tyler johnson

tyler johnson

The Subway - Top-Down

07/31/15

If you love beauty and adventure, you won't find a better day hike. As described above, the top-down hike requires a permit, and the permits are extremely popular and hard to get, but the trip is well worth it. The subway offers much of what is best about Zion national park. The canyon is challenging enough that even experienced hikers will find themselves engaged, but welcoming enough that even novices can enjoy it as long as they travel with someone who really knows how to rappel and manage basic canyoneering obstacles. Three important note on the trail: 1) Just after way-finding through the sandstone bowl, as you are preparing to drop into the canyon itself, there is misleading false approach that takes off to the right. We re-set cairns yesterday (7/30/2015) to show the appropriate way to approach the drop-in (the correct trail takes off more to the left or straight on, depending on how you're viewing things), but it's quite easy to miss. If you make your way down the false approach, you'll find yourself confronted with an impassable down-climb of about 30 feet over a series of uneven, sloping, unsafe rocky ledges. This appears dangerous (especially from the bottom) and should not be attempted. The correct entry, which takes off straight ahead/more to the left, leads to a very manageable approach down a rocky trail with some boulder hopping. 2) I've hiked Subway before doing everything possible to avoid rappelling, but did it yesterday with harnesses and rope at the ready and found it to be much more enjoyable. The rappels are short, but great fun. The last obstacle, in particular, can be approached either straight on (bolt and webbing are slightly to the right) or by skirting around to the left and using bolts in the wall there. I've previously always gone left, but yesterday we rappelled from the straight-on/slightly right and found this made for a 25-30 ft rappel that was a lot of fun. 3) The trail down the riverbed (after leaving the slot canyon) takes quite a long time, so know that even after you've managed all the obstacles, you've still got a good few hours before you'll make it back to your car. All of that aside, there is nothing quite like this canyon. Within the canyon, you'll find places where you need to jump from a boulder into a pool and then swim across as well as others where you walk along in waist deep water only to find your footing suddenly gone and yourself in water up to you shoulders (or above your head). The subway itself is spectacular and unique and is preceded by a fantastic little redrock slot is followed by a series of stream beds where Zion's bright red rock mixes with green algae and white foaming water and a blue sky to form one of the most striking and gorgeous of nature's canvasses. All in all, a spectacular trip.

5.0