s start at the beginning. The Narrows is the name of the Virgin River gorge, the narrowest part of Zion Canyon. Doing The Narrows is more of a walk through the river than a hike. Most of the time, you will be wading in the water, with 1000-foot cliffs

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