Another downright delightful day- Mystery Canyon exceeded my expectations and is an awesome canyon. A vicious 2000+ foot climb out of Zion Canyon with views to match, then a long, annoying, steep , loose, descent into Mystery with several obstacles. Next comes a beautiful slot section with fun, rapid-fire rappels. Someone went bolt-happy here and several of the "rappels" were easy downclimbs. Then a hike down a beautiful wooded canyon with soaring walls punctuated by a large rockslide less than 40 years old. After some more canyon, we arrived at the top of the beautiful 110 foot rappel into Mystery Spring- where many springs produce a substantial flow of crystal clear water and lovely hanging gardens of moss and ferns abound. The rest of the canyon is all lush greenery and waterfalls. The last 120 foot rappel down slippery Mystery Falls into the Zion Narrows was a lot more fun than I would have anticipated. Masses of tourists watched with camcorders and cameras in hand as we rappelled. Mark, the first down, even received a round of applause! Richard had some fun sitting in the terminal pour-off and then standing to release a flood of water onto the rappeller (to the amusement of the tourists). I'll admit I tried to show off by descending rapidly. We hiked down the Zion Narrows to the shuttle with the satisfaction that at that moment we were the most hardcore tourists around. The day was a nice change to the longer days we had just had.
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