Zion National Park in early November is much quieter than summer time. Foliage is lingering and temperature around 65F is at comfort. Water is slightly above 40F and risk of hypothermia inch closer but shallow water depth. Views everywhere are thrilled. Hiking the Narrows and Hiking Angel’s Landing Hiking are everybody’s bucket list. Hiking in Checkerboard Mesa area doesn’t address here, but trails there are good add-on if you have more time.
Travel Tips
- highway 9 road view between east entrance and Floor of the Valley Road is better during sunset especially Checkerboard Mesa.
- inbound traffic from east isn’t allowed to cross-road into Canyon Overlook Trail parking.
- for Hidden Canyon Trail, don’t stop half way until you reach the sign of trail end.
- for The Narrows, check water condition with visitor center for safety. Try out dry suite and shoe one day before when renting gears. A strong stick for water trekking is highly recommended.
- Zion National Park also offers good places for canyoneering.
- Count into longer shuttle waiting time depending on seasons and time of the day. Visitors may not able to take on first coming bus.
View from Hidden Canyon Trail
Day 1
Chain is your best friend on Hidden Canyon Trail
Hidden Canyon Trail on big rock
In the morning, we challenged Hidden Canyon and saw how kids do. My kids were 7 and 9 at the time of travel. We taught them how to safely walk along the cliff with chain support and watched them carefully. Although some sections are truly dangerous, walk with cautions will do fine. Some places are harder to cross over, but don’t just turn back. It is a fun trail. Keep walking until you see the sign of trail end. On the way back, we stop by Weeping Rock, super easy route. After lunch at Zion Lodge, we continued on Emerald Pools Trail and walked all the way to upper pool. At the point there is enough walk for calling it a day. We took shuttle back to our hotel and tried out dry suit in a gear shop for The Narrows tomorrow
Waiting others to come through chain section on Hidden Canyon Trail
View from Weeping Rock
Day 2
Floating Rock
Two persons at bottom left for scale
The Narrows is a must do when conditions allow. We did bottom-up with two kids age 7 and 9. Water level was below kids knee most of the time during trekking. Although walking slowing, most of crossing were manageable. The only problem was low water temperature. Dry pant for adults is recommended and dry suit for kids is highly recommended. Once your body get wet, you lose your body heat quickly. Little kids (under 50″ in our case) get higher body exposure to cold water and they suffer worse. Since smallest dry suit is still too large for little kids, their body are not totally sealed. Water still penetrates inside from their hands. My daughter is one example. She felt cold not long after crossing deeper water. Before our water trekking, we thought dry suit should be able to keep body warm and made a mistake not to wear kids enough clothes inside to really seal their loose sleeves.
Breathtaking The Narrows after Floating Rock
To hike the Narrows, you better start early. To start river hike, you first walk the 1-mile (1.6 km) Riverside Walk From Temple of Sinawava to the end. Three miles river trekking leads you to Floating Rock where starts best the Narrows. We finally reached Floating Rock but that was also as far as we could go. Kids were tired (mostly because of cold). River after Floating Rock is full of water (below knee) and cold. I pushed forward alone for one half mile more. If views before Floating Rock is magnificent, views after Floating Rock can only be described as breathtaking. When your situation allows, at least reach Hiccup Spring before turning back.
Checkerboard Mesa
Descend into Pine Creek
Day 3
We hike Canyon Overlook Trail in the morning. This trail is short, easy and reward you great views. Be aware that only east bound traffic on scenic highway 9 allows to turn into Canyon Overlook parking lot. During our hiking, we randomly heard voice from bottom of canyon and scratched our head. When we were back to parking lot, we accidentally found out a great canyoneering called Pine Creek right blow parking lot. We followed canyoneering people, climbed couple feet down and watched them descending into canyon. After hiking, we drove east to enjoy scenic highway and Checkerboard Mesa.
last push on Angel’s Landing
After stretching legs at Checkerboard Mesa, Angel’s Landing is the remaining adventure for the day. This trail is truly strenuous. Kids needed several breaks on the way before reaching Scout’s Lookout and stopped there to get a good look of Angel’s Landing. I continue pursing Angel’s Landing peak. Not long after start, I saw some kids turned back. After some hack climbing, I told myself I made right decision for kids. On my way back from peak, oh my god, I can not believe what I see. I might see an angle. A little girl about age 4 or 5 with her mom was climbing closed to half way up. She wore white and was a true angle landing on this narrow ridge.
View on half way is unbelievable already
Canyon View from Angel’s Landing peak
Look back to Scout’s Lookout from Angel’s Landing
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