Back to Zion for some late season canyoneering. Beautiful fall colors provided a new take on Zion for me. Blankets of colored leaves everywhere we went. Red, yellow and orange trees contrasted with the dark canyon walls. Remnants of a prescribed burn clouded the canyon and the weather was not very ideal, dropping 20 degrees by the time we left. Nevertheless, it was still a great trip and we had the canyons all to ourselves. Like many Zion canyons, we started low in the main canyon and hiked up to plateau level almost 3000 feet higher before dropping into the first slot canyon, Telephone. Telephone slot was pretty cool- it took about 4 hours to go a quarter mile and drop 1000 feet. Many of the rappels and downclimbs were pretty awkward. Our rope got stuck on one of the rappels and it took some time before we were able to free it. I downclimbed an unpleasant tilted V-slot that was supposed to be a 150 foot rappel. There was also a couple shallow pools that were unavoidable. Probably my least favorite Zion canyon I've done, but still worthwhile. From the end of Telephone we dropped into Behunin Canyon, which is a worthy classic. Although never really narrow or a slot, the canyon has other redeeming features, such as an impressively shear headwall. A pleasant, fall-colored walk down a completely straight canyon (the whole canyon is heavily fracture controlled) led to a neat sequence of rappels as the canyon abandons it's fracture, detours left, drops 520 feet, then follows a parallel fracture. The same thing happens again further down. In contrast to Telephone, the rappels in Behunin were generally clean and enjoyable. With a little bit of ingenuity, we were able to avoid all the pools and keep our feet dry. We arrived at the last 165 foot rappel as darkness descended. Spinning around in a circle on a rope in the darkness was all too familiar to me.
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