Atlas › Zion West Side

The Subway

Four bolted rappels through the tunnel shaped section of the Left Fork of North Creek, wrapped in a 9.5 mile day: 3.5 miles of slickrock route finding to get in, 2.2 miles of boulder hopping to get out.

The word easy has killed people here. The rappels are short and bolted, which lowers the perceived barrier, and the canyon has a long record of falls, rappel accidents, and deaths; the 15 foot Keyhole Falls rappel is where one canyoneer was inverted under the flow and could not free himself. The log across the waterfall above the Subway proper washed out more than a decade ago, so any beta telling you to cross it, or that no rappel is needed, is stale. Jumping that gap is a documented way to land badly. Permits come from a seasonal lottery of 80 spots per day shared with bottom up hikers: 60 by advance lottery, the remainder rolling to first come first served, and 20 in a last minute drawing the week of the trip. Your entry point selection determines your route, and Wildcat Canyon Trailhead is the top down one. Group size caps at 12, counted by affiliation rather than by permit, which is higher than the standard 6 for Zion technical canyons. The anchors and webbing are placed and maintained by canyoneers, not by the park, so carry webbing and expect to contribute. The exit finishes with a loose switchback climb out of the watercourse that has earned the name Little Girl's Misery.

Logistics

Sources

• permitType: https://www.nps.gov/zion/planyourvisit/canyoneeringpermits.htm
• feeUsd: https://www.nps.gov/zion/planyourvisit/canyoneeringpermits.htm
• manager: https://ropewiki.com/The_Subway
• nearest town: https://ropewiki.com/The_Subway
• desc: https://ropewiki.com/The_Subway
• notes: https://ropewiki.com/The_Subway
• notes permit: https://www.nps.gov/zion/planyourvisit/canyoneeringpermits.htm
• heroPhoto: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Subway_in_Zion_National_Park.jpg