Desert Southwest - The Checklist Edition - The Subway - Zion National Park - September 2014

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Descent of The Subway

Zion National Park, Utah

Thursday, September 25

Zion is quite well-known for the quality of its watery canyons - narrow defiles of cool, clear water and polished white sandstone. Of these canyons, one has become particularly famous: the Left Fork of North Creek. Most people don't know it by this admittedly long and dry name, though. Instead they know it from the name of its most famous feature: The Subway.

The Subway is a small section within the narrows of the Left Fork, where the forces of erosion and the particular nature of the rock have combined to form what can be best described as a tube-shaped section of canyon. The dimensions of this tube section is quite similar to the dimensions of subway tubes such as one would find in early London or New York. Hence, the name "The Subway". In addition to this striking and peculiar feature, additional sections of narrows nearby have their own scenic beauty.

I'd done the Subway a couple of times back in the late 1990s - before the Left Fork had become super popular. Since then, the park service had established a permit system, with a maximum of sixty through-canyon canyoneers allowed per day. Towards 2010, I had begun to try and organize a repeat descent through this fun canyon, but each time, I failed to get a permit. These repeated and failed attempts to re-visit The Subway route earned it a spot on the Checklist Edition trip.

Pre-Subway Breakfast

This year, I prepared well in advance and applied early, for the first lottery period. And, happily, we won ourselves a permit. The date of the winning permit (we had submitted for several different dates) turned out to be Thursday, September 25.

Our permit allowed for ten participants. The seven of us in the white van were all keen to do the canyon, as was Gillian, who had expressed an interest. Unfortunately, her daughter Evie was still exclusively breast-feeding, so she could not leave for any extended period of time. Chris had also expressed an interest, and was thinking about joining us, but the remnants of his lingering cold and the proximity of his family's own planned two-day West Rim backpack (for the next day) caused him to decide to pass on the offer.

The classic Subway descent involves starting at a point along the Kolob Terrace Road, in the high country of Zion, some distance away from the canyon itself. One then hikes cross-country to the canyon, descends into it, and follows it for many miles until a lower exit point is reached, and finally back out to the road - but in a completely different location. This makes the route a "point-to-point" - which means we either needed two vehicles or we needed a shuttle operation.

Wildcat Trailhead

Fortunately, we had two vehicles - ours and the Hatkos'. Chris had graciously offered to get up super-early and drive with us to the trailheads, in order to allow us to leave our own rental van at the route's end point.

I drove the Subway route hiking crew up the Kolob Terrace Road to the Wildcat Canyon trailhead - the start point for the descent of The Subway route. I then drove back down to the "end" trailhead (the Left Fork trailhead), many miles back downhill along the road, where I left our van. Chris then drove me all the way back up to the Wildcat Canyon trailhead and dropped me off with the others. We would all like to thank Chris for taking two hours out of his comfy morning sleep to help us out. Too bad you couldn't have joined us!

Dawn on Wildcat Canyon Tr

Finally fully set-up and ready to go, we set off along the Wildcat Canyon Trail. I was unsure how long our relatively large group would take in the technical bits of our descent of the Left Fork, so I had wanted to start early - before sunrise. it was now 7 a.m. and the pre-dawn twilight had just brightened enough to allow for walking without a headlamp. Perfect.

Pine Valley Peak

The Wildcat Canyon trail started off completely on the level, crossing a flat dotted with sagebrush, grasses and a few desert plants, with a stretch of homogenous pine-forest here and there. Completely effort-free hiking along this stretch.

We walked three-abreast on the spacious trail and chatted the first half hour away (in fact you could walk ten-abreast here, given that the terrain is a flat with ankle-high shrubbery).

Open Plateauscape

Easy approach hike

Fire Resistant

Presently, we came to a junction with the West Rim-Hop Valley connector trail. The connector trail is part of a much longer trans-Zion hiking route that runs from the eastern boundary of the park to the western boundary.

A long multi-day backpack was not in the cards for us today, so we continued on. Five minutes later, we arrived at another junction, and this one interested us more. It was the junction with the Northgate Peaks trail - a dead-end side trail that led to an [apparently] superb lookout between two huge domes of slickrock (the Northgate Peaks).

Turn Right Here

We weren't here for the Northgate Peaks, either. However, the first bit of the Northgate Peaks trail leads to the start of the Subway Route. So, we turned right here, hiking along more easy flat trail. I immediately began looking for an unsigned footpath that led left, for I knew from my own experience many years ago (and from descriptions in guidebooks) that the start of The Subway route would soon be reached.

Turnoff to The Subway

In a short five minutes, we reached [fairly obvious] side path. I needn't have worried, however, because the park service now has a metal sign here that states that this is the start of The Subway route.

Subway Route Starts Here

We were now getting to something bit more interesting than a flat trail. We turned onto the left footpath, and very soon started a downward descent across a large section of sloping white slickrock, dotted here and there with small, banzai-like trees.

The Subway route is not an officially-marked route (the sign at the start being one of the few exceptions to that), and the way is not always completely obvious. The sloping white slickrock flat, for example, has a few fingers of forest that lie across it. One or two hiker made herdpaths cross these fingers of vegetation, and one must look carefully (sometimes there are cairns) to see where these herdpaths enter the forest. We spotted one that looked promising - and which worked - but after reviewing satellite footage after the trip, I could see that there was a slightly better path a bit further along. No matter, though, the one we chose worked out. Generally one proceeds downhill and slightly to the left, aiming to intersect the bottom of Russell Gulch,

courtesy RHanel

White Slickrock slopes

Sections through trees

We continued our descent. A bit of slickrock, a bit of herdpath through forest, a sloping ledge. Even though we were now "off-trail", the going was still very easy: downhill, and on relatively smooth surfaces. Still very low on the strenuosity scale, at least so far.

courtesy PChen

Hooker's Evening Primrose

The Sun is Coming

Little Forest Path

Russell Gulch

Down a ramp

Down, down, down

A short steeper bit of slickrock brought us down and across the dry watercourse of Russell Gulch. From here until we reached a major descent near its mouth, we would be continuing on the eastern slopes of the Gulch (before crossing the watercourse, we had been descending down the western slopes of the Gulch).

From the watercourse crossing, we walked uphill for a tiny bit, up to a pretty saddle made of pink sandstone, its cross-bedded structure particularly noticable. On this saddle were two low (person-high) hoodoos of the same pink sandstone. It was here that we first met the morning sun, and we stopped for a snack and our first real break.

courtesy RHanel

Nearing Slickrock Saddle

One of Two Knobs

First Sun

After consulting the route description and the map, we continued on - down the pink slickrock on the far side of the twin-hoodooed saddle. The bottom of Russell Gulch deepened off to the right, but we stayed left, crossing an open bowl on the east side of Russell Gulch's drainage. Occasional small cairns and snippets of footpath helped guide the way.

Down into Slickrock Bowl

Down from the knobs

Vegetated Sandstone Slopes

Left Fork First Glimpse

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