Mystery Canyon

Early Sunday morning we went to the permit office to get a permit to do Mystery Canyon.  We spent the rest of Sunday as an “organizational day” which was comprised of dumping out everything in the cab of the truck and then getting distracted by slacklining, eating, playing guitar, cooking and trips to the “bathroom” some bushes and grasses away from the river with a mine field of toilet paper and surface turds.  Lovely. 

 

I did well slacklining, I got four steps on it twice!  I’m improving for sure and soon Kevin and I will be a circus of slacklining and hula hooping.  Once I master the slackline my plan is to be able to hula hoop on it!

We also organized our gear for the next day’s adventure.

Monday morning we woke up quite early and sleepily put away our sleeping bags, wolfed down some breakfast and set out for the day.  A 3.8mile hike up 2000 feet of elevation with spectacular views of the park (Zion National Park) and the canyons below and we made it to the point of Mystery Canyon.  

A stop for lunch was in order as the next leg of our hike, the beginning of our descent into the canyon, is known as “Death Gully”.  When we did this canyon about a year ago with Kevin’s cousin David we barreled down the death scree (small loose rocks and dirt) through bushes, hanging onto them to slow our descent.  This time,  I found the “trail”, and I use the word “trail” loosely, for while it’s a fairly well established trail, it winds its way down through some pretty rough terrain.  

A long descent through the start of the wash, lots of down climbs and a short rappel brought us to the first major rappel, the “point of no return” if you will.  A rappel that one cannot climb back up after the rope is pulled without some serious risk if a fall should happen.  And then the fun begins!

Narrow canyon walls curved gracefully around and down carved by mother natures hand leading us further and further down the 2000 feet we had hiked up in the beginning of our day.  6 rappels in quick succession, some scrambling and down climbing and the canyon opened up for us.  We hiked along and past the thankfully dry lakebed up a giant pile of rocks and debris and then down the other side.  

One more rappel and we were rewarded with more of the beautiful carving walls.  And then an icky muck pool we had to stem over (hands on one side of the “hallway” feet on the other, and don’t let go or you’ll be in the muck!  Yuck!) and then we arrived at Mystery Spring and the second to last rappel.

This is where we paused a moment here to put on wet suits and started to feel like superheroes! (it was the wetsuits)  

Kevin set up the rappel, 110 feet down into an icy pool.  To get out to the rappel I hooked in to the safety line, a line of webbing, to walk over to the rappel.  The walk out was pretty exposed, and 110 feet is pretty imposing.  The first time I did Mystery Canyon, this part freaked me out. This time, it was still scary, but manageable.  I went first down this one, down to a rock to get the rope out of the muck pool behind a huge rock, and then down into the spring fed pool in front of the huge rock.  And it was ICY COLD!  (FYI: I do NOT like cold, not one little tiny bit.  Maybe on my fingertips after a long climbing session, but that’s it)  I was in the water for maybe a minute and a half, and that was plenty long.  The last time we did this, David guided me over the pool and I didn’t have to get soaked.

The area where the pool is located is gorgeous.  There’s a nice little beach and beautiful hanging gardens all over the walls.  Once Kevin came down and pulled the rope (he didn’t mind the cold water at all, he even went back in it) we scrambled on following the stream to my favorite rappel.  Of all the rappels I’ve done in my life so far, this one has been the best.  It’s what in my opinion, makes Mystery Canyon a “classic”.  120 feet down a small waterfall in to the Narrows.  Stunning, fun, amazing, exhilarating.

There was a guy at the bottom taking pictures and he said he got some great shots of both of us coming down the waterfall.  I have his e-mail, so we’ll be sure to post those when we get them.

We hiked down the cold narrows to the paved trail staying out of the water as much as is possible when you’re hiking a trail that’s in a river (lot’s of “baby shark” songs and dances to keep warm).  Once we hit the paved trail we started jogging to get warm.  Near the end of the trail we saw 4 deer near the trail eating by the riverbank.  One was a cute baby deer!  We decided that it was best to just stay in our wetsuits with harnesses and helmets on, so we rode our bikes in our canyoneering getup down to the Weeping Rock trailhead where we had begun early that morning.  Quickly we changed into dry clothes and cooked up some pasta with veggies.  Yum yum!