Europe goes Behunin Canyon - 24-05-201

[maarten.1975]

Behunin was our destination, it was the 24th of May 2012, Michael and myself had already spend 2 days in Zion canyoneering, this time we took the bus to the Grotto stop, where we started hiking up to Scout Lookout. It was another beautiful day in Zion.




After some chatting with tourists on our way up and on Scout Lookout, we continued up the West Rim trail. We were glad to have gained this much elevation in a relatively short time. We were more or less equal to Angels Landing Point. I hadn´t seen Angels Landing Point before from this angle…




However, we soon realized the trail goes down again, before we discovered it was going up all over again… it was a beautiful hike, however my legs were thinking of going on strike. Reaching the entrance trail into the canyon, I was glad to start descending. The pain in my legs was now easily forgotten. Entering a new canyon, a new adventure.




First rappel, we found the anchors, Michael going down.




A couple of nice rappels later, some short hiking areas, in a beautiful environment.




A short narrows area, I love narrows. It often causes these fantastic color differences of the rock, and I like the tight environment (with limits though) giving me this extra-terrestrial feeling.




Some hiking, scrambling, climbing and route finding later, we descended further. We were impressed and amazed by the canyon, lots of variation in the environment, great place to be in.




After some more time we reached the exit of the canyon. Some more climbing, and reaching the final rappel, a bigger height to conquer this time.




A fantastic view,



however (please, I really hope somebody can make me understand this) what the h*ll is a frog doing up here? Did it climb up all the way from Emerald Pools? Or is it taking a hike out of Behunin to explore the world? The frog was sitting on the rock which is anchored for the final rappel.



I personally was tired from the long day and the day before. The height made me slightly nervous as well, and combine that with still being quite inexperienced in canyoneering, I hope you understand I preferred focusing on my rope and safety above taking many pictures of this moment supreme of the final rappel. Maybe Michael has taken pictures from below during my rappel. If so, I’ll add this picture later.

Looking back where we came from, to remember the fantastic rappel….




And finally, some rock-hopping and hiking to get out. Michael was walking in front of me. At the exact moment he steps over a little ridge, I see a small rattle-snake (I estimate about 2 foot) cross this ridge, I hear the rattling of his tail. Michael stepped about 1 foot of height over this new friend… It gave me an extra heartbeat seeing it happen. But it is awesome to have seen a rattle snake :-)

Getting back on Zions tourist-level, looking back to where we came from.




And feeling welcome back in beautiful Zion!




Behunin is a great canyon: a strenuous hike in, a remote and quiet canyon during our visit (we did not encounter anybody else in the canyon), beautiful, lots of variations, and it was a fantastic day. The rappel before the last one was tricky to pull the rope after rappelling. Took quite a lot of strength. Furthermore no problems encountered. Beware of snakes though in the area after the last rappel!

[oldno7]

Great write up....Nice pictures

I always enjoy Behunin,some here don't