Water Hikes in St. George

We spent a fun weekend down in St. George, Utah at the beginning of July with one of our favorite couples, Adam and Ashlee. Because the weather down in southern Utah had highs over 105 degrees and lows over 85 degrees, we decided that each of our activities needed to involve water.

On our way down to St. George area, we stopped at the tiny city of Kanarravile to hike the Kanarraville Falls. The start of this hike was hot. We walked along a wide open sandy trail until we finally reached the creek that runs through the trail. Once we reached the creek, the trail passed around and through the water the rest of the hike, keeping us cool.

After being in and out of the water for a while, we eventually reached one of the most anticipated parts of the hike. The path beside the creek disappeared and we began walking completely in the water as we entered a slot canyon. It was so neat! The creek was thin and the red rock walls stretched up high on either side of us.

Soon after walking through the slot canyon, we reached the famous Falls. The Falls themselves weren't really huge or impressive, but they were so picturesque, especially with the rickety little ladder beside them. There were dozens of people trying to go up and down at the exact moment we got there, so we refrained from doing pictures right then and climbed up and continued on the hike (though we took the picture below on the way back).

We were soon out of the slot canyon again, and came to another little waterfall and natural rock slide. We took turns going down the rock slide, taking pictures, and eating snacks. We also convinced hikers passing by to go down as well.

We continued on the hike only a little further into a second slot canyon and small waterfall with a sketchy ladder, but ultimately decided to stop at the top of the waterfall and head back on our way. It was starting to get a bit late and we heard that there wasn't anything impressive past this waterfall.

On our way back, we made sure to stop at the more famous Falls and take a few pictures :) From the hike, we stopped at Wendy's for some dinner and headed to the Halford home. They were so kind to house us for the weekend! Camping would not have been fun in that weather.

The next morning, we got up fairly early and headed to Zion National Park! Apparently we didn't get up quite early enough though, because every parking lot in the Park was already full. We had to park just outside the park for an extra fee and walk in. We were very happy to have our National Parks Pass though :) We immediately got on the bus shuttle which took us to the opposite end of the Park for the entrance to the Narrows. From there, it was a short hike/walk along a paved path before reaching the Virgin River! We immediately hopped in the water and began the slow hike upstream. The water felt so nice! It was perfect for the hot weather.

There were a lot of people who had the same idea, so we were glad that the river was so wide. We hiked for probably about a mile (it was slow going, especially because of me) before finding a good spot on some rocks to eat our lunch. The rest of the crew also did some jumping off the rocks here. It was a popular spot to stop.

We continued walking for a while after lunch, and were debating turning back. We asked some other hikers in the river if there was anything up ahead, and we were told that the river would fork and that the right path would lead to some awesome waterfalls. So we decided we had to continue! We did eventually reach that right fork, and the water immediately became more shallow, less strong, and even a little warmer. The rock walls on either side of us still stretched up super high, even taller than the ones at Kanarraville.

Our super cool new water filters!

This part of the hike was actually a lot of fun! We really enjoyed it. There was more rock scrambling and bouldering to get to wear we wanted to go. At one point before reaching the first waterfall, the river became only about two feet wide, but three feet deep from the path it had worn from the rock. There was beautiful green foliage all around us. It was awesome. Then, there was the first waterfall!

We had heard from other hikers that there were three waterfalls along this path. And even though continuing on our hike through the Narrows meant we sacrificed some of our other planned activities for the day, it was worth it. The path continued to be beautiful. There were points where the river became so deep that I was basically swimming, and Dustan had to take off our camera backpack and hold it above his head.

We eventually stopped taking our nice camera out of the bag--the waterfalls sprayed too much water as we climbed up them, and the water got so deep that it needed to stay in the bag. In addition to this, Adam's GoPro died, haha. So toward the end of the Narrows hike, we didn't take many pictures. We never did know if we reached the last waterfall. We came upon a giant rock that was extremely difficult to scale that stopped us from going any further. We weren't sure if the stream flowing from the rock was the last waterfall or not. But anyway, we stopped there, ate a snack, and turned back! The way back went a little faster. We were going down stream this time without the powerful Virgin River slowing us down, and it was usually easier to go down the waterfalls than it was to go up them. Usually, haha. We finished the hike close to dinner time, overall hiking (by our best guess) for about 8 hours and 6 to 7 miles. It was great!!

We stopped for a much needed all American dinner at Apollo Burgers in St. George before heading back to the Halfords'. We slept so well that night! The next morning, we went to church and made the long drive back to the Provo! It was a fun, hot, and beauty filled weekend! We loved crossing a couple southern Utah hikes off our bucket list :)