Happy Independance Day!

We almost always have a picture that looks very similar to this when driving down to Cedar City to start another adventure...It makes me laugh...

So over the fourth of July last year (2011) we went down to Cedar City to meet up with our "besties" and head to Zion for some Rapelling and canyoneering! We had SOOOOOOO much fun!    

After leaving Cedar, we went and set up camp.  We camped not far away from the repel and short canyon of the night "Yankee doodle."  We decided to go do the repel before eating dinner, since it would be pretty short, and since we were losing daylight fast.  It was only a mile total of distance, once we did the 100ft repel into the canyon.

The "fluted" drop

Here is a blurb I found on this awesome website http://www.zionnational-park.com  telling about Yankee doodle: 



Yankee Doodle Canyon - There is a large juniper tree on the left (when looking down canyon) side of the head of the canyon. This makes a good anchor to for the 170' rope. Rappel 25' to the grotto below and stay hooked into the rappel. The notch just 20 yards down canyon is a wonderful fluted drop of maybe 100'. Leave the rope suspended as it will be picked up after the hike is completed. Continue down canyon on foot and shortly the down climbing begins. Some of the climbs are piece of cake and some are intimidating. The 50' rope can be used to belay or assist those that may be unsure. The strongest climber of the party should always be last to descend. Using stemming to chimney seems to be a good technique and spotting from below is also a good idea. Most of the down climbs are short, but a few are up to 25'

We did see some baby rattlesnakes at Yankee Doodle, which was kinda freaky, but all in all it was really fun.  Of coarse I'm always glad to have Aaron and Justin helping me down the "intimidating" spots, because even though I try to be brave I still really love my life, and don't want to die because I think I can do it all myself.  :)  By the time we got back it was pretty dark.  Good thing we had camp set up already.  We had good food to eat, and even though bugs ate us all night, it was a very good time. 

The next day we packed up and headed to Boltergeist 

Here are some Boltergeist quick facts from this website: www.bluugnome.com/cyn_route/dixie-nat-frst-pine-vly_boltergeist/dixie-nat-frst-pine-vly_boltergeist-cyn.aspx

Time Required - 1.5 to 2.5 hours
Distance - 1.1 miles Total, 0.2 miles Technical
Rappels - 3 Rappels, Longest Rappel 100 feet

Not long into Boltergeist we had some fun shimmying down a crack.   

And then we ran into this beauty. Yep a lot Bigger rattlesnake than the baby one. It was down in a big hole, so we weren't too nervous about it. We wondered, "is it still alive down there?" So after a few rocks thrown, we got our answer... "Yesiree!!"

Me heading down the longest repel for the day.  This repel was a lot of an overhang, and even my carabiner was hot after I got to the bottom.  I even went really slow, and I only weigh like 115 at the most!  Needless to say, after this repel Justin went and bought a fancy belay device to help slow him down for our next days adventure.  270 ft is a lot more than 100ft, and you get going pretty fast if you are a big strong man (who weighs more than 115 lbs!!  ) 

We all went and stayed the night at Cassie's parents house the night before our Big adventure so that we had a ride into Zion early the next morning.  A++ in hospitality to the Halls in Hurricane!  The apricot jam and big laughs were so great!  The next morning we were off on our biggest adventure yet!  I'd never been to Zion, so even the drive was enjoyable!  It was quite a long drive, and quite a hike to even get to the start of our day, Repelling into Englestead Hollow.  It was worth it though!  Check out the view!

Do we look nervous??  Cause we totally are!  So the plan for the day was, Repel 270 ft down into Englestead Hollow, continue down Englestead down climbing, rappelling, whatever's needed until it empties into Orderville canyon.  Go down orderville, (more down climbing rappelling, etc) until it hit the Narrows, and then tube down the narrows (which is full of water) until it ends, then take a deep breath..... Wow what a day! 

Aaron had done this one time before, so we made him go first!

Then Cassie next,

The view from the bottom!  PS I was way more nervous waiting for and watching Justin go, than I was when it was my turn!  I know I'm CRAZY!

No picture of Justin coming down, because he was last...  But he survived!  Here we are at the bottom.

This route had Lots of repels!  It was tons of fun and challenging.

Cassie was the first, but not the last to go upside down while trying to get down a rappel :)

Deceptively deep and freezing. We had to repel about 12 feet into this cold water, let the slack out of the line, hop up on the ledge, and then repel about 80 more feet. Easier said than done.... 

An owl we met along the way

You can't tell how huge this log jam was, but it was pretty Epic!

 

 

  

Chacos looking into the Canyon

We were so soaking wet!  We had to keep jumping into pools over our head.  It was pretty cold water too!

And finally tubing down the narrows...it was a good idea, but our legs were battered and bruised from the rocks.  And Aaron MAY have lost his wedding ring somewhere along the way :(

This was such a fun time!  We were so worn out, that we didn't have much energy to get "after" pictures.  This was the actual fourth of July, so afterwards we relaxed while watching the Hurricane fireworks.  The hill behind the launch MAY have caught on fire, and we MAY have kept watching long after the fireworks were gone, to watch them put the fire out.  Pretty eventful!!!