By the time we exited Echo and shuttled back to the visitor's center the sky was looking alarmingly dark, with lofty thunderclouds impregnated with rain visible in several directions. We hemmed and hawed in the parking lot for a while as light rain fell overhead. We checked the weather radar. After much indecision, we decided to make a run into town to get Jeff some coffee and scrounge through the bargain bins at the gear shops. After about an hour and a half of this the storms seemed to pass and we felt considerably better about entering Pine Creek's narrow slot. We geared up and drove through the tunnel to the canyon's start.
After suiting up under the bridge, we made the short walk to the floor of the canyon, past the dead deer carcass, and a few more steps to the first abseil. The first couple abseils are short drops into muddy pools. These are no preparation for what comes next: a bigger drop into one of the most spectacular canyon features I know of anywhere, the Great Cathedral (frontispiece). It's hard to describe. From the top it looks like a terrible mess of fluted rocks and unusual shadows and skylights, like the side of the canyon is half hollow. Once down the abseil, you find yourself in a truly cathedral-like room. What a history this place must have had. A waterfall fell here at a twist in the canyon, forming a pothole to the side. The pothole dug ever deeper until it was breached once, then twice, forming a double arch which remains. At some point the great pothole must have been about 30 feet deep. Now it forms a great water-floored room with sculpted walls and an archway exit, perhaps more beautiful than any of its previous iterations.
The best section of slot immediately follows. Although short, it is probably one of the best in Zion. There were light corners and dark corners and wonderful shapes and textures. Turns out afternoon is a pretty good time for light in this canyon. The occasional log far overhead was a reminder why this would be a bad place to visit during a localized thunderstorm. At the end of this slot I remembered a flooded hallway with some swimming. In its very early monsoon condition it was bone dry and I almost did not realize where we were until we exited the slot.
The canyon then opens up and there is about 100 m of boulder scrambling to negotiate. Looking straight ahead is the shear cliff of the canyon wall with a perfectly carved window in it. Almost surreal at this point, the window is a strange reminder that there is a tunnel traversing the whole length of the canyon, much of it just inside the cliff. The second to last rappel pours over the side of the canyon into a slickrock patio area. This area ends abruptly at the last drop, a spectacular free-hanging rappel that threads through a twisted slot to land on the edge of a lovely spring-fed pool, Pine Creek Grotto. This too was an enormous pool last time I was here. We took our time enjoying the scenery and climbing up into the last bit of slot canyon, then de-suited for the hike.
About 40 minutes of scrambling over large boulders and we were back on the road. We tried to get back to camp as early as possible as we had a lot of gear to organize for a super early Imlay start the following day. We laid out huge piles of gear on the slickrock pavement, divvying up the piles of gear and deciding what could be left.
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