ZION is BEST II

The day after we hiked the Subway, 6 of us (Josh, me, Tyler, Marie, Matt, and Carla) hiked through Pine Creek. With a lightening, thunder and rain filled night, we were worried the flash flood warnings would be to high to do the hike. Luckily, they were only a medium and the skies cleared, so we decided it was a go.


With all the rain, there was a TON of water!! We started swimming even before the first rappel and continued swimming between each one for some pretty long distances, often dropping right into it and treading water as you took the rope off at the end of the drop.


Pine Creek is only about 3 miles, but there are 5 rappels, the shortest being about 10 feet and the longest just about 100 feet, and free falling!

Josh and Matt took care of all the technical stuff and reminded the rest of how it was done. (Thanks Men!) Carla learned a good lesson the hard way about how you're NOT supposed to take your ATC off the carribeaner when you put the rope through. Good thing Matt was prepared and had an extra figure 8! Amazingly, though, after dropping it down the cliff and into the muddy water, she was still able to find it!


With it being later in the day and later in the season, it was dark inside the slot canyon and COLD, especially after being in the water! You could see your breath and STEAM was actually coming off all our bodies! I tried to take swimming pictures of people, but the steam was so thick, it just didn't work very well. But it still made for a cool pic!


We all shook uncontrollably because of the ice cold water that never sees the sun. Thanks to Matt we learned some awesome kick boxing moves to keep warm

SUNSHINE!!! and lunch

The Park was packed with people for the holiday weekend, so it was a bit crowded in the canyon at first, but after the first couple rappels, the groups stretched out and it was like our own private play ground.



To say the least, AWESOME! Very fun, very fun indeed. Pictured above is the last rappel with my manly husband on his way down. So glad I married him =) We took an adventureous trail out of the canyon and sometimes felt lost along the way thinking we were following sheep trails, but we made it! Matt and Carla hitch hiked back to the suburan for us and then we piled in and drove a while to the luxerious Ponderosa!!



A hot tub and a pool and showers never felt SO good! Spencer and Melina (pregnant and amazing) didn't hike Pine Creek with us due to their 4 month along child, so they were extremely kind and prepared a delectible dutch oven dinner for us all that night. We spent the next 24 hours relaxing our sore and tired bodies, ate delicious food, had deep conversations around the camp fire we weren't supposed to have, and played in clean, warmer water.

It was a great weekend. A great way to celebrate the summer and a great way to conclude it. Thanks for all the fun everyone! We will do it again next year!