The Narrows: A Canyon That Closes Without Warning

The Virgin River slot canyon called the Narrows is sixteen miles long and, at its narrowest, twenty feet wide. The walls on either side rise two thousand feet. There is no way out sideways. There is no trail; the trail is the river itself, and you walk in it.

On a clear day the Narrows is one of the most extraordinary walks in the national park system. The Navajo sandstone absorbs and filters the light from the slot above, casting everything in a diffuse, directionless glow that photographers spend entire careers trying to capture. The river runs cold even in summer; knee-high in typical conditions, thigh-high or higher in a wet year, nearly impassable in a flood.

The Southern Paiute knew this canyon as a seasonal corridor requiring knowledge and timing. Flash floods in the Virgin River watershed, triggered by thunderstorms on the plateau miles above and miles away, can arrive in the Narrows as a wall of water and debris with no warning whatsoever to hikers in the canyon below. Zion National Park issues flash flood forecasts and closes the Narrows when the risk is elevated; checking the forecast before entering is not optional.

More than a million people walk some portion of the Narrows each year. The lower canyon, accessible from the Riverside Walk, fills on summer days with hikers in rental water shoes and dry pants, wading in the river and taking photographs. A few continue upstream into the deeper canyon, where the walls close in, the sounds of other hikers fade, and the river becomes the only path and the only exit. The canyon has not changed. It still closes without warning when it decides to.