Zion Nat'l Park, Day 3/4 - The Subway (from the Bottom Up)

Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018 - Day 3 at Zion National Park. I can't wait to hit the day - after my Loaded Oatmeal and medium cup-of-coffee at Deep Creek Coffee Company (see yesterday's photo). Outside of the "main part of the Park" the Left Fork Trailhead is 30 minutes away:

Don't worry - the roads are all black-top highway.

Pretty nice out here at 10:30 in the morning:


With all their talk about "limiting the number of hikers" and "YOU MUST GET A WILDERNESS PERMIT", I was a little pleasantly surprised TO BE THE ONLY PERSON HERE!!!:


MapMyWalk freaked out up by The Subway:

I'll try to clean it up before sending it over to Google Earth.

In Google Earth, looking northeast, the hike goes up the Left Fork of the Virgin River:

To quote the National Parks Service: "This is a strenuous 9-mile round-trip hike through the Left Fork of North Creek that requires route finding, creek crossing, and scrambling over boulders." I did it in 5 hours 17 minutes.

You start with a nice level walk through scrub forest:

It is always fun entering "the wilderness":

and then you get to the canyon rim:

That's the River WAY DOWN THERE!

The red-rock walls are pretty awesome:


The River is very nice, and you hop back and forth from one side to another. I spent probably a quarter of my time wondering a) is there a trail on the other side?, and b) is it a better trail than the one I'm on?:




A blog I read said not to concentrate on "getting to The Subway", but rather enjoy the hike up to it. As someone who was sent outside to play in the woods, and follow rabbit trails and streams, I certainly agree.

Having said that, The Subway is pretty cool:



I changed into my waterproof socks and boots (and just rolled up my pants) and explored up through it. There are deep pools, and as soon as you make the left turn, you run right into pools that are at least 6 feet deep and span the entire canyon, from one side to the other:



Turning around, I did get some iconic views:



Oh, and did I mention that I was the only one up here!

About a mile into my way back down I ran into another hiker heading up - HUMANITY! It was a hard hike climbing up out of the canyon, but I finished at just after 4, with plenty of daylight. And here's the other guy's car:


Spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, read my COOL BOOK

SiFy Channel, bedtime. Thank You God for these WONDERFUL Adventures!

Driving Music:

The Beatles - Revolver, 1966


Lyrics - "Got to Get You into My Life":

I was alone, I took a ride
I didn't know what I would find there