HIDDEN CANYON = HELL

WE THOUGHT THIS WAS THE TOP OF THE CANYON, OH NO, JUST THE FIRST ONE OF MANY WE WERE GOING TO HIKE

It all began almost 5 years ago to the weekend, in the same place, Zion's, looking for a slot canyon. Chris and I were set up by Bobbi while we were passing through St. George on a soccer trip. We talked on the phone for 3 weeks before we hung out, and our first hang out was with the Tillotson family. We headed to Zion's to hike the "Subway", and we hiked up mountains, and down mountains, through snow, and through bushes. Six hours later, we decided that it was to late to drop into the canyon, if we were to find it. On our way out, we saw the sign to the "Subway".

Here is our adventure 5 years later. It all started waking up to "Pappa-Bear" (Chris) snoring at the crack of dawn. I wanted to hurry and get up so we could go get a permit, just in case they were gone before we got there. We went to the backcountry desk, and asked for the permit. We asked the Ranger if it was a good slot canyon, and he laughed and said,"What do you mean by good?". We should have known at that moment what we were in for. We started our hike, and started ascending up, up, and up. We hiked, and hiked, and hiked some more. We never stopped hiking, and it was straight up the mountain. We hiked through snow, bushes and mud. For those of you that are familiar with Zion's, we started at the bottom, and hiked to the top. If you have ever done Angel's Landing, we were looking down on you. Seven miles later, we thought we were there! We had come to Cable Mountain, and Chris said, as we came around the bend, "Oh no, we went to far, it is on the other side of Cable Mountain". So, we turned around and hiked back a mile to where we thought the canyon could be. We were feeling good about our adventure so far, and so we sat down to enjoy our lunch. You are probably wondering why it was so hard to find, well we remembered the batteries to the GPS, but it didn't pull up the map, and we didn't print out a map, trusting that the GPS would work.

THIS IS CHRIS, ABOUT 5 HOURS IN, STILL SMILING

THIS IS CHRIS DROPPING INTO "HIDDEN CANYON", THE SNOW IS UP TO HIS WAIST, HE IS NOT SMILING ANYMORE

THIS IS THE SIDE OF "HIDDEN CANYON" THAT WE HIKED UP TO GET OUT OF THE DRAINAGE, IT IS STEEP

We started to drop into what we thought was Hidden Canyon, and it was a pretty treacherous decent. Chris fell into the snow and it came up to his waist. We went over trees, traversed across the side of the canyon, and started to head down to the first rappel. Chris got to where he could see down, and he said all he could see was snow, and then the cliff. He said he didn't feel safe about dropping in the canyon, and we needed to hiked out. Good thing, or you would probably hear about us being rescued on the news. So, we hiked some more, and decided to go straight up the side of the drainage. I was holding onto every bush, and digging my feet into the snow, so I wouldn't slide down the mountain. We came out, and started hiking the seven miles back to the car. By the way we were wearing our Chaco's, which made it even more exciting! We eventually made it back to the car, and we were so happy! We had a lot of bonding time, 9 hours to be exact. We had time to name all our children, that we don't have, and go through all of our friends and decide who would still be friends with us if we took them on this hike. Today has truly been a day of rest, since Chris and I are so sore from our 14 mile adventure. My feet have multiple blisters, cuts and scratches and a sick Chaco burn line. Chris walks like he is 80 years old! Lesson learned: Don't trust a GPS, print out a map, don't wear chacos in the snow, research the hike before going, we are not sure if we would have any friends if we invited anyone, and we still enjoy each others company after 3 years of marriage! And, HIDDEN CANYON WILL REMAIN HIDDEN FROM US FOREVER !

THIS IS SOMETHING PRETTY WE SAW, IN THE BEGINNING OF THE HIKE

THIS IS THE VIEW OF THE HIKE FROM THE BOTTOM, WHEN WE WERE ALL FINISHED