We kissed on the subway in the middle of the night

It seems as though I can't get enough of Zion National Park. I already told you about the previous weekend when I hiked Angels Landing on the way back from Brian Head. Well, while I was at Brian Head, my Spanish friend mentioned that he would be going there the following weekend to hike The Subway. Access to The Subway is limited, and you have to get permits hike it. The hike is quite popular, so permits can be difficult to obtain. It definitely takes a lot of planning ahead (something I'm generally not very good at). I told him I was jealous and that I wanted to go, but they only had permits for seven people, and seven people were going. As luck would have it, I received a call from him on Thursday night saying that one member of his party wasn't going to be able to make it after all, and that I could go if I was still interested. Since I've had a casual interest in doing that hike for about ten years (but have been too lazy to organize a trip) I jumped at the chance.

I didn't join them for the entire weekend, since they were hiking Angels Landing and I'd done that the week before, so I was told to meet them at a Mexican restaurant in Springdale at 7 p.m. on Saturday. My friend was hiking in the canyon, but had called and given me another member of the group's cell phone number in case I arrived early and wanted to meet up sooner. I called her when I was close to town, but she didn't answer, so I just left a message. I had about an hour to kill, so did that by looking through a few of the local shops, then drove to the restaurant. I was sitting out front, waiting for my friend, when I heard the girl sitting next to me say, "Oh, I have a missed call. I wonder if that was [Spanish Friend's] friend." I turned to her and asked, "Did you just say [Spanish Friend's] friend? That could be me." It was. Later I realized that it would have been funny to just let her call me back and then answered the phone right next to her. Too bad I didn't think of it quick enough.

We ate, then drove to a campsite. It was cold, and the moon was bright. Since my sleeping bag sucks, and I felt like I had a spotlight shining on my face all night, I didn't sleep well, but I was still happy to be there. We got up early and drove to the trail head. The hike was awesome. It started out going through some pretty cool forest, and then we came out onto some weathered sandstone.

After following that for a while, we got to a steep descent that took us into the canyon. Here's a view of the top half of the canyon we went into:


The canyon was amazing. It was very narrow (as you can see), and there were a few places where we had to wade through some water that was chest deep. In one spot we actually had to swim to get through. The water was freezing! Ok, maybe not freezing, but it was definitely in the 40s temperature wise. I'm pretty sure that immediately following the swim I had icicles on my nipples. Too bad my camera was in the dry bag for that part, or I could have shown you what it looked like. Let's just say that I understand what the field guide meant when it said that water temperatures were dangerously cold in the spring and fall. There was one spot that was even too narrow for my pack to make it through, so I had to tread water while I turned the pack sideways to fit through the slot. Usually that wouldn't be a problem, but like I said, the water was cold, so it took me longer to do that than it should have. It was still totally worth it though, since we got to see stuff like this:



In addition to the swimming, there were a few places where we had to use ropes to get down the rock walls, but it wasn't bad enough that we had to use harnesses or anything like that. Here's the descent into the part that they call The Subway:


The Subway gets its name because it looks like a subway tunnel:


The rest of the hike was a bit more open, and as a result, the water warmed up a little, which was good because we still had to spend a fair amount in it. It was still amazing.

We even saw some dinosaur tracks:

If you ever get the chance to do the hike, I suggest you take it as I can assure you these pictures do not do it justice. However, it's a bit technical, so make sure you know what you're doing. I was lucky enough to be with people who did.