Week in Zion

[boryaa]

Its summer and Zion is the place to go! We packed our stuff and my dad and I headed to Utah from California.

Day 1: Got up from St. George and decided to go do Boltergeist Canyon just to warm up. Its short and, eh, okay. But it was pretty cool to go down it anyway. The last rappel was neat as well!











Day 2: After a day of just taking it easy we head to Zion to do Pine Creek Canyon. We got our permits the day before and got up early. We parked at the switchbacks and some guys were cool enough to give us a lift. Turned out they were doing Pine Creek as well, and we ended up going ahead of them. The canyon was really dry. We didn't bring our wetsuits, just our neoprene socks for any pools we might encounter. The deepest pool was about waist deep at the bottom of the Cathedral rap. We also saw two owls chilling on a ledge. At the second to last rappel we got our rope stuck and had to tug pretty hard to get it down.

















Day 3: Mystery Canyon it is! But the observation point trail is closed. Therefore, we got shuttled by the Z.A.C. to the East Mesa Trail with a bunch of people doing the narrows. The hike was pretty casual until it got hot. Really hot. But that was okay because the canyon was amazing. It was really dry until we got to the Mystery Springs rappel and were greeted by some refreshing water. The last rap into the narrows was great too, rappelling with a group of hikers watching you was really fun.

















Day 4 and 5: We decided to climb the 4 pitch 5.7 sport route, Led by Sheep on Aries Butte. Really fun climb to a great summit. It follows good slabs to the top and we were lucky that the weather was cloudy and cool. Although a bit windy on the summit.

That was pretty much it for day 4, and on our last day in Zion we decided to do a small hike to the base of Heaps Canyon and head to St. George to go down Yankee Doodle instead of Fat Mans Misery (It was really really really hot). This was our second time down Yankee Doodle, but unlike our winter descent this time the canyon was dry. We took the big rap in instead of the two smaller rappels, and completed the canyon in about an hour.

[jman]

oh yeah! great pics! water & canyons - a mix that's hard to beat. Talk about a fun itinerary - thanks for sharing!

It seems like from the recent Pine Creek TRs that those owls are taking permanent residence there.

And that pic in Mystery....looks gnarly! Looks like a "sand flood".

Again, thanks for sharing! And very cool that your Dad is able to do this with you as well. That's a memory that's hard to beat.