Subway... in Idaho?

H1N1? Nope.
Hypothermia from Packsaddle Lake? Nope.
Fell off a steep cliff? Nope.
Eaten by a bear? Nope.
Sick of blogging? Well, not yet.
Busy? Yup (where busy is relative and sleep takes precedence).
But, I'm back (for those who have expressed their concern for my well being). So, to make up for the late post, I've decided to flood you with pictures. When everything is so beautiful, it's hard to decide what gets left out. So, without further babbling, here's the pictures:
An unnamed co-worker that graciously took pictures when we went to Packsaddle Lake (see previous post) was a little miffed that there weren't any pictures of me actually jumping off this shaky, cantilevered "diving board" into the freezing cold water. So, he insisted that this (altered) picture be posted. How's that for good balance?
Remember where I was headed last weekend? If not, Chris and I left work Thursday and headed straight down to Subway.
Here I am riding the Subway. Check out the guy under my left arm - you'd think I forgot my deodorant.
OK, so this wasn't really a subway, but a shuttle at Zion National Park. But don't worry - we'll get back to Subway.
To help you appreciate the enormity of the rock faces in Zion NP, this picture is taken from the road, through the shuttle roof vent. The canyon walls simply tower over everything.
The view from our campsite as the sun came up.
A panoramic picture going through the park. If you'd like some perspective, click on it and look close - you'll spot a shuttle along the red road.
Looking straight up the rock wall as we set off on our hike Friday morning. We were lucky enough to get back country hiking permits for Friday and Saturday, so we started out here for Mystery Canyon on Friday.
Views down the Zion Canyon as we worked our way up to Observation Point.
If you click on it, you'll be able to see the road, a couple of shuttles and the river in the canyon floor.
Couldn't decide which picture I liked better. The rock wall jutting out on the right in the forefront of the picture is Angel's Landing, ~1,500 feet high. (You might remember that I hiked it over Memorial Day weekend.)
Observation Point, ~2,150 feet straight up!
Since walking near the edge isn't dangerous enough, Chris walks on his hands near the edge...
..."Where is his Mother?!?"
A panoramic looking right at Observation Point.
A half mile up the road, we reached the top of our destination. Before us was the canyon we would climb, jump, rappel and swim down.
It was great timing for good fall foliage colors in the canyon.
They call these slot canyons for good reasons. The canyon
wall on the right is many hundreds of feet high...
...and perched way up there was a brightly "burning" bush.
Views while hiking down the slot canyon.
After a few mini-rappels that could be down climbed, we got to some of the fun rappels. "Hey Chris, Do you trust these two rusty bolts?" "I just try not to think about it." (Since we got a late start that day, we did know that at least 10 other people had already made it down that day.)
Peering over the edge and swallowing butterflies.
Actually, it is pretty fun to rappel down.
After merging a few pictures together, you can barely see the top half of the canyon...
...while you rappel down the bottom half.
I don't know how to describe the views as the sun peaked through the narrow canyon walls we were climbing between. Who discovers these anyways? Even better, who has the imagination to create such beauty that is constantly changing as the sun dances around each corner, climbs the walls as the day wears on and beams through hidden crevices with its radiance? I think you all know the answer to that question!
Safety first (at least he has a helmet on)...
...or is that fun first (as Spiderman slides down the rock). In his defence... somebody else already proved it was doable.
A random stump of a tree at the top of another rappel.
More beautiful views along the way.
The last two (out of 12) rappels of the day were extra exciting (and not because it was getting dark). Besides being over 100 feet high, this one dropped you into a spring of refreshing (read - freezing cold) water that wasn't too deep - but well over my head. You can see the ropes hanging and the pool at the bottom on the right.
Wet suit? Check.
Camera in the dry bag? Check.
Rope secured? Check. And so I headed down...
...and down and down and down. This picture was taken right before I dropped into the water, panted like a dog while I caught by breath, repositioned my heart back down in my chest and then contemplated how I was supposed to unhook the rope while laying on my back in the water, when I couldn't touch bottom and swimming has never been my forte. Why don't these questions arise before I ever hook into the rope? Regardless, at this point it didn't matter and it was time to just do whatever I had to do before my hands went numb.
Chris shows me how I was supposed to do it (he managed not to get so wet).
