Some really cool pots.
The entrance to the Subway. Sorry,the pictures are kinda out of order.
This is why they call it the subway.
This is the sketchy part. You make a 20yard swim in some of the coldest water i've ever touched. And its shaded. Kent took this photo,i'm standing on the point where you can finally touch,trying to help Beth to shore. I think you can see the fear in her eyes.
Zion Narrows.
Standing in the pool,above the waterfall,on the final 120ft rappel in Mystery canyon. The dropoff is behind Tom.
Flippin awesome.
T-bone,gettin wet.
Lookin into Mystery canyon.
This is Tom on the 110ft. Mystery springs rappel. This is where we almost had to spend the night. I was a lil farther down(in the shade) when the knot went into my belay device. In this photo you can see me down below,i'm doin backflips inside my head,psyched to not have to spend the night on a rope.
The top of the climb,and the descent into Mystery canyon.
First rappel,45ft. in a very cool chimney shaped slot.
Out of focus picture in the slot canyons of Mystery. Dont ask me why there aren't more photos from in there. It was awesome. Kent was too lazy to take pictures.
The not silhouetted version,from canyon overlook.
From the West Rim trail. You can see "Walts Wiggles" in the lower left corner. Its part of the hike up to Angels landing.
Took this from the Canyon Overlook trail one evening,a great place to hangout and have a drink.
Real men photograph flowers.
This is the Angels Landing trail(foreground) surrounded by Zion. Its a pretty crowded trail. The traverse up to it was pretty fun. Lots of scared faces on the tourists.
Angels Landing--3ft wide in some places with drops over a thousand feet down. Its got a chain to hold onto though.
An awesome +100ft. waterfall that formed on our first evening there. We were driving around in the rain looking at waterfalls forming all over,it was very cool.
The Kolob Canyons part of Zion. Its equally impressive and a lot less visited.
More waterfalls starting to form. This whole slab was filled with tons of mini falls.
Sunrise over....i forget the name. I remember reading that Butch Cassidy used to hangout here though. Its off of I-70,in the middle of nowhere--west of San Rafael Swell.
My cousin Tom and I started talking about doing the Zion Narrows a couple months ago. After a little planning and dealing with permits and all those logistics we were off,along with Kent and Beth. Sadly,no dogs. We had a plan on doing three must-do hikes. The Left fork of North Creek (aka Subway),Mystery Canyon(11 rappels),and the world famous Narrows. We had originally planned on hiking the entire 16miles from the top-down in the narrows,but had to settle for hiking up river,about 3 or 4 miles,to see them. Still worth it. All these hikes are def. considered "classics." And all were def. dangerous. Tom almost got hypothermic in Subway,it required mandatory swims in tight,shaded(cold) slot canyons--water temp was in the upper 40's maybe. It was a little sketchy for a minute but we found sun and he got to warm up. Mystery canyon required a "smack-down" approach,as the guide called it, and 11 rappels. So the danger was pretty obvious. I didn't have much luck on the second to last rappel,110 feet. I rappeled down first onto a nasty knot in the rope.....not good. Once the knot goes into your rappel device your kinda screwed. I wont go into specifics b/c most people dont understand the lingo and ropework,etc....luckily i got down(somehow) to a boulder and was able to fix the knot. We were all super scared and pretty much assumed we'd be spending the night out there--waiting for the next party or rescue. Nevertheless,we prevailed. The last rappel into the Virgin river,just below the narrows,was insane. The views looking down into the canyon were unreal. We were standing in a small pool,120ft. above the river,that turned into a waterall that we got to rappel through. It was one of the funnest things i've ever done....and the fact that 20minutes earlier I(we) thought i'd be spending the night out there,hanging on a rope,made it all sweeter. We ended up camping a week in Zion and drivin thru Bryce Natl park,Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Capitol Reef National Park on the way back. Trails hiked included--Angels Landing,Emerald Pools,Canyon Overlook,Riverside Walk,Observation point and the three best-Mystery canyon,Subway, and the Narrows. Unfortunately i dropped my camera right before the goin got good in Subway,our first big hike,and was unable to photograph all the best things that we went there for. Camera is now out of commission. But Kent and Tom got enough good pictures to tell the story.
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