The Great West Canyon

Judging from how poorly i performed on my first day of hiking in the 96 degree heat and thin air made me realize that the most major hike i wanted to do was out of the question. I decided instead to do an exploratory hike well off of a short, family friendly trail in one of the high west areas of Zion. The area is very rugged but offers years worth of exploration. On the Zion Historical Society topo map i found an area full of tiny little circles that were missing from the less accurate National Geographic branded Trails Illustrated map. I made that my goal.

The family trail is a rather boring 2 mile hike through burnt forest on an old lava flow, and the trail ends right when things finally become a little interesting. From that point i made my way down into a chaparral filled valley and around some of Zions "mountains" or mesas, whatever you call them. I found a goat trail that seemed to take me exactly where i wanted to go. I'm a big believer in goat/bighorn sheep trails, they've helped me out on countless occasions. They are very intelligent when it comes to choosing a route. On the other hand, a moose trail will rarely make you happy.


The chaparral eventually opened up in to rock wildlands that were much faster for travel.

After a long, hot half mile i got where i wanted, and as i had hoped, it was possibly the best view i've seen anywhere in Zion. I stayed up there for quite sometime. There was a lot of complex land to take in and put together in my head. I kept looking far down below my perch, at a garden of rock columns (those tiny circles on the map). The garden ended abruptly at the edge of a deep abyss commonly referred to in Zion as "The Subway." Tons of people go down through the subway (because it's extremely impressive) but i never met anyone who went along the top.

From the ledge i sat on, it was 500 foot descent to the top of the subway canyon. I had to pick out a route and study it for a while to remember what to look for when i got down, because the map was no longer useful. From what i could see, i wasn't even sure i could get down.

I wanted to go to an area that is similar to the famous Angel's Landing in the main canyon. The subway canyon wraps around a narrow spire of rock, but in this case does it twice, making a kind of s-curve. One tower sticks out from one side of the canyon, another tower from the other side. I could see there was no way (without technical climbing) to get right on that central tower, but there was one column near the towers that looked accessible. It would offer a tremendous view.

I thought i had seen a trail from up high but it turned out to be nothing, maybe just a drainage, maybe a less used goat trail. Anyway, trying to make your way through the bottom of a garden of giant columns is much like being in a maze full of bushes with high walls. Eventually i did make my way right to where i wanted to be, but it was much different up close.

By this point choosing the best way to go was getting challenging. My initial goal had been the column of rock in the distance just left of center.

I had trudged out to the end of a narrow span of rock. Not too narrow, probably 20 feet wide, but not flat either... and covered in bushes right up to the edge.... and with piles of crazily sloped slabs of rock where there weren't any bushes. The view was exhilarating. I could see that the next column over dropped uninterrupted all the way down to the narrow canyon floor where i could make out the creek and a few trees. And to my right i could catch glimpses of the beginning of the subway portion of the canyon wrapping around that first major tower i had seen from up high. I was super excited because i had found a truly breathtaking, unique view of a well known location, but also a view that i've never seen a photograph of, something that can be hard to do in this day and age.

A view i'd never see of the Left Fork. Just out of view, directly on my right, was the large boulder i had to climb.

The one maddening problem was that i could not get into position to take the picture i had seen from afar. To my right was a steep slope of deep sand that went right over the edge of a 600 foot cliff. To my lefty was a rock that offered a view straight down, and upstream. The only problem was that it was an overhanging rock that sloped steeply towards the precipice. I got a handhold on another rock and leaned out as far as i could. It was a crazy drop but i still couldn't see the bottom. It was way to scary to walk out on that thing. Directly in front of me was that column of rock i had decided was my goal. Up close it was much bigger, the size of a small room in a house. Probably 12 feet wide and another 12 feet high. A few inches to the right of it was another tower of similar dimensions. I could look right through the space in the middle and see what i wanted to photograph. In fact, i could see a flat ledge that was just what i was looking for to set up a shot.


Through a space between the boulders to small to squeeze through, i could see the perfect spot. Plan A had been that narrow ridge in the distance. The other side of this crack would be the new plan, plan B.

