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Southwest 2014
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A final rappel brought us to the "Subway" section itself - a beautiful natural tube-like formation that resembles an old subway tube. From here we had a wonderful walk down a more open but especially scenic section of canyon, full of gentle little cascades of water over a red-rock streambed.
Final Rap
The Subway
Beautiful Red Cascades
courtesy RHanel
Exiting Left Fork
Day 8 - Angel's Landing, Zion National Park

Day eight was a relaxation day for our larger sub-group. It also turned out to be a day spent with the smaller sub-group of the Hatkos and Alana and Sandra. A bad weather forecast had caused them to abandon their two-day West Rim backpack. We all decided to do the popular and short Angel's Landing route together.
courtesy JInnes
courtesy JInnes
All together
Along the spine
Hatkos on Angel's Landing
courtesy JInnes
Return from Angel's Landing
Custom Doughnuts
Day 9 - Storms and Flooding, Zion National Park

On day nine, a strong weather event moved through Zion National Park. As a result, we didn't do anything long, strenuous, or involving hiking in flash flood terrain. On the other hand, we had an exciting and wonderful look at the park in flash flood mode. We elected to hike a short (non flood-prone) trail to a spot called Canyon Overlook. We were mesmerized by the transformation of the canyon into a place filled with raging creeks and many delicate, thousand-foot high waterfalls.
A Foreboding Morning
The Waterfalls Begin
Roland and Pu on 'Shower Path'
courtesy RHanel
Wonderland of Waterfalls
Pine Creek Flash Flood
The storms passed through by mid-day, and we moved on from Zion to position ourselves for the last challenge of our trip - a climb of a desert peak between Zion and Las Vegas. The mountain, called Moapa Peak, is situated fairly close to Interstate 15 in Nevada.

Unfortunately, the day's inclement weather also created a watery roadblock on the side road leading to the base of the climb. We abandoned our plan to climb Moapa Peak and instead camped near Valley of Fire State Park, which we'd decided to visit instead (on the following day).
courtesy RHanel
Moapa Peak Obstacle
Attempting to drain
Day 10 - Valley of Fire State Park, and the return home

The final day of our trip saw us doing a relaxed browse through the colorful scenery at Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. Almost all of the hikes in Valley of Fire are easy and most are extremely short. As a result, we did four different hikes, visiting a petrified wood location, a wash containing many petroglyphs, an area of multicolored domes and rocks, and a visit to a formation known as the "Fire Wave".
courtesy PChen
courtesy BConnell
Valley of Fire
Roland and Petroglyphs
Fire Wave Formations
After our visit to Valley of Fire, we continued on towards Las Vegas, where we were scheduled to catch our red-eye flight home around midnight. Before doing so, we stopped at a campground, packed up our bags, and cleaned ourselves up. We then went into Las Vegas for a nice meal at a pizzeria, washed off and returned the rental van, and presented ourselves at the airport. Our flights home went off cleanly and without incident, wrapping up a fairly tight and well-run ten days of outdoor fun.
courtesy RHanel
Cleaning up
Bright-eyed Travellers
If you found this overview interesting, I encourage you to read the main trip report. There is a lot more detail in the main report, along with ten times the number of pictures. Alternatively, you can use the table of contents to look at any one of our days or outings in greater detail.
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[ Return to "The Checklist Edition" Home page | Introduction | Day 1 : South Kaibab to Clear Creek Trail | Day 2 : Clear Creek Tr to Cottonwood Camp | Day 3 : Cottonwood Camp to North Rim | The North Rim | Drive to Zion | Lady Mountain Redux | The Subway | Angel's Landing | Zion in Flood | Valley of Fire | Wind-up and Return | The "Short Report" | GPS Data ]


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