This is my first of three posts about hiking in Zion National Park. On the first day we decided to attempt The Narrows due to the fact that the chance of rain increased as the days wore on and that trail become very dangerous and even can be shut down in the event of heavy rainfall.
The Narrows can be completed two ways. The first is the top-down route which is about 17 miles long and can be completed in a day or two. The second is the bottom-up route which begins and ends at the The Temple of Sinawava Trailhead. In a day you can hike as far (or farther) as Big Springs. This takes you past Orderville Canyon and Wall Street. Our group of friends hiked as far as within 20 minutes of Big Springs but decided to turn around due to time and daylight remaining. I would love to do it again, only this time I would explore as far as the end of Wall Street and then turn down Orderville Canyon and explore as far as I could that way. We were not able to explore Orderville on this hike. 
To begin, one starts at an outfitting store and rents some bitchin' boots, complete with Neoprene socks. Super sexy. Not to worry though, as they will be hidden under the cold water almost the entire time. And that cold water is going to feel mighty refreshing. Also for rent are walking sticks which were are an absolute lifesaver. There is even a waterproof backpack bag (we passed, but they were available). Why all this water preparation? The Virgin River is your trail. You will be in water, and you will be in water a lot.
After entering the park it's a shuttle ride to the trailhead of about 40 minutes.
The first mile of the hike from the Temple of Sinawava Trailhead is paved and this is when you look the most awesomely awkward in your booties.
The next section is just under two miles and will find you at Orderville Canyon.
Within two miles of Orderville you will come to Big Springs, passing through the popular Wall Street section of the Narrows.
Since we didn't quite make it to Big Springs we can't say that we hiked ten miles...except that we did walk from our vacation rental to the park, a distance of one mile. A perfect 10! I'd like to think we could also garner some extra points from hiking against the flow of water for 4.5 miles and then trying not to be swept off of our feet by its rushing underneath us on the way back. ;)
More pictures below!
Hike details*:
Total Distance: About 10 miles
Total Time: It took us about 6 hours, I believe.
Elevation Change: Unknown for our section of the hike.
Hiked on Saturday, September 8, 2012.
*Unfortunately due to the fact that I have not yet installed MyTracks on my new phone I do not have a normal printout like I usually do of all of our statistics. I wish I had. That being said, the battery most likely would not have lasted for the duration of the hike and I would have been surprised if the GPS/location services could have kept track of us in the canyon.
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