Thursday Travel Tales: Zion Subway

Zach and I went on our first canyoneering trip through the Subway at Zion National Park last Sunday. The Subway hike is about 9 miles and you start from the top of a slot canyon, hike down to the bottom of the canyon to a formation that resembles a subway tunnel (this part includes a number of short swims and rappels), and then you hike through the canyon and back out at the other end. Zach and I had hiked the Subway from the bottom a few years ago (this part doesn’t require rappelling or swimming) and we enjoyed the hike so this year we decided to go for the real deal.

Zach rented wet suits and a dry bag and we borrowed rope and harnesses so we were all set to go. The day before the hike it snowed in Zion, so we were a little nervous about the water temperature being too low, but we decided to go anyway because we were committed (we were already in Zion and had taken a day off of work, so there was no point in backing down because of a little snowfall). 

Here's us bundled up at the beginning of the hike.

We made our way down into the canyon by following a series of cairns, this part of the hike was super easy and fun.

The cairns were harder to see when covered in snow.

 You can tell this used to be the bottom of a river.

Eventually we encountered our first water crossing, and it was time for the cold to start.

We're so happy and dry...that's about to change.

We got into our wetsuits (which aren’t really meant for the just above freezing water temperatures we were swimming in, they didn’t even have sleeves!) Also, we didn’t have any foot protection, I was just wearing sandals. I should have known that this was a recipe for disaster. Anyway, in the first swim I got to experience muscle spasms, which were very fun. I guess when you submerge your body in super cold water it flips out by contracting all of our muscles at once. It was a strange feeling that I'd be happy to never experience again. The good thing was that the first swim was short and we were back on dry land soon and continued on down the canyon.

We quickly encountered our first rappel which was easy and fun - which is good because it was my first time rappelling.

Rappelling was awesome (also, note the sleeveless wet suit, brrr!)

After the easy rappel we encountered a much more difficult obstacle, which required rappelling into the freezing water. Zach had really been hoping we could keep the rope from getting wet (since the rope would get 10x heavier once wet and he had to carry it) but this obstacle involved rappelling into deep freezing water alongside a waterfall, so keeping the rope dry didn’t seem likely. Also, to make matters worse, after the rappel there was supposed to be this cool looking bowling ball stuck between two rocks that we swim under that looks like this:

Instead there was debris and a log in the way so it looked like this:

The problem with that was that after swimming through the crazy cold water and initiating the muscle spasms, lifting all of our body weight onto that log wasn't going to be the easiest thing in the world. Well I’m not really sure how we managed it, but I guess adrenaline kicked in and both of us were able to rappel down, swim though the water, then hoist ourselves onto the rock. Then we had to retrieve the rope, but sadly it got wrapped around some debris so I had to go back in the water to untangle it. After this obstacle we were in a dark place. We had both been in the water for way too long and were having trouble warming up again. We stopped at a sunny patch for a few minutes but quickly realized that continuing to move would be the best way to warm up, so we kept going.

Our third obstacle was similar to the second, but without the log at the end, so we were able to get through the rappel and swim much quicker. Also it was a little warmer as the sun was coming up, so we were feeling much better. Then we finally got to the subway looking part of the hike.

Pretty subway picture.

Here's proof that we made it.

Can you spot Zach in this picture?

Then we got to our last rappel, which was down to the part we had hiked up to before. After this we knew there would be no more swimming so we could change back into dry clothes!

Last rappel!

Last swim!

The hike out was pretty difficult but at least we were dry and warm (I felt for Zach, whose pack had gotten infinitely heavier now that he was carrying a soaking wet rope and wet suits). We finally made it to the end and were so happy to have made it out alive! 

We celebrated once we got to the parking lot.

Honestly, it was a great trip, but for next time we’ll either go later in the season when the water is warmer or get warmer wet suits plus neoprene socks. Also, we’ll find a rope that is allowed to get wet so it doesn't get so heavy and unruly.