canyoneering — Blog - Joshua Forester

I genuinely loved this portion of the hike. The thousands of small waterfalls cascading down the pancake-like red shale made every step precarious but satisfying. I wish we had a picture of my favorite portion, the steepest subsection of this second stage. The rest of our crew took the trail. I couldn’t help myself. I needed to climb this gorgeous stack of red rock. I needed to touch it, be a part of it. I felt the implicit peer pressure pulling at me, but the pull of the falls was stronger. Much stronger. I made the right choice.

HikingShanna IrvingApril 1, 2019SubwayUtah, Zion National Park, hiking, The Subway, Shanna Irving, canyoneeringComment

Zion National Park/Yankee Doodle Canyon - Day 2

I just love the colors! The intensity of the water that must have flooded through, polishing these walls and creating miles of masterpiece! I would both love and hate to be in the canyon when those waters came rushing through—flood waters have always intrigued me, rolling and swirling as they do like a cement mixer of debris and destruction. My mind sometimes wanders through cartoonish surf-board rides atop such a flood, but alas, I am only human and not protected by plot armor. As much as it would thrill me to see such flooding in person, I will be sticking to YouTube videos, I think.

Zion National Park/The Narrows - Day 1

The Narrows are incredibly beautiful, another spot in our nation’s backyard that looks and feels completely alien. Besides the windswept sides and miles of colorful stones, there are gorgeous striations from the sediment eroding and staining the rock in various patterns. The walls are hundreds of feet high on both sides, and the canyon goes on far longer than the several miles we explored. Its grandiosity is difficult to fit into the pictures, but suffice it to say deciding to turn back was tough.