I Went to Zion and Kolob

I like to believe that I'm always open to learn something new. This week I learned that I'm too old to hike the Subway in Zion National Park.

The Subway is a slot canyon hike located in the Kolob Terrace portion of the park. It covers nearly 15 miles where you start in a bleak desert, descend into a deep canyon, swim for your life, rappel down sheer cliffs, wade in shallow water past dinosaur tracks and then hike almost straight up out of the canyon back into the bleak desert.

At the end of the hike, it was 107 degrees and I remembered that when I did this in 1992 I said to myself, "I'm never doing this again." Unfortunately, I forgot to tell my wife about that and she arranged for a reprise this past week. It was beautiful, glorious, and too much for my old bones.

Although the hike takes a serious physical toll, the part that makes me not want to return is that I just don't like the terror of standing at the top of a rock cliff with slippery, sandy shoes-- thinking that one wrong move will end my life as I know it. And, after hiking for about 4 hours, you realize that you can't turn around and go back. Once you unhook the rope, you're committed to continue on--the only way out is straight ahead.

Here's a photo of the last of our group descending into the actual Subway. When I say "our group" I really mean "my wife" casually putting on the harness to descend with a laugh. When I came down five minutes earlier, I wasn't casual or laughing. I wasn't sobbing either, but almost.

This is one of those trips where the fright soon fades from memory--unless you do it again.