The Subway in Zion Canyon

We decided to try hiking the ten mile trail to the Subway in Zion Canyon from the top down.


You start up in the ponderosa, then you go through slick rock, red rock, white rock, different kinds of vegetation and the deep slot canyon and then the adventure begins.

The first obstacle is a six foot drop into the canyon floor.

Continue down canyon. A few nice pot holes can be avoided by clambering around the sides. You then reach your first required swim. The water is deep and extremely cold.

When it was my turn to swim I jumped in, immediately my body went into shock from the cold water, I gasped and tried to swim across as quickly as possible but my pack was weighing me down. I swam to the edge where I could calm myself down and continued to swim the remainder of the pot hole. Hiking the canyon was beautiful but cold. With no sunlight to warm up we shook as we continued through the canyon. As we reached each rappel into another pool of water it took all the will power we could muster to lower ourselves into another ice cold pool of water and swim. We would have one person stand at the edge of the water reminding the swimmer to breathe and encourage them as they swam across the freezing cold water.

Once we reached the subway we were excited and exhausted. But this is only the half way point. Once you leave the canyon you follow a stream following a path along both sides of the bank crossing the stream several times. Two to three hours later you need to find the trailhead out. This is difficult and if you miss it you can spend hours lost.

We luckily ran into another group who knew where to go and helped us find our way to the last obstacle a steep 400 foot climb. I was exhausted at this point and practically crawled up the trail.

After the hike we got back to the resort, ordered pizza and crawled into bed. Happy with our day and what we accomplished.