Chris called months ago having drawn a permit to do a slot canyon in Zion National Park. We have always wanted to do one, and Chris and his wife do them all the time, but getting all the way down there for one weekend has been a challenge. After a little fretting and stewing on my part, we committed.
A cold morning start in front of Angel's Landing.
3.8 miles up a steep incline to get to where we were to drop in to Behunin Canyon.
They call this Walter's Wiggles.
We have a picture of my brother shortly before his death at this very spot. His picture is not in the shadows and his back is to us. I have always wanted to go there.
This is the first rappel. Not too steep, but getting out to it was a little intimidating.
I had two songs in my head throughout this day. The first one came to me here. Do you remember on "Finding Nemo" when Dory was nervous and she sang "Just keep Swimming..." over and over?
This became our mantra.
This is me on the second rappel trying to stay out of the waterfall. I was not successful.
Not a happy spot. We rappelled to this spot about 10 x 20. The next rappel was immediate and about 80 ft right off the edge where Chris is at. There was about 20 minutes when our rope wouldn't come down. I was standing on a tiny little dry spot and hugging the wall. I started formulating a plan for how I would spend the night here. There was a crack and I had a dry suit with me. When the rope came, we all chuckled that nervous chuckle, "I knew all along it was going to come down!" we all said to each other. Hahahaha...hehehehe ...
Darren coming out of that fun little cove.
Over or under?
We never did determine just how deep the water was in the middle, just that it was deep and we didn't want to go in it!
Thank goodness Darren can do the splits!
He then became a Human Anchor. My husband is so talented.
That is dirty snow.
I was able to cross, ALMOST without getting wet!
Jennie is amazing. Just keep swimming!
Chris checking it out. You can see the webbing above him where we will hook in.
The second song of the day came to me about here. See my neoprene boots? Darren originally told me he wasn't going to pack them. My feet were so cold they were starting to feel like stumps! Then he pulled these out of his pack.
"I am glad for many things, many things, many things. I am glad for many things that are mine today." You know the primary song?
My favorite possessions that day were these boots. Civilized life and comforts of home were worlds away. I couldn't remember ever wanting anything more than neoprene boots! Simple pleasures. I rememeber thinking I wanted to always remember how happy I was just to have warm feet, and just let the rest go.
FYI Heather had neoprene socks that she put on right after this, so she was warm too!
View from the last rappel. We came out on the canyon wall 165 ft. above the floor of Zion.
The little red dot is me on the final rappel. 165 ft. of goodness as Jennie calls it.
It was amazing.
By this time we were all SO ready to be done. The rappel right before this one, 135 ft., had been a tricky hook up, slippery, and not our favorite.
When it came time to go on this one Darren jumped right in and took off first. Very unusual for him. I knew at that point he wanted down too! I was grateful for Heather who offered to let me go before her, I graciously (and immediately!) accepted.
By the time we were all down and packed up it was getting dark. We scrambled all over trying to find the trail. From above, the trail is like a highway, not hard to miss. We had a little trouble finding it. Darren finally scrambled up to it and we were grateful. Note to self, keep Darren around! We went right around the Emerald Pools, but never got to see them in the darkness.
We got to the lodge at 9:15 hoping the shuttles were still running. We heard one and ran like crazy so it wouldn't leave us. It felt like the Amazing Race! You just have to imagine how tired, cold, and hungry we were. It was dark. It was a 20 minute bus ride to our car.
Darren got to it first.
Keep Darren around.
Simple pleasures. A ride out of the Canyon. I was glad for many things. I hope these adventures stay with me and help me brush off the little things.
I HAVE NEOPRENE BOOTS AND WARM FEET!
