Hello all,
Over the fourth of July Toji and I took
a very adventurous trip to the great Zion National Park to go
canyoneering. Canyoneering is the term made up to name the act of
finding canyons and hiking, swimming, and rappelling your way to
their terminus. I got to go because a few of Toji's college friends
planned the trip and invited about 40 people to come along! All I
knew about this curious activity was what Toji told me before we
left. He said to prepare to be “hypothermic one moment and dying
of heat the next” because between hiking in the arid 105 degree
desert we would be swimming through pools of water at the bottom of a
canyon. Very cold pools of water that also occasionally housed some
interesting life forms. He told me to bring shoes I didn't mind
ruining. So it sounded like a fun, relaxing vacation.
So we packed up a living-room-floor's
worth of gear:
and got into the car and drove 10 hours to Zion. On
the way we passed right by a big wildfire.
Over the four days we were there we did
three canyons: Echo, Fat Man's Misery, and Behunin. We took a day of
rest after two days in the canyons and moved from swimming in the
river, to swimming in a swimming hole, and back to the river. In
between swimming somebody captured a squirrel using a baited shopping
bag! He tied a rope to it and threw it over a tree, then he just
waited till one was in the bag and pulled up and... we had a squirrel
in a bag. What to do with a squirrel in a bag?
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| Slacklining at the swimming hole. Yeah. Toji can do that |
Anyways, back to canyons. Each one had
some very distinct qualities I can remember. Echo was the only
canyon to require a wetsuit for the consecutive swims we took in the
cold, dark section. There I experienced being shivering and wet one
moment and then remembering that moment fondly when, the next moment,
I was scorching hot. Echo was also extremely beautiful. The canyon
gets narrow and the walls are curvy and you can just see the path
water takes when it fills the canyons.
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| On our way in the morning... already hot and sunny |
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| The start of Echo Canyon |
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| Nice cool pool of water we get to swim through |
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| Echo Canyon |
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| Add caption |
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| No more dry feet! |
Fat Man's Misery was miserable even for
us narrow people. The canon was predicted to take 6-8 hours and it
took us near 12! A long hike in was the first challenge, then we
found the canyon and dropped down into it and enjoyed some brief
shady sections. About half-way through the canyon I ran out of water
and the others were running low. Since the pools we encountered in
this canyon had 6-in long skinny white worms swimming in them, they
were really no help in the water situation. Fortunately for us this
canyon lets out at a river! A wonderful, cool, watery river! And
one of the girls had iodine tablets with her so we quenched our
thirst and had plenty of water for the long, hot hike back out to the
car.
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| This is where we dropped down into the canyon |
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| Into the shade! |
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| There were some narrow places to squeeze through |
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| The Grotto! Water slide into the lovely pools at the end of the misery |
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| WATER! We all dunked ourselves before the hike out so we'd stay cool a little longer |
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| The awesome river canyon we hiked through at the end |
Behunin canyon was really different
from the other two. It was BIG. And had a lot of really long
rappels. We started right out with 4 rappels of about 40-60 feet and
ended with two rappels that took us down over 150 feet to the canyon
floor. The last one was free-hanging for a scintillating distance
and I tried to focus on not fainting while I fed the rope through my
belay device and lowered myself ever so slowly to the ground. Having
both my feet in contact with the solid earth has never felt so good.
There was a fantastic view of Zion that I did try to appreciate as I
dangled in the air. Behunin also delighted us with its skanky water
(our term) and prompted us to get creative with our rappels so we
could avoid setting foot into the pools that, in addition to smelling
rank, had large nymph-like beetles waiting at the edges. Once out of
the canyon we came across a lovely, clean pool of water where we swam
and washed off the day's sweat and sand.
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| On the way to Behunin. This part of the trail is called "The Wiggles" |
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| One of the first rappels |
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| We avoided that pool! Except Nate- he was pulled in right after this picture |
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| Setting up the last rappel |
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| The first of the last two rappels. I'm smiling to mask my fear |
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| The view from mid-air (Toji took this- not me) |
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| Terrifying. But incredible |
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| That's the bottom! |
It was really a fantastic trip. A
little hot—didn't really cool down much at night either. And a
little sandy. I pretty much ruined a pair of shoes, and I did
something that scared the living daylights out of me. A really great
vacation! We came home on the fourth and caught fireworks in Boise.
Then I settled in for a few days of napping and avoiding the sun
before heading back to the forest.
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| Toji and I at the Emerald Pools after Behunin |
