Virgin River Narrows, Zion National Park, Utah. Hiking the Zion Narrows along the North Fork of the Virgin River in Zion National Park, Utah. The Virgin River has carved a gash more than 2500’ deep into the Navajo Sandstone of the Markagunt Plateau of southwestern Utah. 25 hikers were swept to their deaths here in the 60s when a wall of water generated by an upstream thunderstorm crashed down on them. Since this entire region was pushed upwards by colossal geologic forces beginning about 10 million years ago, the sandstone layer-cake of the Colorado Plateau has been incised with countless deep, narrow canyons. Zion National Park contains some of the most spectacular examples of these forces.