Zion Subway

March 29 – April 1, 2018

Zion National Park

Angels Landing

Subway Via Russell Gulch

I’ve wanted to go to Zion National Park for quite a few years but have never made a serious effort to get there. Every time Laura talked about the times she had been there, I made it a point to say I wanted to go as it was high on my list. It was January 5th when my email broke because Laura sent me too many messages about permits, hotel and flights. Later that day she called me to verify that I could take those days off of work. I thought we were planning on going to Havasu Falls around that time but apparantly one trip in a two week timeframe is just not enough!  She explains how they work together and proceeds to get permits for the falls as well. Awesome, I am so excited I can’t wait!

With permits secured, we invited Laura’s brother Brian on the adventures. Since he will be in Spain while we’re in Havasau, he chose to head for Zion with us. We made plans with Big Momma for a ride and shuttle service while in the park. Big Momma would then continue to Las Vegas to visit Laura’s sister.

Thursday arrives and after a game of Tetris with luggage for both trips, we manage to pull out of the drive at 3:30 am. Heading west to pick up mom and the dogs and on toward Zion, we made great time and arrived to pick up our first permit. Ready for the Subway the next day, we still had daylight so we decided to hike the few miles up to Angel’s Landing. We entered the park, jumped the bus and hit the pavement running.
We made great time on the steep trail to Angels Landing, although we did get some interesting looks from the “tourists”. We spent some time at the famous viewpoint and hiked a few more miles along the west rim trail.

6:00 am the following morning the alarm is blaring and we’re off for the Subway. Big Momma drops us off after a hearty breakfast and we start hiking at 7:30. There is no trail so we followed the directions we had only to find ourselves off course within an hour. We backtracked and found the proper canyon, finally entering Russell Gulch. Walking along, the canyon narrows and eventually comes to a cliff where a rappel is mandatory to continue down the canyon. Putting on wet suits, we rappelled over the first cliff and directly into a pool of water that we had to swim across. Spring snow runoff and only 35 – 40 degrees, the water is cold!!! We all made the swim and continued down the canyon reaching 3 more rappels and multiple pools to swim across along the way.

We eventually connected into the classic Subway portion of the canyon and were amazed with the beauty and uniqueness of the canyon. Very different from Russell Gulch, the Subway is one of a kind and a place I would visit many times over.  

Multiple rappels, swims and a lost pair of sunglasses later– Brian jumped into the water off a waterfall – we reached the end of the technical portion of the day. We met many people who had hiked up several miles to see the unique sandstone canyon carved by water. Walking along for an hour or so, we eventually found the exit up a very steep trail to the parking lot where Big Momma was waiting to pick us up at almost the exact time we had figured it would take us to navigate the 9 mile long canyon.

We jumped in the car, stuffed some food down, had a beer and headed for the ranger station to pick up tomorrows permit for the infamous Narrows.