Here are a few ways Zion National Park describes the Subway:

• This is a long, strenuous hike through the Left Fork of North Creek to the Subway slot canyon.
• There is no trail, this is an off-trail Wilderness route.
• Hikers need to scramble over large boulders and hike in and out of the creek all day.
• The route takes most visitors 6 to 10 hours to complete.
• Hikers get lost in this area every year. Following a well written route description and a topographical map is crucial.

Currently, Zion only allows 80 people access to the Subway per day. As I understand it, national parks typically allow people to pick up their permit the day before. For some reason, they made us wait until day of, resulting in us starting the hike later than we would have otherwise.

I’m not naming names 😉 but out of the three of us that went, the one person who was supposed to research the trails didn’t do their homework on this one. We weren’t expecting quite how strenuous the hike was or how hard it was to find the “trails” on either side of the creek, though we were in fine physical condition to tackle it.

It was beautiful! We took tons of video and pictures. So much rock of different colors – red, orange, yellow, brown, black, blue, white – fun plants and wildlife, and the creek was an absolute delight to hike through! Definitely thankful for our poles, camel packs, and snacks.

We reached the subway part of the canyon, ooh’d and aah’d, dipped in the ice cold pools, peeked at the hidden waterfall, and turned back. About two hours from our end point, night fell 😬 Having only one flashlight and two iPhone lights that stand no chance against the pitch black bottom of a canyon, the going became much slower.

Initially, there were feelings of frustration and fear. But I reminded everyone, we already knew the strenuousness of the trail well, there were no predators, we knew what point we needed to reach because we had a Garmin, the flashlight was going to last, and we had water. It was an adventure! I’m sure my goofy cheer seem odd at times 😏

The question I had for myself was: How come I do so well in crises, but suck at everyday life?

We came to our point marked on the Garmin, where we were supposed to start up the canyon wall. After hiking so many hours and with it being after dark, we decided not to risk the steepest part of the trail until morning. So we bedded down on rock and sand, without any camping gear. The stars were amazing, and it was a blue moon night – Gorgeous!

We used our backpacks as pillows and tried to use one emergency blanket. The emergency blanket seemed to be about 10 feet by 4 feet, so parts of our bodies were exposed enough to never be truly comfortable. Fortunately, it was uncomfortably cold for only about 1 to 2 hours in the middle of the night. All things considered, we only slept about 20 minutes at a time.

Preparing to start up the canyon wall as soon as we could see, there were concerns about the fact that we had run out of water. Again in goofy adventure cheer, I pointed out that we had been well hydrated the entire day before, we would be at the top of the canyon wall before the sun was overhead, and there was water waiting for us in the car.

It was slow moving, but absolutely beautiful – the fresh morning air, the early birds singing, the sunrise coming up slowly over the canyon wall! At about 6 AM, we ran into a few early hikers who were shocked to see us – Wondering when we had started our roundtrip hike 😆 Ironically, one of the family groups was hiking a “redemption hike” because the dad had done the hike 10 years before and had to spend the night in the canyon (with a broken foot)!

We made it up and out (of course), and have this crazy story to share now 😊 One thing I’ve learned: I’m stronger than I thought I was.

P.S. From start to finish, including “camp” time, we were in the canyon for 23 hours!

How has something turned into more of an adventure than you planned? How do you share your adventure stories with others?

Sign up to receive my quarterly email here.