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September 8, 2004: Me, Max and Joe (aka Jr.) set off to do the top down hike known as the Subway in Zion park, a nice varied hike with constant changing terrain and some nice little repels and swims that were fairly easy, yet enough of a challenge to make the hike interesting. Here's the scene at the Quality Inn where we stayed.. Before the start, a shot of the whole crew, including Ed who checked out the main part of Zion during out Subway encounter.

A look from near the start of our descent into the canyon. Here's Max looking tilted and confused for some reason.

Here we go heading down some slick rock. Here's a great shot looking up which almost makes the terrain look like giant sand dunes with trees. Me and Joe by the trail sign. Another shot of us as we go down the slanted slick rock with interesting vegetation.

Our leader, Max, consults the trail description to make sure we don't need a helicopter rescue.

As we go down a little lower, the canyon opening becomes evident.

High shot of the canyon walls.

Bigger shot of the walls from up high still.

Above shot of a nasty pool of water.

Our first obstacle was a nice warm-up repel where we see max going down. Here's my glamour shot.

In a pool with icy water we had to do a short swim in, I gracefully paddle through. Another cold water obstacle but this time, no swimming was required.

Here's a nice little skinny passage we had to go down. Max surveys the way down.

Here's a closer shot of the water fall we had to go down, beyond the rock you see was a big drop, I think. This is a nice shot of the choke stone we waded under.

A look up from the river.

A another long way up look.

Cool walls with a little water.

Here's our final big obstacle. Some weird rock holes.

Max is all business in this descent with nice clear pools below which we avoided by doing this repel. I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out how to get down to the rope. But then I am the man and make my big repel down. The bottom of the repel as seen here had a nice prehistoric look.

Here's max through a slot we had to go through somewhere on the trail. Here's me in another one.

A nice little falls as seen from somewhere near the exit of the subway, I think.

The meat of the trek: The subway formation from before the final big repel. After the repel, some awesome pools and slimy ground. Max in front of the "famous" subway tree. Nice erosion. A great shot of the subway as we exit looks like some ominous evil mouth. A good low shot. A timer shot Max took of the all three of us by the tree. Nice shot of subway by Max. A view of the Subway turning. Joe leaving the Subway. Joe and me trekking along.

A nice green canyon view. A little rest as we change clothes after the water section is completed. Still, some little water walking to be done in this nice flowing section.

As we emerge from the shadows of the canyon, we see a nice glistening falls with algae. Here's me sitting in another pretty array of water, algae and rock. Me and Joe going down a nice calm trickling falls. And then Joe has his glamour shot. Shortly after this, there was this cool erosion in the rock where the water has formed a 4 inch wide, but fairly deep rushing rivlet.

Finally, we walk by the famous dinosaur tracks.

At the end, in pain from the final climb and thirsty from lack of water, Joe looks ok, but I can't disguise the trouble I'm in.

Day 2:

After Max wimped out by getting sick right at the start before our 6am, 8 mile, 2150 ft elevation gain hike up to Observation Point, I wasn't in the mood to do it on my own in the dark, so after we went back to the motel and slept a bit, the others in the group went to their fishing and I did a little exploring in the Narrows, which I didn't get to do last time as I didn't have the proper water shoes which I now had. Unfortunately, it was raining and thundering and I was scared of a flash flood, so I never made it to the good REALLY narrow part which pissed me off, especially since the sun came out shortly after I turned around, but I wasn't in the mood to turn around again.

But it was OK, because it gave me more time to do the hike to Hidden Canyon, which was a side trip off the trail to Observation Point which I didn't do during my last trip. It was still a nice climb, though only a mile. Once in the canyon, there was some obstacles to negotiate to get in further to some little arch. As I had nothing to do, I did it.

And that's it. Drove back to St. George, had some seriously good Wen and flew back uneventfully. Short trip, but very enjoyable.

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