The Subway

Tuesday morning dawned bright and early as usual and Kevin and I made our way once again to the permit office in Zion to get permits for the Subway and Behunin Canyon.  When we told the ranger our plan for the Subway she looked at us like we were crazy and said, “Are you crazy?”  So we looked at some maps and decided that we should do the Subway from the bottom and park our car at the bototom.  On our way to the trailhead we changed our minds yet again and figured we try and hitchhike a ride to the top.  If we were successful by 11am then we’d do it.  If not, we’d hike it from the bottom (a hike that Kevin had done before).

Well, we got a ride by 10:30 from an older gentleman named Gary who had a lifetime of adventure that he shared with us in the 20 minutes or so it took to drive 7 miles up 2000 feet of elevation (so glad we didn’t stash bikes!)  And if anyone knows a fit woman in her 60’s who likes the outdoors and sailing, there’s a guy named Gary in UT near Zion who’s in the market.

We arrived at the trailhead and set out through a nice meadow full of tall grasses and scattered groves of tall pine trees.  We followed cairns over slick rock dotted with moki marbles through a “delightful forest” and down over red rock across Russell Gulch, over more red rock and down some steep terrain to the moth of the canyon.

We hiked for a while in the shade through a wider section of the canyon until we arrived at the triple pools. 

The first swims.  We suited up in our wetsuits and Neoprene socks, put everything else in dry bags and headed into the icy pools.  Throw pack, swim to pack, shiver, throw pack, swim to pack, shiver, throw pack, swim to pack, shiver, get the hell out of the icy water and onto the pebbly beach. 

We walked on through dry and wet sections for a while until we came to the first rappel, a small waterfall around a chock stone (a stone that’s stuck in between the two walls) into more icy pools, this time with two really narrow sections to get through.  I went first, and this was probably the hardest part of the canyon for me.  I still hadn’t quite warmed up from the triple pool swims and this section had two narrow sections that I had to swim through.  I was freaking out.  We took a moment, Kevin helped to calm me down, I focused, took some deep breaths, got a hold of myself and went for it. The whole time swimming through that section I was talking to myself, “I can do this, it’s ok, don’t panic, I can do this” to get myself through this icy pool.  And I did it, I made it through just fine.

From that point on somehow the water warmed up.  It was very bearable.  I wouldn’t want to be in it without a wetsuit, but with one, it was just dandy.  We had two more rappels to go.  The first was a short one into a warm pool about waist deep, and then the canyon opened up and started to really look like its name, a subway tunnel with no roof.  As we rounded the corner we saw it. 

The infamous LOG!  This log has its picture up in almost every major establishment surrounding the park, and even some in Zion.  It’s a log, a large log that was washed down the canyon at some point and became lodged in the subway section.  I still don’t see what’s so special about this log.  I guess it’s like Keaneau Reeves.  Some people think he’s great (though I don’t think I know any of them) and some people can’t see what’s so special about him, but hey, we all still go see his movies, so he must be doing something right.

The last rappel was awesome.  We decided to go down off this log right where the waterfall room is.  There were rope marks on the log, and it felt solid, so we set it up, and Kevin went first.  Then it was my turn, the rappel was almost in the waterfall, and came down right next to the bottom of it spraying you with warmish water the whole way down.  It was amazing.  One of those laughing, screaming, squealing, moments of pleasure. 

From there it was a hike out down these red rocks that looked like small stairs with waterfalls everywhere.  There was one bigger waterfall at the end where we stopped in the sunshine to take some pictures.  Further down the river/stream that flows out of the Subway we found a large boulder to put wet things on so they wouldn’t get coated with sand and changed out of our wetsuits into dry clothes, had a snack and went on our way.  We passed the “two large tumble-down boulders” that had Dinosaur tracks in them (way cool) and kept hiking further. 

To make a long story short, and to not bore you all to tears, we got lost.  We hiked up a steep slope through prickly brambles and bushes, up a line of talus made of basalt (volcanic rock) and climbed up onto what we thought was the “mesa top” we were supposed to be on.  Turns out we had started up much too soon and we were on a small mesa before the first of the two “streams” we were supposed to pass on the main trail.  It was dark, but not too cold, we were dry with extra layers but running out of water so we headed north and found a way down into a wash that would hook us up with the main trail. When we first came down into the wash it was mostly basalt rocks everywhere and Kevin found a tarantula…yikes! 

We hiked for about 2 ½ hours back to the main trail without too much trouble and found water along the way to refill our empty bladders (the plastic ones, not our actual bladders), snacked on an apple, and breathed a sigh of relief when we saw the trail again. 

A note to all:  When the guidebook says, “Do not begin the climb up without finding the trail.” It is wise to heed this advice.

We found the exit and made it back to the truck without any further mishap relieved and weary it was about 10:30pm.  We drank water, ate some more snacks and our feet thanked us for taking off our wet shoes and neoprene socks and putting them into dry crocs. 

This story was brought to you by maps, compasses and headlamps.

After a night like that we decided not to do Behunin the next day. We’ll just have to go back to Zion some day.