Spry Canyon hike in Zion National Park

Jim and I took our annual trip down to Zion's this past week. We left the girls at my sister Erika's in St George, then headed out to Zion's- and, as luck would have it, there was a Flash Flood warning for Washington County that shut down all the slot canyon hikes in the park 20 minutes before we got there, so we were not able to get a permit. We decided to camp out that night at the campground near the Visitor's Center, and see what the weather was going to do in the morning. Incidentally, it was raining cats and dogs on us when we got there... fortunately we were able to sleep comfortably on an air mattress in the back of the Yukon. Big cars rock! The next morning, the skies were overcast but not looking too threatening, so Jim was able to get a permit for Spry Canyon. We did this hike 3 years ago, and I remember how grueling the hike in was.

Since I've been running on the treadmill 3x/week since May, I was hoping this hike would not be so difficult for me. I was extremely sore for about 3 days afterwards, but surprisingly, I healed pretty quickly. Poor Jim- he ended up carrying close to 50 lbs of rope on his back the whole time, since it was just him and me, and a girl from the Fire Department who went this time. The hike was, as I had remembered, pretty difficult of a climb in the beginning, and again at the end when we were already tired. But we had a great time, until we had to swim through sewer water at the bottom of one of the repels. I won't elaborate on the disgusting-ness of the smell we brought home with us from that one. Fortunately, we were safe and didn't get washed out from a Flash Flood- although the cloud cover made the hike into the canyon much easier! We had a great time. If I were geeky enough to know how to post a slide show, I would, but since I haven't figured it out yet, here are some cool pics for you to enjoy:




Yes, this looks yucky- but it was actually some of the cleanest water we were in: