Hidden Canyon Scramble in Zion National Park

There was a 5:30 a.m. alarm again this morning.  Who knew this life of retirement would include so many early morning wake-up calls?  But later in the day, we are always glad we got up early.  We were inside Zion National Park and at our trail head just as the sun came up and started lighting up the tallest peaks.

We are hiking to Hidden Canyon this early morning.  It was highly recommended to us by a park ranger, and we are hoping it will be less crowded than the iconic hikes in this park.  It seems interesting that to get down into a canyon we must first hike straight up over the mountain that hides it.  This set of rock steps is just a small section of the elevation gain this morning.

We are practiced at navigating narrow trails that cling to the sides of steep mountains.  It's very early in the morning and we already have Denisa showing off on the ledge today.

It's about a mile straight up before we got to the mouth of Hidden Canyon.  We thought that the sign that greeted us here was interesting--especially the editing that pointed out there was "major" scrambling required ahead.

Some times Mark would scramble when he didn't have to.  Denisa preferred to walk under this leaning tree, rather than walking up the trunk.

The tall canyon walls were often beautiful, and always interesting.  Mark climbed up on the natural ledge to become part of the background.

We were the only two hiking in the hidden canyon this early in the morning, so it was a great respite from the crowds of Zion.  It was also shaded and cool here.  There is water seeping through the sandstone walls, feeding the moss and ferns clinging to their vertical sides.

There is also a hidden arch in the hidden canyon.  The picture of Denisa standing under the arch wasn't nearly as interesting as the one of Mark perched on the arch.

Even though it is a record-breaking 98 degrees out in the real world, in the shaded hidden canyon Denisa had to put on her jacket because it felt so cool.  Isn't that cool?  Denisa is standing at the bottom of the canyon walls that the swirling water has carved.  She will have to climb up that slick rock in order to continue down the canyon.

We continue to climb and scramble over obstacles.  Most of the time Mark was boosting Denisa up or pulling her over those obstacles.  But occasionally Mark had one hand empty to take a picture of the climb.

There was water blocking our path at times, but this well-placed log provided a way over this pool.  We have been practicing our balance beam skills since we have been scrambling lately.








Some of our scrambling includes sucking in and fitting in tiny slots.  We had to take off our backpacks to slither through this narrow passage.

If the easiest way to scramble onward wasn't obvious, Mark would try all options.  This didn't look like the best option, but we found it was the only way.  So we built a new rock cairn to point the way for future hikers.

We thought this deep pool in a narrow passage was the end of the trail.  We weren't interested in swimming in the yucky brown water today.

We did try carrying some logs up the slot, but this sizable log ended up floating on the top instead of sinking and providing a bridge.

Then we found the perfect log and some rocks and built a pretty good bridge.  Onward we go!

We saw portions of this narrow slot canyon that showed evidence of the flash floods that Zion experienced last week.  Some evergreens were swept flat, and there was debris in the bushes and trees.  This obviously would be a very dangerous place to be in a heavy rain storm.

While Mark was checking a possible route to continue up the canyon, he took a picture of Denisa far below.  Some times the scrambling routes took us far above the canyon floor.

Here's a picture of Mark testing his rock climbing skills to see if this was an option over an obstacle.  When Denisa took the picture she was pretty happy that he determined that wasn't the right way to continue.  When we would climb up vertical walls using tiny toe holds, we had to remember that we would have to climb down that same route to get out.

 

We could see light at the end of the canyon when we finally got to an obstacle that Denisa couldn't get over.  But it had been a great trek in Hidden Canyon all by ourselves.  As we headed back to the mouth of the canyon we met several groups, and again we were glad that we had set that alarm this morning.  We spent 3.5 hours scrambling inside Hidden Canyon, and most of the time we had the place to ourselves. We were back on the chains heading downhill this time by a little after noon.

Instead of the classical chain pose, Mark preferred to just stand on the edge for his cliff picture.

We had planned to head down to the shuttle bus after the Hidden Canyon hike, but another hiker had mentioned a great canyon just 40 minutes down another trail.  We are suckers for great canyons, so we headed that direction.  It was a nice hike, and most of it was still in the shade.

We even got a picture together by the too-tall-to-capture-in-a-camera-frame canyon wall.  We are finding that there's a lot of those kind of canyon walls in Zion National Park.  This picture was taken by a young adult brother and sister that were vacationing and hiking together today.  When Denisa took their picture, she assured them that their Mother would love this picture.  We know this because our parents seem to like them too.







We're stretching this hike out a little, because it's our last one in Zion.  When we leave magnificent places like this we might be a little melancholy, thinking that we might never be this way again.  We've enjoyed the beautiful color of the canyon walls.

We've also enjoyed the awesome size and scale of the mountains and canyons here.  Once again, we had to put a red circle around Denisa in the bottom of the picture, just so we could compare her size to her magnificent surroundings.

The wildlife picture today is one of the many squirrels that hang out on the trails, waiting for a snack from one of the hikers.  We positively refuse to feed them.  This is a good decision considering there is a $100 fine for people caught feeding the wildlife in the national park.

We have truly been wandering around one of God's wonders this week.  We took one last picture of some of the switchbacks on the trail back to the bottom.  We'll miss these beautiful mountains, but our legs say it is time for a day off from hiking.