Canyoneering and desert life

It's been too long since the last blog post--9 days! We've been staying very active and busy in Zion National Park.  Zion is a special place for me and Mike since we had some of our first outdoor adventures together here when we started dating. After a long drive from Bakersfield, we set up our campsite in the Watchman campground on Tuesday night which was going to be our home and basecamp for the next 10 days. Our campsite neighbors were a friendly brother and sister from Idaho who spotted our Settlers of Catan box from across the campsite.  They came over to say hello and we ended up getting a quick game of Catan in before we went to sleep that evening.

On Wednesday morning we woke up fairly early to take down Pine Creek Canyon; a notoriously cold and wet canyon which required wet suits. We parked the car at the exit of the canyon and hitched a ride up the road from a mid-twenties British guy touring the States.  Mike was still rummaging gear out of the car when he stopped to pick me up, and he didn't seem as pleased to offer up his car after he saw Mike running over too :) Once we got to the top of the canyon, we quickly got our gear together and rushed to the first rappel to beat a group of 6-8 Europeans.  Even though we beat that group, there was already another group of 3 older gentleman set up on the first rappel.  It was difficult to get a sense of remoteness in Pine Creek because there were so many other people around and the noise from the traffic going through the tunnel was very loud, but Pine Creek is a fun and beautiful canyon none the less. It's steep walls block out most of the light, which keeps it pretty dark and cold for the most part, but there were plenty of pools to play in and obstacles to dodge, which kept us plenty warm.  After roughly 2 hours we exited the narrow section of the canyon and began our 'short' walk to the car.  We ended up taking the wrong exit trail out and came out higher than our car was on the hillside, which added an unnecessary 300 feet of steep climbing to our hike.  The bottlenecking and route finding hiccup aside, Pine Creek was a phenomenal start to our canyoneering adventures!

A beam of light shining though an opening in Pine Creek

After doing Pine Creek with my weighty 70 meter dynamic climbing rope we decided to upgrade our rope system to a static line with a pull cord. Since my 26th birthday is coming up this Thursday, Mike gave me an early birthday present: a brand new 8.3 mm diameter, 40 meter long static line (and its accompanying 6 mm diameter 40 m pull cord for longer rappels)! This new system is not only lighter than my climbing rope, it will also absorb less water and sand in the canyons.  When you're hauling these ropes on your back through the skinny canyons, every pound makes a difference!

On Thursday we didn't have any canyon permits lined up so we decided to tackle some of the less intense day hikes around Zion. We did iconic Angle's Landing in the morning--reaching the top in under an hour! We started early to stay in the shade for most of the hike and were some of the first people to the top.  After we climbed down, we found a beautiful swimming hole away from the crowds that we passed at the bottom of Pine Creek canyon.  What a great way to beat the 95 deg heat.

Looking down from Angel's Landing

My friends Nicole and Yvette drove down from Salt Lake City on Thursday night to join us for the weekend fun. On Friday morning all four of us woke up early to do the elusive Mystery Canyon. Mike and I have been wanting to do Mystery for a few years but we've never been able to secure permits since they only allow 12 people to enter each day.  With some advanced planning on this trip, we solidified not one, but TWO Mystery permits.  With this being our first Mystery experience, we were all very excited; its considered one of the premier Zion slot canyons since it has a little bit of everything. We hiked up 2,100 feet from the Weeping Rock past Observation Point to get to the canyon entry, which left us pretty exhausted (as you can see).

Exhausted hikers near the top of Observation Point

After walking down a steep loose gully (aptly named Death Gully) for roughly 30 minutes, we finally got to the first rappel. Mystery Canyon is full of short, quick back-to-back rappels through classic narrow canyon. You forgot how hard you're working since you have a smile plastered to your face as you descend the rappels through the canyon.  After some scrambling, down climbing, and a few more rappels we finally reached the first water obstacles of the day. The water was fairly low, we only had to get in up to our waists. The final rappel out of Mystery Canyon is hands down the best.  You come down a 40 m waterfall into the Narrows where tourists spot you and crowd around in awe to watch you drop in.  It's as close as most of us will probably come to celebrity status. The waterfall creates a mat of slippery moss on the rock where you're placing your feet, which makes for a tricky rappel.  Everyone made it down clean and without embarrassment, except when I took a quick stumble or two near the top, then cruised my way to the bottom in style. Mystery was by far our favorite canyon we've done so far in Zion, and we can't wait until round 2!  We all celebrated our achievement with some beers and s'mores around the campfire and Yvette serenaded us with her mandolin!

Scoping out the waterfall rappel into the Narrows

On Saturday, Mike and I had permits to do the Subway and Das Boot. The Subway is the most popular technical canyon in Zion and the allow 80 people to go down the canyon each day. We were lucky to get permits to the Subway for two people, so unfortunately Yvette and Nicole couldn't join us. The Das Boot section is an additional 1.1 mile of narrow canyon above the traditional Subway route that is seldom done, and since Mike and I had both already done the Subway, we decided to kick it up a notch and throw in Das Boot (plus it's really fun to say in a terrible German accent). There is a ton of standing water in Das Boot which made for an hour of incredibly cold swimming and wading!  It was an absolutely gorgeous canyon, though, and by the time we made it to the Subway, the normally chilly water there felt like a bath in comparison. Unfortunately we don't have any photos of this day because we forgot the camera in the car. I guess we'll just have to do it again next year! We also forgot our permits at camp and wouldn't you know it, we bumped in to a ranger on our way down. Of course the one time we get our permits checked is the one day we forgot to bring them! Luckily, the ranger was really nice and understood our story so he let us off the hook, which can be a hefty $150-1000 fine. The Zion rangers are really good folks!

Yvette narrowly escaping the crushing blow of a cascading boulder!  Sweet moves!

If two days in a row of all day canyoneering wasn't enough, we had a permit to do Behunin Canyon on Sunday for our third canyon in a row.  This might have been pushing it since these canyons take 5-10 hours to do and feel like a work day of effort, but we couldn't help ourselves.  When we woke up on Sunday morning both of us were very tired and sore. Yvette and Nicole motivated us by hiking up to the Angle's Landing lookout with us where we parted ways.  Mike and I continued trudging up another 2 miles past the lookout to the head of the canyon. Neither of us were feeling too great at that point, but with a lunch break and the promise of fun rappels, we were re-energized. You lose elevation fast in Behunin; the first four rappels are back to back and descend roughly 550 feet all together and you finish with a 160 ft free-hanging rappel into the Emerald Pools area. After we pulled the rope on the last rappel we scrambled down a boulder field and jumped in the first pool of fresh spring water that we saw. It was a great way to finish that canyon.

After Behunin yesterday, we were feeling pretty grody and decided to splurge by spending $5 on a 7-minute shower in Springdale. Three canyons in three days makes you feel pretty gross! Today is our rest day which means absolutely no canyons and no hiking! It's time to rest and clean up.  We slept in, got a fantastic $8 breakfast buffet in town, did laundry and are catching up on some reading (and blogging). It feels good to give our legs a rest! Mike's really good friend Paul is driving down from Salt Lake City this evening to join us for more canyons on Tuesday and Wednesday. We leave Zion Friday morning and head to Escalante for a short day before the rafting trip next weekend.