Canyoneering Zion August 6-7 Mystery and echo Looking for partners

[sorry77]

hi guys i'm a italian canyoneer
i'll be in zion np alone, i got permits for two people for mystery on August 6 and 4 permits for echo on August 7
is there someone who wants to join?

Thanks

[hipporump]

I'm interested in joining you for both days.

[sorry77]

hi hipporump
have you ever done these canyon?
my idea on August 7 is in early morning go to birch hollow (short route wild wind hollow exit) and after go to echo, what do you think?

[Iceaxe]

Do Echo in the morning and Birch in the afternoon. That way you get to do the hike up to Echo in the shade and the afternoon crowd's in Birch are often nil. If you do Birch in the morning you might get stuck behind a couple large groups of noobs, which can make for a long day. The afternoon hike up to Echo can be brutal on a hot sunny day.

I often combo a morning Echo with an afternoon Pine Creek for these same reasons.

[dakotabelliston]

If you are able I would definitely follow ice axe suggestion & run echo in the morning & follow it up with pinecreek :) This time of year is brutal in southern Utah with temperatures in the triple digits so any canyon with water is going to be best. If you have not done much of Zion I think pinecreek is a zion classic and a better canyon than Birchollow.

With that being said Birchhollow is a great canyon. I ran it last year & started around 8 am. We got stuck behind 2 guide groups (ZAC & Ponderosa). We waited at each rappel for over 1 hour & turned out to be a 12 hour day. If you hit this up later in the day than you have a good chance at missing the groups all together. Bring PLENTY of water !!!

[sorry77]

thanks guys
I had not thought the possibility to meet groups, i'll follow your advice and you're right about hot

If you have not done much of Zion I think pinecreek is a zion classic and a better canyon than Birchollow.

pine creek,keyhole,subway,oderville,narrows : done

[hipporump]

Sorry, I sent you a pm.

[hank moon]

thanks guys
I had not thought the possibility to meet groups, i'll follow your advice and you're right about hot


pine creek,keyhole,subway,oderville,narrows : done

If you don't mind a shuttle, another option:

- Early start on Birch (start hiking at first light to get a head start on all guided/organized groups)
- After Birch, drive to Stave Spring access point to E. Rim trail, hike downhill to Echo

[sorry77]

If you don't mind a shuttle, another option:

- Early start on Birch (start hiking at first light to get a head start on all guided/organized groups)
- After Birch, drive to Stave Spring access point to E. Rim trail, hike downhill to Echo

thank you, all depend on the road condition and which car i'll rent, tre road to mystery trailhead from east rim trail requires a 4wd?

[hank moon]

thank you, all depend on the road condition and which car i'll rent, tre road to mystery trailhead from east rim trail requires a 4wd?

No 4WD required for the Stave Spring or East Mesa access roads. Normal, low-clearance passenger vehicles may be used, EXCEPT they should not be taken to the very end of the roads, because they can get rough toward the end. In both cases, good parking exists a short distance before the road ends. IF you want to drive to road's end, a high-clearance vehicle (not necessarily FWD) can be useful for East Mesa and Stave Spring.

Note: if the dirt roads are wet, they should not be driven at all to avoid damaging them. They get quickly rutted in wet conditions, which then ruins them for low-clearance vehicle travel. Not to mention it is very easy to get stuck or slide off of a wet road, even with a FWD vehicle. Also note that the Stave Spring (East Rim trail) access route is not the same as the Mystery (East Mesa trail) access route.

[Iceaxe]

thank you, all depend on the road condition and which car i'll rent, tre road to mystery trailhead from east rim trail requires a 4wd?

Rental cars can go where Jeeps fear to tread.

[TommyBoy]

If you're a fast hiker in good shape the hike up Wild Wind Hollow is actually faster than setting up the car shuttle. When I did it a few weeks ago we sent a car down to the Orderville TH, but it didn't have room to drive everyone up so we split up and the slower hikers headed to the shuttle and the other half hiked out WWH. The hikers made it out about 5 min before the car did. Its definitely a strenuous hike though so keep that in mind.