Joe Mahoney – Blogger, Canyoneer

This is a bonus blog. I want to try writing some more descriptive blogs about  these hikes that I’ve been doing. People aren’t lying when they say pictures don’t do justice. Cameras can’t peer down the sheer edge of a cliff. There is no lense wide enough for the Grand Canyon and cameras certainly can’t capture the fear and exhilaration of going somewhere humans weren’t meant to go .

The focus of this blog is my most recent hike, The Subway, in Zion National Park. This is a popular hike. So much so that you need a special permit even though it’s an out and back day hike. Most of these permits go via 3 month advance registration, and those are extremely hard to get . You can also enter a last minute drawing, which is what I did. There were 10 spaces available for the last minute drawing out of 200 applications and I won. I wasn’t expecting to win. I’m sure I did because most people travel in groups and I got the last permit from an odd number of people. Since I wasn’t expecting to win I hadn’t yet done all my research. So I grabbed myself one of the more memorable campsites to date off a gnarly 4×4 road, made myself some steak, zucchini, and mango salsa, and did my research.

Here is how the National Park Service (NPS) describes the hike:

“From the Bottom Up
This is a strenuous 9-mile round-trip hike through the Left Fork of North Creek that requires route finding, creek crossing, and scrambling over boulders. This hike begins and ends at the Left Fork Trailhead on the Kolob Terrace Road.”

By route finding they mean there isn’t an actual NPS maintained trail, although you’re in a slot canyon so the direction of travel is pretty clear. By creek crossing they mean you’re in the actual creek most of the time. And “scrambling” is a technical term for a steep climb using your hands. Camelback Mountain in AZ comes to mind. In this case it was boulders. Here is Wikipedia’s definition:

“Scrambling (also known as alpine scrambling) is “a walk up steep terrain involving the use of one’s hands”. It is an ambiguous term that lies somewhere between hiking, hillwalking, mountaineering, and rock climbing”

The trail head is off another small road pretty far from the tourist center of Zion NP which, mind you, was just as crazy as Yosemite. Families and cars everywhere, kids crying, packed shuttle buses and generally just chaotic. I feel for the NPS in how to handle the difficult balance of letting the masses visit these beautiful sites while maintaining them as wilderness and not zoos. It’s kind of like snowboarding. Do the hard stuff and avoid the crowds.

I scoped out the trail head earlier in the day and read there was some public land where you could set up camp nearby. As I was driving I saw a large network of 4×4 roads. So I kicked it in to low and started climbing, knowing the best campsites would be in there somewhere. I took it slow and all went well except for one time when I misread where my right front tire was, it slipped off the track in to a crevice. The car was pretty much at 45 degrees and stuff went everywhere. But the Land Cruiser mashes so I was able to climb out. Was worth it after I found where I was going to be sleeping for the night.

The Subway starts with a 15 minute or so walk through a forest. Pretty uneventful except I remember there being a lot of big nasty flies following me. Then, similar to the Grand Canyon, the forest opens up to…. a canyon. The forest ends and the floor drops basically straight down. The switchback to get down is so steep that I was often going on all fours. Scrambling, if you will. The floor of the switchback is a thick layer of red sand and you have to be very careful with your footing.

Once you hit the canyon floor you turn left. The rest is up to you. The directions are pretty much to follow the stream through the canyon until you hit these red waterfalls, then you’re at the mouth of The Subway. That starts out easy enough and I actually stayed dry for much of the way in thanks to putting extra effort in to the stream crossings and some pretty steep climbs to get around obstacles. I later learned on the way back that just walking right through the stream is much easier than scaling canyon walls and tip toeing the water crossings.

The canyon gets more and more narrow as you progress. At the end it’s pretty much the stream wedged between the canyon walls. This is where the boulders start. There is no more room to go around the stream. You just pick the safest and easiest way to climb boulders for roughly 1/2 mile.

After that you reach the red waterfalls. The stream widens up a bit as a thin sheet of water trickles down these earthy red slabs of rock. The only option is to “scramble” right up the waterfall. It’s pretty slick so I had to be careful. I had never seen a red waterfall before so this was pretty cool.

Then you turn the corner and you’re at the mouth of the subway, starting with this MASSIVE concave wall. Never seen anything like it and I couldn’t help but think what the heck formed it. It was perfectly concave. And massive. What I just said. I have a picture posted below the blog.

The subway is a network of crystal clear pools connected by another thin sheet of water cascading down the whole thing. I knew I had to swim to get to some parts and I prepared accordingly. I also knew the water was going to be cold as it’s snow run off. So I jumped in fueled by awe and pure adrenaline and now I know what it’s like for your body to re-distribute blood to vital organs. Good thing it was 110 out.

I spent some time in The Subway, eating lunch and taking pictures of myself with a tri-pod and then headed out. I made sure not to forget that I had to backtrack across all the same boulders and obstacles as on the way in. Except this time my feet were already wet so when in doubt I just mashed right through the stream. Then this little black bug attached itself to my ankle and started digging. I did not know something so small could hurt so bad. It started off feeling like a pine needle or something and then quickly intensified. When I saw the creature and associated it with the pain I flipped. Bee in your hair type stuff. So I spent the last 3 or so miles in the water thinking I was surrounded by flesh eating insects. Note – these are probably harmless.

One thing I did underestimate is climbing out back up the steep switchbacks. That was tougher than the Grand Canyon. I was exhausted after making it out but felt great about what I’d just completed.

I would love some feedback on if these adventure recaps are worth reading and if I should keep writing them, so please send!

I’m off to the Coyote Buttes on the AZ/UT border today. I want to see “The Wave,” another lottery only hike, this one even harder to get than The Subway. Stay tuned if I get it!