Jeff Tangen Photography: November 2009

On my recent trip to Zion in Sept. I wanted to go to what is called the "Subway" but did not have enough info on the hike as there are two ways to get there, one is with swimming in ice cold water and rappelling down ropes. The other is just a long hike which is the route I wanted to take. So after more research, my friend Rory and I went back in the first part of Nov.

The Subway is a fantastic land formation along the North Creek at Zion National Park. It is one of the more remote areas at Zion and requires a Backcountry Permit. For those interested in doing the hike, the part where you DON'T do any swimming and rappelling starts at the Left Fork trail head. After all my research I was still thinking I needed to start at the Wildcat trail head which would have taken me into the rappelling stuff. Glad I verified with the rangers at the Visitor's Center when I got the permit.

Since this was a long hike I did not want to do it alone so my friend Rory who is a master hiker came along to keep me in line. Since Rory had not been to Zion before and was chomping at the bit to do some serious hiking, we hiked Angels Landing on our first day. Here is Rory hanging over a ledge about half way up Angels Landing.

Most of the photos in this post were taken by Rory as we hiked along the creek. He used my 2nd camera and it reminded me that I need to get a little point & shoot camera to document these trips as it's a pain to take off my camera backpack and setup/teardown each time I need to take a photo along the way. Most of these "hike" photos were taken on the way back as we did not get our cameras out until just before the subway but I'm posting them in geographic order so you get an idea of the hike. My photos of the actual Subway will be at the bottom of this post.

Here we are at the bottom of the canyon after coming down a steep 400' incline. We made a mental note of this cobblestone area to know where to find the trail that heads back up. We started down into the canyon at about 6:30 am. and were out here for a total of 11 hrs. Other than the approx one hour we were at the Subway, I was hiking steady with my 35lb pack for about 10 hours straight. That's about my limit, especially when it came time to start hiking back up the 400' incline at the end of it all.

Looking up from the bottom of the canyon, that is the height we had to come down.

Since this is a "back-country" area, there is no paved trail like the main tourist areas of Zion. We had to follow what's called a "social trail" along the creek. There were times we had to make a choice of whether to walk directly in the creek or maneuver around large boulders like you see here.

Never turn your back on someone with a camera. Here Rory catches me at a defenseless moment. Part of the back-country policy is you bring out what you take in. Fortunately we did not have to do any "real" business while here. Where you get the back-country permit they have special bags you can pick up for that. Lovely. (I'll get you back for this Rory) ;-)

Here I am taking a shot of a pool where the cliff reflection in the water was super.

Here is looking up at the fall color canopy we had along the trail. I'm glad I came back at this time as the autumn colors were in full swing.

Here is a spot where the trail and creek starts to become slick-rock with small water falls as we get closer.

Ok, we are almost there. This is what is commonly called The Crack and is a narrow water channel cut by the creek as it rounds the bend from the Subway. It's around 11am at this stage of the hike. Just around the corner is the Subway

Here I am just a speck in the middle of the shot up against the left wall. I was getting excited as we got closer and started leaving Rory behind.

Here I am (in shorts) at the entrance to the Subway. The photographer right behind me is Steve Liverman who I met here. He gave me a few tips on where to walk that was not too slippery as this was his second time here.

Here I am in the Subway taking a shot looking back on the way we came in. The entire area is now slick-rock and is EXTREMELY slippery. There were a couple other photographers that showed up and at one point there was one to my left and he slipped and both he and his camera/tripod went sliding all the way down to where it was dry. Fortunately his camera was still functional even though I heard it hit the rock floor. I kept having to rub my shoes back and forth to dig down beneath the moss to the rock to get a grip.

Below are some of my final images. The rest can be seen larger in the gallery HERE. 12 images uploaded to gallery.