Zion Subway in the Fall (Sept 30, 2011)

[arnellfam]

I took a group of 5, including me and my 11 year old son, down Subway last week. I had made the trip once before from the bottom-up in May 2011, but this was the first time top-down for any of us.

The weather was warm, the day was beautiful, the canyon was simply delightful and the water was very cold.

We had two vehicles for the necessary shuttle and hit the trail head around 8:15am. The 3 mile hike to the canyon was lovely. There were a couple of forks during the first mile you need to be aware of and a couple of spots at the start of the slick rock where the trail was not obvious Other than that, a well-worn trail and cairns made it pretty easy to follow. A couple of park rangers working on the trail checked our permit just before we descended into the canyon.

None of us had wetsuits which was o.k. (my son would disagree), but made certain areas less enjoyable as I was focusing on the cold rather than the beauty of the canyon. In the canyon itself (minus the exit) we only had sun during one section. Even just neoprene socks would have taken the edge off. We saw one adult female in a wet suit who was swearing up a storm because she was so cold. We encountered another group that included a non-wet-suited, overweight person that was really having trouble. The canyon was more technical than I expected (a friend told me "you just need 30 feet of webbing"), but the websites we checked out beforehand said to bring more gear, which we did, and were grateful for (e.g. http://www.zionnational-park.com/zio...ark-subway.htm and http://canyoneeringusa.com/utah/zion/subway.php).

Swimming through the keyhole was a special treat though most folks we saw opted not to do so. I appreciated an earlier Bogley post making me aware of the new log jam in the bowling alley.


At the trail head


On the approach. Beautiful country.


Delightful slick rock.


Just before descending into the canyon.


First obstacle. Zion SAR had to retrieve a hiker from this spot two days earlier because they jumped into this pool and broke something.


Impressive log jams hint at the power of flood-level water flows.


Yes, the water is as cold as they say it is.


Good times.



Stunning water courses.


Reaching the North Pole.














The crack in the riverbed runs all the way up the canyon wall on both ends.








There were little toads all over the boulders taking on the various cremes, greens and rust color of the rocks they were sitting on.


Dinosaur tracks

A wonderful trip down a stunning canyon!

[Scott Card]

Excellent! All the right pictures in all the right spots. I can see why the 11 year old was cold. He is as skinny as my 9 year old who also froze in August.

[Felicia]

Very nice report.

Did you notice if the leaves were changing colours?

[Iceaxe]

Thanks for the TR.

FYI: There is an easy walkdown (crawl down?) at this obstacle against the south canyon wall... It's a little hard to spot which is why most people miss it... that and the webbing against the north wall kinda trick folks into going over the top of the big rock.

[ratagonia]

Sweet. Nice TR. Noticed many of you brought helmets, but did not wear them for the first rappel???

I like wetsuits. Much of the charm can be lost to shivering, if not rubber-clad.

Tom

[Felicia]

Thanks for the TR.

FYI: There is an easy walkdown (crawl down?) at this obstacle against the south canyon wall... It's a little hard to spot which is why most people miss it... that and the webbing against the north wall kinda trick folks into going over the top of the big rock.

I would much rather go off the nose of the rock as opposed to the canyon wall. There are snakes in there!

[ratagonia]

I would much rather go off the nose of the rock as opposed to the canyon wall. There are snakes in there!

Sounds like Ice is talking about a route on the opposite side of the canyon. Can't say I have ever looked over that side.

Tom

[Felicia]

Hum...I'm talking about the left side of the rock looking up canyon. I've never looked over to the right (looking up canyon).

Ok - I see where Shane is suggesting.

[jman]

No one goes on the right side (LUC) because it's chest deep water over there for the most part. And people don't want to go chest-deep just yet at that point. Although 15min later you will have to. Lol

[Iceaxe]

No one goes on the right side (LUC) because it's chest deep water over there for the most part. And people don't want to go chest-deep just yet at that point. Although 15min later you will have to. Lol

Yup... right side of picture, and the water is more like waist deep. Lots of jumping accidents at this big rock which could be avoided by the crawl down. its really easy, just hard to see until you are standing on top of it.

[Scott P]

No one goes on the right side (LUC) because it's chest deep water over there for the most part. And people don't want to go chest-deep just yet at that point

Yup... right side of picture, and the water is more like waist deep.

Sometimes that pool is prettly small, but we have always climbed up (we've done the Subway from the bottom up to Russell Gulch and back between 1987 and 1992; I hadn't done it as a one way top down until 2007) and down the boulder itself. Here's my photo from 2007:




The pool was obviously much smaller in the photo above than in Arnell's or Felicia's photos, so I can see how it could easily vary between a swimmer and knee-deep.

Lots of jumping accidents at this big rock which could be avoided by the crawl down.

We've always been able to climb up and down the boulder without jumping. Of course rapping it is probably the safest way down.

Another shot at climbing the boulder:



If the pool is deep though, it might be hard to climb up!