Englestead Canyon -- Zion National Park

There is nothing I love more than getting out and enjoying nature. Utah is an amazing place for this because of the variety of terrain. If you have the right gear you get to some of the most incredible places, such as Englestead Canyon in Zion National Park. On Labor Day weekend we took drop just under 300' into Englestead Canyon. The pictures I have just don't do it justice. You can't grasp the distance we dropped to get into the canyon, nor the sheer height and beauty of it. It was without a doubt the longest rappel of my life. Thanks to Tom Jones, a renowned canyoneer who had just finished sending his own group through, we were able to get into the canyon by a single 300' rappel, rather than the three rope switch we were planning. After we dropped in there was no turning back so we headed down canyon through another dozen or so rappels and one of the best hikes I've ever done. Despite it being Labor Day we encountered very few people in this canyon (something about the difficulty of getting in kept most of the standard tourists out). This made the weekend perfect, since your regular hikes, like Angel's Landing, were packed with weekend tourists on a day where the park stopped letting in vehicle traffic because all the parking was gone. It just goes to show that with the right training and equipment you can still reach relatively untouched aspects of nature and enjoy the serenity of it. It was one of the best ways I could have spent my last weekend in Utah, enjoying everything Utah has to offer with my friends. Couldn't have wanted it any other way. Until next time.



Also, see my buddy Johnny's blog on our adventure.
http://jetchemendy.blogspot.com/2009/09/epic-weekend.html