After several straight years of below average snowpack on the Colorado Plateau, this year's El Nino finally delivered the goods to allow many mythical rivers to pass into kayaking form for brief moments. Of all the rivers the one I was most eager to appear was the North Fork of the Virgin River, the liquid conveyor through the world famous Zion Narrows. When the flow exceeds 150cfs (at the Springdale gage) for more than 24hrs, the Narrows is closed to hikers and open to kayakers. For the entire month of April we monitored the flow gages. It seemed like a window might present itself where Jeff, Jesse, and I would be able to meet up to give it a go. It meant a long solo drive for me but I wanted it so bad. I'd been working very long days, usually without weekends so passing up an opportunity to do something I truly wanted to do would have been soul crushing.
We met up in Springdale Saturday afternoon with (remarkably) enough time to get our permit, sort our shuttle, go to the store, get dinner, pack, set up camp, and get a full night's sleep. Ranger Brad at the backcountry desk gave us the extended doom-and-gloom speech about how we were the first packrafters to raft the full narrows (unlikely), rescue was impossible (duh), and for us not to screw it up for everyone else by having an incident (obviously). He was convincing enough to give Jesse second thoughts but I after driving 6 hours I knew exactly what I intended to do and was unamused. Jeff accurately joked that the backcountry staff must receive negativity training. After stalling as best he could (including 5 minutes looking at the flow gage data?), and realizing we were still waiting for our permit, the clerk finally confirmed the flow was holding at 185 cfs and forked our permit over. We zoomed out the door and on to our next stop- at least the permit was free! Setting up a shuttle from ZAC was comparatively easy. I was happy to see that the Prius could make it to our secret camping spot easily enough. Less happy to see new ominous signs in the area. Packing went surprisingly efficiently, even if we did bring way more stuff than we ended up needing! A good night's sleep and a civilized wake-up call of 5:45a and we were on our way.
The drive to Chamberlain's Ranch trailhead was uneventful, with Jeff chatting up our driver Rich about mountain biking and the merits of dirtbaggery. We arrived to see a rather petite and innocent looking river with a couple kayakers camped at the road end. We got the quick report from them (they had run it the day before) that it would be a slow tromp to the confluence but that from there it was smooth gliding with no real strainers or features to watch out for. Off we set, building an improvised log bridge to gain the side of the river with the ranch road, which provided quick if uninteresting travel down the wide valley. For brief intervals the river looked paddle-able, only to be interrupted by some unrunnable log jam or boulder garden. We could dream...
North Fork of the Virgin River: humble beginnings...
Eventually we reached the point of no dry feet and elected to inflate our boats. In hindsight we would have made considerably better time if we kept them pcked until the confluence, but there were some interesting sections that were barely boatable. If only the flow was doubled! I was out of my boat for probably 90% of the distance to the confluence and overheating in my wetsuit.
The twelve-foot waterfall was quite a sight considering all the nicely graded stream we had come down. We opted to take the fortuitous bypass crack, which was just as well considering the pool below the falls was only about waist deep. After a quick lunch we continued on passing through some of the narrowest, deepest, and nicest sections until we reached the confluence.
The Deep Creek confluence was a revelation revealed. Deep Creek had three times the flow of the North Fork and was clearly the river we should have been following. Oh well. We were thrilled to be here and it was clear it would be fun from here on out. And fun it was! Usually the bittersweet memories of hours of dragging a boat would have taken longer to wear off but within a minute I had a continuous smile on my face that remained the entire rest of the way through the Narrows.
Near-continuous Class III surrounded by some of the best scenery in the world and not another person? Yes please! We had to do a fair bit of proactive maneuvering to avoid the many rocks which added to the fun of it. Few of the rapids had much consequence although there were some exciting blind corners. Our skills and boats easily handled what was thrown at us. Lots of fun wave trains and rapids smashing head on into a turn in the canyon (requiring much last minute maneuvering). Fortunately the canyon was relatively wood free and we could run everything with out scouting.
We tried to savor as best we could but the canyon was going by fast! In little time we reached Kolob Canyon, then shortly after Goose Creek. Soon after was Big Springs. We stopped to stretch legs as each stop. The day was getting on but we didn't want to exit the canyon too early. We had solitude and flowing water to enjoy.
Rather abruptly we entered the narrow and tall Wall Street section upstream of Imlay. This I did not want to end. Fast flowing, wall-to-wall water with intricately sculpted and overhanging cliffs. It went by too fast. Jeff and Jesse saw a deer enjoying the lack of people as it darted off up the river.
After Wall Street came a brief stop and run up Orderville and then the home stretch. A few nice sweeping bends downstream, the Mystery Waterfall, and then the concrete platform at the end of the narrows.
After seeing the tourist-clad end of the Narrows and dreading playing 50 questions with the camera-armed tourists hanging out at the river's bank, we all agreed we should float on to Big Bend and then de-kit there. The rapids below the Narrows exit we good fun. Jesse and I elected to portage around one of the drops while Jeff powered on through, making it look easy. The rest was good fun. The river flattened out after the Temple of Sinawava, which at least gave us a chance to look around at the rock walls and spot a few climbers preparing for their mid-wall camp. We de-kitted and packed at the Big Bend bus stop, with many watchful eyes and curious glances as many five-minute spaced buses passed through the stop. It was a long, full, and highly satisfying day. Once packed, we took buses to town and had a well earned meal of Mexican food in town. Sleep came easy that night, despite fits of sleety rain and some near-hurricane force gusts.
It's good to be ahead of the curve, if only briefly. It's only a matter of time until this run gets popularized the way climbing and canyoning has in Zion, which will lead to heavier regulations, pricier permits, or flat out closures of what was truly an amazing journey. I'll certainly never be motivated to walk the Zion Narrows again! Thanks to Jeff and Jesse for a fantastic trip.
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