The Road Less Traveled Was Pretty Fun

All those past “adventures” have just been put to shame. I hiked the Narrows. That alone would qualify as an adventure – I’d never done that before. But we weren’t going to do this halfway.

Samantha, Don, and Stephanie came down to pick me up before school, and we wanted to spend a day hiking. Originally, this meant a few hours going up the narrows in the morning, and then stopping by Weeping Rock and Emerald pools on the way back. After dinner we would hike to Observation Point for the sunset. This would have been exhausting and exciting, but I personally think our major change of plan was much superior.

We got into the river around 10:30 or 11:00 Thursday morning. Those first few steps were absolutely freezing. We took a group picture before starting – Michelle came with us and you can see her peeking through.  Then we took some shots from across the first ford.

Sam, Michelle, Rissa, Don, Steph

Not far up the river, it gets probably 4 feet deep. I’d decided to wear a swimsuit top instead of a shirt and this was the first time I was glad of that choice. Steph’s purple shirt went super dark when it was wet, and she had a severe line across her back. All the hikers behind us were looking at it before they went into the water.

There were lots of families and foreign tourists at first, but the farther we went, the fewer we saw. Much of the hike was fighting across the swift river in foot deep water. A foot doesn’t seem like much, but when the ground is slippery, unstable, and rocky, it is more than enough to make crossing the current difficult. It was much easier to walk along the shores, and we were rarely wet above the knees. Sam’s attempt to swim around a big boulder proved that we couldn’t fight against the current, so we didn’t even try a “more adventurous” route.

Eventually we arrived at the junction. At that point, the canyon splits into two: Wall Street and Orderville. Wall Street is a popular destination for Narrows hikers. If you hiked down from the top of the canyon, you would come through Wall Street. But we decided Orderville looked more fun because no one was going that way. So of course, that was the way we went.

We were very serious about this hike.

Now, I know of Orderville gulch because many people start on our property to rappel down the canyon and then go into the Narrows. It was beautiful, but not long after the first curve, we met a pair of hikers coming down who told me that not far up was a deep pool with no way up the rocks beyond. I figured our adventure would be done at that point and we would go look at Wall Street then go back down.

Apparently “no way up” is a subjective term.  After splashing in the water, that was no more than five feet at the deepest part, Steph suggested using the floating log we were playing with as a make-shift ledge to climb to the rocks from. Happily, Michelle wedged it into a crack and scrambled up. Not much later, we all had made it to the next level and were happily continuing up the slot canyon.

We climbed probably four more little ledges, all of which were easier than the first. Around 3 pm we voted once more on whether to continue. This time we turned around. We knew it wouldn’t take nearly as long to get back to the base of the canyon, now that the water was helping us along. In fact, once we were out of Orderville Gulch, we began floating along with very little effort. We had planned on doing this, but I suddenly realized I didn’t really know how to deal with my backpack. Luckily I quickly discovered that my two water bottles did an excellent job keeping it on the surface.

Up Orderville, right before we turned around.

After the first little bit, we came to a section of rapids. Although they aren’t exactly white water, the current rushes through these rocky sections swift and strong. Samantha continued merrily along and went straight through the rocks. The rest of us hesitated, and decided to walk around. At the next rapids patch, we gave into curiosity and joined Sam. The current was so strong; Don couldn’t even keep his feet under him.

All of us were larger and heavier than Sam, so we had significantly more trouble going through the rapids. Every rock left a bruise. But it was so fun, we continued through the rough patches whenever there was enough water to carry us. Shallow patches forced us to walk, but we would get right back down when we had a foot of water. I discovered the hazards of the shallow when my foot caught on a rock, whipping me around in water too fast to stop. I managed to regain control before I slammed into the boulder I was swiftly approaching. My feet were the only thing to hit and I steered myself clear.

When we finally arrived at the bottom, we were cold, bruised, and happy. We had lost the car keys and the ziplock bag with our cameras in it hadn’t survived the last quarter mile since we’d checked it. Every little trouble simply made things more exciting. We found Don’s spare key and on later inspection my SD card at least survived – allowing us to see some of the pictures!

So, yes, my adventures are definitely worth the attempt at adding interest to my life. I’m glad to be back at BYU and have such a great memory to end the summer!