Jan 29, 2025 5 min read Accessible Travel Inspiration

Extreme Motus Makes Zion National Park Wheelchair Accessible

Hiking the Narrows in Zion

This blog is written by Sam and Ryan from Extreme Motus, a company dedicated to making outdoor adventures possible for wheelchair users. Ryan and his lifelong friend, Sam, explore nature in an all-terrain wheelchair, proving that the outdoors is for everyone. In this story, Ryan shares their incredible journey through The Narrows in Zion National Park—a hike many would assume is impossible for wheelchair users.

"My definition of danger is different than most people's. I think it’s dangerous to let my friend sit in an assisted living center watching reruns of The Golden Girls. I think it’s bad for his mental and physical health to be excluded from experiences like this."

Meet Sam and Ryan

A lot of people are confused about our relationship. Are we brothers? Am I Sam’s Dad? Are we sisters? Even ChatGPT with all its A.I. wisdom gets it wrong.

Sam’s parents and my parents knew each other at university. So I always knew Sam but we didn’t become good friends until we were in High School. Since 2019, we have worked together as the marketing team for the Extreme Motus All-Terrain Wheelchair. But we prefer the moniker: crash test dummies. Together we visit skate parks, state parks, and National Parks and make nature wheelchair accessible.

One of our favorite adventures was hiking The Narrows in Zion National Park. I’ve shown friends pictures of Zion before and they had a hard time believing the photo wasn’t AI-generated. It is a very unique and beautiful place.

Skipping the Lines at Zion

Zion is a very popular and crowded National Park. Most people are required to wait in long lines and ride a shuttle into the park and from trailhead to trailhead. We stopped at the visitor center and told them our situation with Sam and needing to transport a special wheelchair into the park. They gave us a special pass for Sam’s van that allowed us to drive into the park. We were the only private vehicle in the parking lot. It saved us a lot of time and allowed us to change out of our wet clothes after the hike.

Hiking The Narrows in Zion National Park

The Narrows is one of the best hikes in Zion. I first experienced the Narrows as a boy scout and I was excited to return with Sam and share this special place with him.

From the trailhead, a paved walking path takes you into a towering slot canyon. After about a mile the pavement ends and hikers enter the river.

Tourists come from all over the world to experience this hike. Many of them stop in town and some rent special shoes, waterproof pants, and hiking sticks. The only special gear we had was Sam’s Extreme Motus all-terrain wheelchair.

As we bombed past the tourists struggling through the river we got a lot of funny looks. People couldn’t believe a guy in a wheelchair was going faster than they could through the canyon. Check out our Youtube video for more.

Making New Friends

We are really comfortable going on adventures, getting in over our heads, and asking strangers for help. “Come on doesn’t it look fun?!” It’s a great way to make the hike easier and make new friends. I like to joke that we are tricking people into doing my work. But I know we are giving them a chance to help Sam. This makes the hike more special for everyone.

The river is difficult to hike in because it is filled with small boulders and the muddy water means you can’t see what you’re about to step on. Every step I took had me wondering if I was about to break my ankle. Pushing and pulling the chair through the river was a lot of work and Southern Utah is hot in the summer. The great thing about this hike is you can lay down in the river and cool off anytime you need to.

There are sections of the hike where the water becomes about 3-4 feet deep. Sam’s Extreme Motus wheelchair has large low-pressure tires. At 4 PSI they absorb a lot of the bumps but also keep the chair buoyant. The hike actually became easier when the chair started floating as we didn’t have to fight against all the rocks.

During the deep water sections of the hike, we recruited a few people to make sure the chair stayed balanced in the water.

Is it Dangerous?

We do our best to stay safe while seizing the day and making our time here on this planet memorable. Disabled or not, every adventure has an element of danger. That’s why they're called adventures. Sam was born with cerebral palsy. He, his parents, and I don’t think that means he should have to miss out on these experiences.

Taking Sam on adventures like this changes his life. It makes the hike more memorable for me. It also makes it more memorable for the strangers we ask for help. It shows other hikers what inclusion is.

It allows his parents to join Sam in nature, after years of his mother sitting in the van with him while the other half of his family goes on a hike without him.

When we post our adventures online, the response is overwhelmingly positive. But once in a while, some people think what we are doing is too dangerous. One person who lives on the other side of the country even called the police on us. After a quick visit, the friendly officers thought what were doing looked pretty great and went about their day.

My definition of danger is different than most people's. I think it’s dangerous to let my friend sit in an assisted living center watching reruns of The Golden Girls. I think it’s bad for his mental and physical health to be excluded from experiences like this. I think that even though he’s 42 and sleeps with a nightlight* he’s brave enough to come with me and get a little banged up once in a while.

Making Nature Wheelchair Accessible

Sam and I love going on adventures together. We visit places many believe are not accessible for people with mobility challenges. With teamwork and the right all-terrain wheelchair, we make the inaccessible accessible.

*P.S. Sam doesn’t sleep with a nightlight, but he’s sitting next to me as I write this blog and when I drop in nonsense like this he dies laughing. And I really like to make him laugh. ;)