Canyoneering Spry Canyon in Zion's - totally rad!
- Girls Gone Adventuring
- Jun 13, 2018
- 5 min read
Talk about an Adventure! Canyoneering through Spry Canyon in Zion's was just what the Doctor ordered this weekend...
Getting out and Adventuring makes us feel so alive and connected to our world. Full of hope and life and energy. Exploring the beauty around us with good friends, appreciating the world we live in, contemplating the many blessings and opportunities in our lives, just being happy to BE!
We got an early start so we could hike into the canyon before the sun came up and baked us on the rock walls like fried eggs (temps were expected to reach 102* today - yowsa, that's hot!!). We left one car at the base of the canyon where we would be exiting from canyoneering and drove the other car to the top to begin the hike in. We started the hike at about 8 am -- later than we were wanting, but still STINKIN' early if you consider we had to be up by 5:30 am in order to get from where we were staying overnight in Cedar City to Zion's ready and rarin' to go by 8... yowsa, that's early!!
The hike to Spry Canyon was really steep in some parts, we were literally on our hands and knees scrambling our way up. There's not a well-defined trail, if you were to do this Adventure on your own you would need a guide or a friend who's done it before (or a GPS so you could follow the coordinates from a site like Bluu Gnome - link here) or I guarantee you'll get lost. It was still confusing in some places and our amazing guide, Erin Grover, has done Spry Canyon 8 or 9 times so far. It's one of her favorites - and we can definitely see why!
The approach hike took us quickly up to some incredible overlooks and we were excited to start the technical part and get to canyoneering through that gorgeous-ness! There are 12 rappels through the canyon with some hiking between the rappels. There's often water running through the canyon at this time of year, but with it being so dry we only had a couple of potholes with water in them. It would be quite a different experience with water running through the canyon, on some of the rappels you'd be literally rappelling down the waterfalls, which would honestly be pretty dang cool... (cool as in 'rad' cool AND cool as in cold cool :)
We were 'wow-ed' by the incredible scenery every few minutes and kept saying things like "wow, do you see that view!" and "are you kidding me with this incredible scenery!" and "holy cow this is so beautiful!" The rappels were awesome, with so many right in a row it was fun to compare and decide which were our favorites.
Erin is an amazing guide, kept us laughing and learning through the whole canyon. It was a great way to refresh our canyoneering skills with so many rappels to practice on, one right after the other. There's a lot to remember with rappelling but Erin's a great teacher and we felt pretty confident by the time we hit the 12th.
After the 11th rappel there's a boulder field to scramble down to get to the last rappel of the canyon - a free rappel with nothing but a whole lotta sky beneath and next to you. Katy did a sweet upside down move on this rappel that was pretty dang impressive :)
After the last rappel was another boulder field to scramble down, then there's a small river with a swimming hole deep enough in a few spots to jump into, and a beautiful waterfall with a small natural waterslide that was super fun!
Before we could get to the river however, Katy twisted her ankle pretty badly when her foot turned at the bottom of a little jump from a boulder. It's crazy how fast it happened! We didn't have a splint with us so Erin fashioned a pretty killer splint from our iPhone armband and a few straps from the GoPro. Have we mentioned how awesome Erin is, because if not - this would be a great place to mention it again :)
Katy was a serious rock-star and literally hopped, butt-scooted and even crawled on all 4's the rest of the way down the boulder field. We took a break at the river while Erin and I swam and Katy soaked her ankle in the cool-ish river. Then we ran into the absolute nicest group of people on the face of the planet and the 2 guys literally carried Katy the rest of the way to our escape vehicle. They were angel boys sent to bring Katy home. It's honestly incredibly heart-warming to know there are people like this that still exist in our 'me-monster' world - people who stop their day to literally carry an injured stranger home. It was such a beautiful way to end a rough ending to an incredible day!
Thanks Erin for an Adventure we'll never forget!
Have you ever been to Spry Canyon? Tell us about it in the comments below!
HOW TO DO THIS YOURSELF:
1) Spry Canyon is located in Zion's National Park, there's a $35 fee to enter, which is good for 1-7 days, or you can upgrade to an annual pass for only $15 more if you think you'll be going to Zion's again anytime in the next year. Get directions and coordinates, along with where to park your cars, at the Bluu Gnome website - they're a great resource! (Link here)
2) Bring LOTS of water - I went through 4 water bottles and Katy and Erin both emptied their camelpak bladders. Make sure you have all the gear you need - this is where a guide or knowledgable friend is a key resource. Wear sunscreen, don't forget your gloves (Katy...), have a first aid kit handy (just in case!!) including a splint kit, and have your route mapped out well before you go (again, Blu Gnome is an excellent source for this).
3) Timing: We started hiking at 8:00 am and got back to our getaway car at 5:00 pm, a total of about 9 hours. This included quite a lot of "lollygagging" according to Erin - we stopped for a leisurely lunch, stopped and let another group go by us, and took our time enjoying the scenery and experience as we went. It also took quite a bit of time to work with Katy's ankle, engineering a makeshift splint and then the slow-going with her hobbling the last 1/2 mile with one leg. We also stopped to do some swimming in the pool and waterfall. If you were in a hurry you could definitely cut some time off of that.
** Is there an Adventure you think we should discover? Comment below
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