As darkness settled in, we reached our final rappel, down a waterfall and into the Virgin River below. It's hard to tell, but this picture is taken from the top as I approach the river on rappel. You can see the water falling from the bottom of the picture and the river is at the top of the picture. Follow the rope down and you'll see me getting splashed.
I don't usually like to post blurry pictures, but this is the only one we have of the Virgin River canyon as we walked out of "The Narrows" for the last half mile. Of course, the fact that it was getting dark and I was shivering probably didn't help. I'm just glad I didn't heed others advice and brought my headlamp anyways! Oh, and I'm also glad that when I slid off the rock to cross the river only to realize that I couldn't touch bottom and had to start swimming, that the headlamp didn't get wet! Sound like enough adventure for one day? As I kept repeating all weekend... "I don't usually do two big hikes in one weekend."...
...but what would that matter as we headed off to hike "Subway" on Saturday?
Subway is a little more popular hike then Mystery Canyon and it had it's own unique characteristics. Here you can see trees growing on the steep hills of white rock...
...and here there's a guy trying to blend in with the red rock that has either flowed or erroded into neat patterns.
Here's where we would drop into the canyon where the real adventure starts.
Looking up from the bottom.
One of my favorite views with all the different colors.
Same spot, different perspective.
If we had entered at a different spot, we would have had to swim through the slot canyon here!
You can tell it's another beautiful day with the reflection of the sky in the water.
You can see the canyon walls reflecting off the water in a "hidden room" under the rocks.
Yup - handstands here too.
Time to get serious as we break out the dry bags and wet suits. The park rangers said the water was 54 degrees - and park rangers don't lie!No tip-toeing in this week (you can hear Chris laughing because he already knows how cold the water is.)
Chris getting up the nerve to jump into the next hole (I definitely tripled his time on the "It's cold and I don't want to jump in!" wait before each swimming hole).
The water was very clear, and usually deeper then it appeared.
After the first swim, we had to keep moving to stay warm and find a spot to catch some sun. Some spots were really shallow while others required swimming. In some sections the canyon was shoulder width apart but then it would open up in other sections. Each turn brought new beauty and new adventures!
This swim made me the most nervous as it was probably 50 - 75 yards of crystal clear, freezing cold water. However, there were a few spots where you could brace your feet against the walls and take a break...
...and under this rock was one of them... after you squeezed through the narrow opening. After I got through, I took my camera out to get a picture of Chris...
...you can't see him standing under that same rock? Apparently my violent shivering maxed out the camera's highly touted "image stabilazation"!
So, we continued on (almost as good as walking on the beach... in Maine in May).
Another short swim.
The irony of a littered Subway knapkin.
Wow - once again, some gorgeous views along the way. I really enjoyed the blue/red/green colors.
Somebody got in the way of a really picturesque view.
They even had a few small waterfalls...
...sliding down it looked painful, but sitting in it with the sun shining on you isn't so bad.
Where else can you see something like this? Can you see why it's called Subway?
Three-toed dinosaur tracks!
This was really peaceful... until we got there.
The view looking back as we headed out of the canyon and back to our car. I haven't even attempted to try and express the beauty we saw the last two days, and of course the pictures do it no justice. But have you ever attempted to describe God? Words do not begin to describe Him nor can we fathom His infinite beauty. To make an attempt would be futile, yet He specifically created me, and loves me like no other! How is it possible? He simply is the great I AM!
On our way out of Zion, we stopped at the Kolub Canyon entrance for another campstove dinner while the sunset beamed across the red rock in front of us. From there, we headed back to Salt Lake City for the night so we could see...
...the weekly live recording of "Music and the Spoken Word" with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
The choir and orchestra were exceptional!
After the program, we took a tour of the LDS Conference Center. You can see the same pipe organ here with seats for the choir. The building has state of the art technology and the entire platform can be rearranged into a stage for local productions while seating over 20,000 people. This picture was taken from the top of the second balcony.
Up on the roof they had trees that were changing...
...and fields that reminded me a little too much of Idaho.
Something just doesn't seem right about this picture.
After beautiful weekend weather, we were greeted with snow as we passed back into Idaho, the culmination of another weekend full of adventure.

I'm still a weekend behind, but hopefully I'll get time to post a few more pictures from this weekends adventures before I head home!