My co-worker Aaron Snyder is a crazy canyoneering man. He
has done over 100 canyons in his lifetime. I caught wind of this hobby of his
and asked if I could join him on one of his adventures. He kindly added me to
his Canyoneering Facebook group and now I get opportunities to go with him all
the time (though I’ve only been able to do 3 canyons so far)!
Leprechaun Canyon: 18
January 2014
We left at 5:00 am from the Springville Walmart on a cold
January morning and headed down to Hanksville Utah. It was about a 3.5 hour
drive to get to our canyon. We had just seven in our group—Aaron (our leader)
David Menssen, Robb Merrill, Jen and Jaiden Allen(11yrs old) and Anna and me. We
had to do some hiking up on top of the canyon to get to the first rappel. And
then the fun began!
I was so scared to do this. My arms got super shaky at the end and I just about fell in the water.
Setting up the rappel. Jaiden was so brave!
Stuffing the rope bag after a rappel.
This really was a great canyon. There was a good mixture of
rappels and down climbing. We even had to set up a couple of ropes that we used
to get across some pools of water. Aaron got more wet than the rest of us
because he had to be the first one across to set things up. He’s the man!!
I had such a blast and our group really was a lot of fun. We
got home around 9:00 pm—a full day of adventure.
Checkerboard Canyon: 2 July 2014
My second canyoneering adventure was much more intense than
the first. We did Checkerboard Canyon
and Kolob Canyon. We spent two days and two nights in Zion National Park.
Camping sure added to the excitement and we tried to sleep as close to the
trailheads for our canyons as we possibly could.
The Checkerboard Canyon was LONG, but really beautiful. It
was about 13 miles total. We woke up at 4 am and left camp at 5 am to start our
hike to the first rappel. We saw one of the most gorgeous sunsets I think I
have ever seen. It just kept getting better and better. Unfortunately the
picture doesn’t show it very well, but it was AMAZING.
Again, Aaron Snyder was our fearless leader. I love this picture of him. He always wears this hat. The others in our group were Daryl Glazier, Denver Erickson, (these two also work in the training department at the MTC) Jen Allen and Josh Cook. A fantastic group!
Both canyons we did had over 12 rappels and lots of water. The
checkerboard canyon leads into the narrows at the very end and you have to walk
about 3 miles to the end. I was absolutely beat when we finished around 4:30pm.
I was wondering how I would survive Kolob canyon the next day.
We decided to take this picture and send it to CliF bars (can you see it now?) to see if they would give us money or something. I don't think we've sent it in yet but I'm sure they'll respond. :)
Kolob Canyon: 3 July 2014
Kolob canyon has free flowing water….or at least it does
when it’s not turned off by the park. The canyon description says that you
are literally rappelling down waterfalls. So we were super bummed (Aaron
especially) to find that the water was not flowing when we arrived at our first
rappel. Even so, there was still a lot of water and we did a good share of
swimming. I was grateful for my wet suit. Even without flowing water, we all
agreed that this canyon is epic. It is super unique and just plain awesome.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that when we got through the
entire canyon we had to literally bear crawl up this sandy mountain, all the
way up to where our car was parked. It was INSANE. But still worth it. J
Some of my battle wounds (my legs looked really bad too but
I have no picture)
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