These two capstones, side by side, were apparently not attached to the underlying cliff, and were eroded at the base so that you could actually crawl under them. The rock on the left had at some point been completely eroded away and had fallen over, just stopping short of rolling over the precipice and causing a major catastrophe. It was resting on a scattered array of crushed rocks that must have been under tremendous pressure. You could see all the way under it to the other side except for an area in the middle that was probably 4 square feet. You could even see between some of the rocks it was resting on. If i took my pack off i could scoot on my belly under the rocks to that perfect photo ledge. But, i would have to scoot along the side of a widening gap, with the void in between. And, the ledge i would have to scoot along was only initially about my body width, and again, slightly sloped towards the edge. I just hung out for a few minutes, under those rocks, contemplating the risks and the reality of physics if i used a strong, mentally calm approach. It could definitely be done. It was definitely up there at the limit of how scary things can get. Then i noticed that widening gap that got narrower as it approached me. I noticed that the ledge i wanted to get to was an overhang. I suddenly realized that the rocks i was sitting on might just be choke stones loosely wedged into that gap and that there could very well be 600 feet of open air right underneath my ass. That really freaked me out, and i backed away.

From underneath the capstone you can see the ledge i wanted on the right, the gap, and the choke stones i was sitting on in the foreground. You can also make out the stream 600 feet below.

Then there was plan C. I could climb on top of the column that i was currently underneath. I piled up some flat stones so i could reach the first handhold. That worked, and soon i was standing on a small ledge taking a big step to higher, smaller ledge. This higher smaller ledge was only big enough for one foot at time and therefore required always hanging on to something. Getting up to this point was scary but the flatness of the first ledge was reassuring. The last ledge though, stuck out, so i had to lean out a little to get my hands over the top. I managed to get both my elbows, shoulders and head on the top. The top, as i said before, was sloped towards the void. At this point things were very frightening. On three sides of me now were 600 feet of open air. The feeling of exposure was similar to when i climbed the WZDX tower to that high platform (for those that have been there) and then decided to climb up the ladder above the platform to the the very highest point.

So there i was, surrounded by the abyss and clinging to dear life, voluntarily, like an idiot, in an awkward position. Did i mention in was my birthday? Maybe this was the beginning of my midlife crisis. I just had to get my elbows out in front of me enough to be able to rest my torso on the top ledge. That would allow me to release my foothold. This was certainly doable, all i needed was a little heave and quick scoot. The problem was that overhang. My foot was in the right place and my body wrapped around this jutting out rock. I could get up but on the way down from this treacherous perch i'd have to climb down backwards, blindly searching for that foothold when i barely had a grip. Furthermore, i was just practicing, i wasn't doing it yet with a pack on by back.

I heaved and got my elbows where they needed to be, but as i shifted my weight forward i began to slide off! Thanks to my properly functioning adrenaline glands i got an extra boost of speed and very quickly and accurately put my elbows back where they were originally while shifting my weight back to that foothold. That sort of settled it. It was too crazy to do by myself. If i had a friend with a rope going over or under the rock could have been done safely, but it was crazy to do it by yourself. So i didn't got the shot, instead i compromised and with some creative use of my tripod to get some workable glimpses of the view i saw through the cracks in the rock.

Dinotopia? Nah, it's way cooler than that.

Right around sunset in Zion there is usually a massive heat transfer as cool air drops into the bottom of the canyons, forcing that air out and up. You can hear the wind moving quickly far below you and off in the distance, until it finally reaches your area. It was something i always liked, but in this case it was reminding me that i was out of time. I'd used up most of the day, and was quickly running out of time to get back to the official trail before the sun went away. An hour later it became clear to me that getting back on the trail wasn't going to happen until sometime after sunset, and my new goal (definitely a day of constantly changing goals) was to make it back to the trail before it was too dark to see. I had brought a headlamp, but i had the ingenious idea of leaving it in the car when i started the hike.

The sun set when i was still well away from the trail.

I did make it back to the trail with about 15 minutes of spare time before it was too dark to see. Eventually it was so dark walking that last two mile in the blackened forest i could barely see the ground straight below me, and i twisted my ankle a bit. I finally got back to town around 10pm and had to go straight to a restaurant before it closed. It was great birthday. I wish there were more pictures but on this vacation i was playing around with an HD video camera and most of what i recorded that day happened to be on video. Maybe if i get it together i can post accompanying video later on.