The Narrows 2023

I have really wanted to take the kids down the narrows for years. We attempted it years ago from the bottom, but Tate got sick and the kids were so little we didn't make it very far.

This year I got permits to hike it from the top down; which is a significant hike. It is 16 miles but those are very hard miles.

Unfortunately, Tate had a work conflict and couldn't make it, so it was just the younger four kiddos.

Right as we got into the narrows, it did start raining on us which was a little concerning, but it didn't last too long. What was annoying was the rain was sporadic, so we tried to hold off on putting our ponchos on. When it finally started raining hard, we finally stopped to up them on; then the rain stopped shortly afterward. Of course.

Last year saw heavy snowfall, so the water level was very high. In fact the Narrows were closed for most of spring. This made the hiking extra challenging because the water was considerably deeper.

The kids weren't prepared for how long/hard this hike would be. They were pretty frustrated with how slow we moved across the map. With that said, the kids were awesome. They were troopers.

The Narrows were so beautiful! I love the Narrows and I loved sharing it the kids. I hope they appreciate this hike at some point. 

Something I didn't realize was that our campsite was the very last campsite and was significantly further down the narrows. We ended up getting hiking the last hour in the dark which was no fun.

We actually never made it to our campsite, camp 12. We were having trouble finding the way forward when Gideon lost his shoe. He was pretty upset so we decided to call it a night and backtrack to a clearing we recently passed.

The next day, the water was a dark chocolatey shade because of the rain the day before. This had be concerned that we might get caught in some flooding. We left super early to get ahead of any problems and while the water was definitely higher, there was no danger.

We even found Gideon's shoe.

Some memorial moments:

• Harper's 15 outfit changes. No joke, this girl has a different outfit in every picture. I have no idea how she packed this much clothing. When we stopped to camp, she kept lending out dry clothes to others.
• Reece sliding down the hill. When we were trying to get to campsite 12 and struggling to find the way forward, at one point, Gideon was climbing a steep hill. Reece followed him, but the earth fell away and he slid all the way down to where the rest of us were standing. While we were slightly alarmed, we thought it was hilarious the way to fell. He just slid down like a rag doll. He even rotated around while sliding down. His head spun down and nearly touched our feet. We wall just started laughing.
• Gideon falling down 12 times. Gideon the was the trailblazer. He was at the front for the majority of the hike. It's extremely helpful to have someone path finding because there are often false paths or areas where it's unclear which way to go. As such, Gideon "discovered" a few hidden rocks in the river and took a few falls. It happened so many times, we kind of got used to it. We would just hear a "Frick!" from up ahead, some yelling and then he'd move on.

As a testament to this, he bent both his hiking poles. 

• Hudson's mental breakdown: At some point, every had a moment of frustration with the hike. Hudson's was the best. At the end, she took a fall. She was fine but as she approached the rest of us she started crying and venting and said, "I guess it's my turn to have a mental breakdown", then proceeded to laugh.
• Reece hates Dad: This hike was particularly hard for Reece. The water came up much higher on him so he was much wetter than everyone else. He actually had the best attitude of all the kids for most of the hike but on the second day he hit his breaking point and started complaining endlessly. One moment that made me laugh is when I had just crossed the river and was looking back to see where everyone was, Reece rounded the corner. He paused and assessed the river crossing, looked at me, and mouthed, "I HATE YOU".