Desert Southwest 2014 - The Checklist Edition - The Short Report - September 2014

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Day 4 - Grand Canyon Backpack, Day 3

The third day of our Grand Canyon backpack. Our "ascent" day, out of the canyon along the North Kaibab Trail to the North Rim. We got up in the dark at a very early time in order to (a) beat any possibility of heat, and (b) hopefully arrive at the rim at an early enough hour to allow me to grab a shuttle that would take me back to the south rim to retrieve our rental van.

Climbing out, day 3

Careful Construction

Nearing Supai Tunnel

The North Kaibab trail was quite scenic - more so than I had anticipated. The trail quality was also mostly excellent, except for the very highest part being chewed up by mule traffic. Our ascent proceeded more quickly than we had anticipated, and we arrived at the rim before noon. This meant I was able to catch my shuttle bus to the south rim, and by late evening, I had returned back to the North Rim with our 12-passenger rental van (Gillian had brought the Hatkos' red minivan around herself - she had skipped the backpack to stay with Chris and Gillian's two daughters).

Nearing the rim

The rim-to-rim-ers

Reuniting with Family

courtesy JInnes

Shuttle ride to pick up van

Breakfast at North Rim

Day 5 - Grand Canyon North Rim to Zion

After the Grand Canyon backpack, we pencilled in a relaxed transition day. Our itinerary called for us to move from the Grand Canyon area to the Zion National Park area, about two hours to the northwest.

Before leaving the North Rim, we spent a few hours exploring, visiting Bright Angel Point and the North Rim Lodge. We then undertook the scenic drive from the North Rim to Zion, choosing an uncommon but quite scenic route to arrive in the vicinity of the park.

courtesy CDoucet

courtesy RHanel

Visiting Bright Angel Point

Drive across Plateau

Approaching Zion

Day 6 - Lady Mountain, Zion National Park

The first day of our Zion visit saw us re-visit an objective that we failed to complete last year: the climb up to the top of Lady Mountain.

The route up Lady Mountain is an off-trail semi-technical scramble climb (that used to be a trail, a long time ago). After gathering together our gear on another beautiful sunny morning, we caught the Zion shuttle to the start of the route. We knew the details of the route quite well, so we were pretty confident in achieving the top.

Departing for Lady Mtn

Lady Mountain Above

Lady Mountain Scrambling

Owing to our earlier start and our knowledge about the route, we were able to succesfully hike, scramble and climb our way to Lady Mountain's summit. The summit views were truly fantastic - better and more varied than those from nearby Angel's Landing and Observation Point.

courtesy JInnes

courtesy PChen

Chimney Crux

Up the Endless Staircase

Lady Mountain Summit

Jenn rappelling chimney

Day 7 - The Subway Route, Zion National Park

For the second day of our Zion visit, we did a descent of one of the park's more famous canyoneering routes: the Left Fork of North Creek, also known as "The Subway" route.

Over the past few years, we'd been attempting to get permits to do this route, and failing. This year's attempt resulted in success. After some very helpful shuttling assistance from Chris (he and the folks from his van were not descending the Subway - they were planning a separate backpack of their own along the West Rim Trail), we started off, pre-dawn, from the Wildcat Canyon trailhead in Zion's high country.

Starting off, Subway Route

Descending Slickrock

I had done the Subway Route before, back in the late '90s, and much of the mostly-unmarked descent route was familiar to me. We enjoyed the easy, descending approach into the narrows. Once there, we began hiking down-canyon, soon encountering one of several rappel sections (all were short and easy rappels).

We also encountered water - as expected - and had to wade and/or swim several short sections. The water was cool but not frigid, and in the shady depths of the canyon, cold-averse Jennifer and Roland both experienced a few shivers. A nice warm lunch spot revived them quite nicely, however.