The last day of the trip was probably the highlight for me. Englestead Hollow was loads of fun and I still think Orderville is my favorite non-technical Zion canyon. Mark dropped Richard, Honghua and I at the trailhead where a short approach down an ordinary wash dramatically ended at a 300 foot dry waterfall into the head of Englestead. The view down was impressive. We rigged the drop as a two-stage 300 foot rappel with a rebelay 80 feet down at the bolt station. Once down we walked 6 feet to another 100 foot drop. This canyon had over 700 feet of rappels in less than 700 feet of canyon! This whole headwall section was amazing. The middle stretch of the canyon was pleasant flat walking similar to middle Mystery Canyon. Near the bottom of the canyon obstacles started appearing and we had to do 2 more rappels. The end of Englestead dropped us in the perfect place in Orderville Canyon- right as it starts to get interesting. Orderville is neat in a lot of respects. The sights and beauty of the canyon build as you go downstream towards the Narrows and there are some fun obstacles to circumvent. After a while, water appears via springs and the rest of the canyon has a lovely stream. We had fun traversing around some of the pools and trying to make log bridges out of the abundant debris. In places the canyon is over a 1000 feet high and only 6 feet wide! We exited via the Narrows where we ran into Mark and then briskly exited the Narrows under light rain and dark skies. Click on photos to fully appreciate the scale!
In summary, the Zion trip was great. The adventure level was lower than the backcountry canyons I did in Escalante but the fun level was right where it should be. We didn't have to make any anchors, which was convenient, but detracts from the fun of the sport. I feel ready to go back and tackle the most advanced canyons in Zion. We were blessed with great weather, had no trouble getting the permits we wanted, enjoyed free camping every night and saw next to no people in the canyons we explored. Thank you to Richard, Mark and Honghua for a great trip. A special thanks to Richard for leading most of the climbs, Mark for being our shuttle the last day and Honghua for making the trip for us Americans!
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