Recommended Gear to Hike the Narrows in Zion National Park

There are two kinds of people that hike The Narrows: People who have fun hiking The Narrows and people who are unprepared to hike The Narrows. Read on for our recommendations for what to bring with you to make sure that you enjoy this incredible hike The three main pieces of equipment you will need for the hike are:

• Hiking or Canyon shoes with good grip
• A walking stick
• Neoprene socks

Shoes

There’s a little bit of leeway in this category but the number one recommendation is do not wear flip flops! Yes you will be walking through a river, but the bottom of the river is covered in round, smooth stones that feels a lot like walking over slippery bowling balls. Wearing flip flops is a sure fire way to twist an ankle or end up turning around before the hike even really gets started because the trudge is miserable.

Hiking Shoes

My pair of Altra Lone Peak 3 trail runners lasted through hiking everyday for 2 months and are still going strong.

If you already own a sturdy pair of hiking shoes then you may not need anything else for your hike down The Narrows. The first time we hiked it I wore a pair of Altra trail runners and Kaitlin wore a pair of waterproof hiking boots. We hiked for about 3 hours round trip and had a great time. The only problem is that our hiking shoes were soaked. Luckily, we hiked The Narrows on the morning that we were leaving so having soaking wet shoes wasn’t a huge issue, but if we had wanted to do other hikes that day we probably wouldn’t have had a great time

Renting Shoes in Springfield

There are plenty of gear stores just outside the park that rent Narrows packages which include a walking stick, bouldering shoes and neoprene socks or allow you to rent out individual pieces of gear. If you don’t have proper hiking shoes or if you will need your shoes to be dry and ready to go for other hikes, we highly recommend renting shoes. It will make the hike so much more enjoyable.

Walking Stick

While this may not seem like a necessary piece of gear we were so happy that we rented them the first time we hiked The Narrows. The water is rushing fast and a walking stick functions as a sort of third leg to stabilize yourself when you’re moving over particularly tricky rocks. There are also areas where the water will abruptly get much deeper and having a walking stick allows you to probe ahead as you are walking so you aren’t caught off guard by a drop off.

Neoprene Socks

Neoprene socks will keep your feet warm against the rushing water of the Virgin River.

The first time I heard of neoprene socks I thought they were kind of a strange idea. They were only a few dollars more to add them to our rental gear though so we both decided to try them and I was grateful that we did. The rushing water of the Virgin River is very cold even in the middle of summer and your feet will be submerged almost constantly during this hike. The neoprene will keep your feet warm and avoid the hike turning unbearable due to numb toes from the cold water. If you are planning to do river hikes or even if you plan on doing the Narrows more than once we would recommend buying your own pair as by the time you rent a pair of neoprene socks two or three times you could have bought them. If The Narrows is a once in a lifetime or once a year kind of thing though there are plenty of places in Springfield that can rent a pair to you for your day hike.

Dry Bag

You are going to get wet and if you want to bring along gear that needs to stay out of the water (Cameras, phones, etc.) you’re going to need something to keep them safe. We were hiking with four people so we brought a large backpack style dry bag that would fit everyone’s effects in one 40 L dry bag. If your phone is the only thing you need to keep dry you can pick up a waterproof phone bag
for cheap. While it may not be bulletproof and we never had to actually test ours the reviews seemed to agree that these little bags did the trick.

The Weather

Unfortunately, this is the part of your hike that you can’t control but you should definitely be aware of. There is a color-coded flash flood warning sign right after you exit the shuttle before starting the riverside walk hike. Make sure to check this before heading out. If there are storm clouds anywhere in the area we recommend saving the hike for another day. Flash floods can come on incredibly quickly and there is no way that you can outrun or swim out of a flash flood. No hike is worth your life.