Scary. Beautiful.

Michelle mentioned that I would write about our Subway experience almost two weeks ago. It turned out to be a little more intense than we expected/wanted. As a preface, you should know I hiked the Subway last June with the young men in my ward. It was a great experience. It drizzled a little bit when we first entered the canyon, and I was a little nervous, but the rain stopped, the sun came out and we went on at a pretty leisurely pace.

This year was different. As you can see in the picture of me at Bryce Canyon (taken the day before we hiked the Subway) the skies were pretty stormy. We watched a lightning storm from Bryce Canyon. When we got up Wednesday morning, August 1, the skies were partly cloudy and the weather report said there was a 50% chance of rain. Since the Subway has a pretty steep exit trail, I didn't want to start the hike too early to be hiking the exit trail in the heat of the day, so we slept in a little and had a nice breakfast. We took a little too much time, though, and we left about an hour later than I wanted to.

The National Park Service only allows 50 people to hike the Subway a day, limits group sizes to 12 and requires a backcountry permit. When we stopped to get our permit, the ranger told me there was a 50% chance of rain, high chance of flash floods, and would NOT recommend going. She said it wasn't so bad that they could not issue the permit, but that she would not do it. I took this information back to Michelle and Jeff. I suggested we hike down to the first rappel, assess the situation, and determine then if we continue through the Subway or go back. We agreed this would be fine. It would allow us to get a good hike and some slot canyon experience. I should probably explain that the Subway is a through-hike. You park one car at the bottom, take one car to the top, and hike through. Here's a good trail description of the Subway, with a map and some pictures.

So, we were on our way. The skies were still partly cloudy and it was warm. It looked like the wind was blowing the clouds away from the direction we were going. When we actually got down into the canyon, there was less water than when I hiked it last year. When we came to the first rappel, the skies were looking good, so we decided to keep going all the way through. There are three or four pools in the Subway that you have to swim through. The canyon narrows up and you can't avoid them. A couple are so deep you can't touch the bottom. Here's a picture of the first one:

Despite the summer heat, the pools are cold. That picture also happens to be the last picture we took that day. So after all the pools and rappels. Actually, it was during the last of the pools and rappels, we started hearing thunder. Bad sign. Just after the last rappel, it started pouring rain. We could barely see 50 feet in front of us. Oh no, I thought, this is exactly what everyone who hikes a slot canyon fears. Fortunately, we were out of what I consider the danger zone. There were no more pools or rappels and from this point on, the canyon widens and the sides aren't so steep. We said a prayer and moved much quicker down the trail than we had been.

Well, then I heard a steady roar. It was deep and similar to the sound of thunder, only constant. We come around a corner and saw two ginormous waterfalls pouring over the side of the a cliff where there are normally no waterfalls. I followed the water down and saw a raging river flowing into the stream we had been hiking down. The only way I've been able to describe it is scary and beautiful at the same time. Scary because of the danger a flash flood presents, and beautiful because of the rare opportunity to see these awe-inspiring waterfalls and cliffs shrouded in clouds. I wish I could show you pictures, but we thought it more prudent to forgo the pictures and head to high ground. Here are some pictures of a different flash flood in Zion National Park. We crossed the stream we had been hiking down because it hadn't flooded yet and got up to higher ground on the side of the canyon I knew the exit trail to be on. The trail follows the river down the canyon, but unfortunately the flooded river covered the trail, so we had to bushwhack our way over and around the steep sides of the canyon. It was not fun. We had to push away thick bushes to get through. A sliding rock hit Michelle in the ankle. Luckily it wasn't bad, but it did make her a little more uncomfortable.

We must have bushwhacked between an hour and a half and two hours, by which time it had stopped raining and the river had receded some. I never felt we were in any great danger because I knew we were beyond what I felt were the dangerous parts. However, I knew we needed to be cautious or else we could have been in a very dangerous situation. After a while the waters had receded enough to reveal a trail. This was a very welcome change of pace. We started to notice fresh footprints and trekking pole marks. We knew another group was in front of us, so we tried to follow them. There were a couple times we had to cross the river, but it was much lower and we could cross safely. It was still a little nerve-wracking though. Finally we reached the exit trail, and we could see the group ahead of us. About halfway up the exit trail, we met search and rescue. They knew there had been a flood and they had come to check on all the hikers hiking the Subway. We were the last group they were looking for us. They informed us that the flood had damaged bridges and buildings downstream. Wow!

So, this experience has really affected me. I'm not afraid of hiking slot canyons, but I will never hike one again when there's a high chance of flash flood and the ranger recommends not hiking. We came close to be caught in a fatal situation. Had we left a half an hour later, there could have been a much different outcome. I'm grateful and believe we were blessed to make it out alive. It was both scary and beautiful.