Heaps is the big one, the forever reigning king of Zion, and up until now the last major canyon in Zion I had yet to experience. Everything about this canyon is grandiose: the 6mi/3000ft elevation gain approach on trails traversing some of the finest views of the Zion plateaulands; the impressive ridge and slickrock descent into the vast maze-like canyon network; the two dark/sustained/committing/cold narrows filled with 30-40 rappels, challenging downclimbs, and pothole escapes; the 500ft multi-stage big wall rappel exit culminating in the one and only 280ft freehanging drop to the edge of upper Emerald Pool trail. No other canyon in Zion has such a breadth, quantity, and quality of obstacles to surmount, and such a great variety of beauty along the way. The necessity of a 300ft rope, a 200ft rope and a 100ft rope (in addition to wetsuits, extra anchor gear, a full pothole escape kit, and lots of water) meant heavy packs! All of this adds up to a big day, 12-20 hours being the norm.
Since we were opting for the non-car shuttle +3000ft elevation gain option, it was absolutely crucial that we make it up most of the trail by dawn. After extensive pre-planning and packing the night before, we awoke at the uncivilized time of 4:30am and were on the trail by 5:30am. Despite the hour the uphill battle was still warm; I took full advantage of the fact we had the trail to ourselves to strip down to boxers for a much better temperature. Up we went, through the valley switchbacks, up Refrigerator Canyon, zigzagged Walter's Wiggles, onward across the slickrock expanse, down into Lower Telephone, past the head of Behunin, up the blasted cliff-hugging switchbacks to the West Rim. Then slightly more elevation gain but mostly flat hiking to the spectacular panoramic view of Zion Canyon, Heaps Canyon and the western edge of the Colorado Plateau. In a region known for such views, this one easily stood above the rest.
This was the easy part of the approach done. Now we had the simple matter of navigating a somewhat delicate route rappelling and downclimbing along a narrow ridge of surprisingly loose rock. Escaping the ridge required a 205ft rappel; since we hoped to only use the 300ft rope for the final rappel and wanted to keep it in its dry bag, we rigged this drop with the 200ft, 100ft and 100ft of paracord which only barely reached! The pull was a little tricky (the paracord is a little stretchy), but with running leaps into the nearby bushes we got it down easily. Carefully descending the loose scree slope at the base of the drop led us onto the slickrock turtleback- excellent travel!
We dropped through the upper white layers of the Navajo sandstone and into the lower red stuff which had a bunch of neat hoodoos formed by iron concretion layers. We continued on down the slickrock into the wash, where we caught intermittent shadows. Its funny how in canyoning here you always crave what you don't have- on the hot sunny approaches you crave shadows, in the chilly sustained depths of the slot canyons you demand sun. Sandy wash alternated with bypassable pothole chains. We could see the canyon was soon to abandon its straight joint to take a perpendicular turn to the left. Experience told me this is often where the slots begin!
Sure enough a single downclimb in the joint brought us to the first pothole in the Phantom Valley narrows, the shorter but at times more challenging of the three main narrows. We suited up. Dave soon realized he forgot his neoprene socks which turned out to be a harbinger of things to come. A rappel, a jump, a downclimb, a packtoss started off the narrows. This packtoss ended up being one of the more challenging pothole escapes, but fortunately Dave nailed it on second try and we made quick work of it. On the other side was a breached pothole arch, one of the unique features of the canyon. Another rappel, then a rappel down into a dramatic keeper. I tied off my device, spanned the pothole, and leapt for the log on the far side, gripping in securely. With the first man across it was an easy matter to zipline the packs across and assist the other two. We hopped into the pool in the sun, completing the first short narrows (only about 600 ft long) with surprising rapidity.
Next came the sandy corridor section, a really neat sandy-floored, straight walled section of canyon, dead straight for 2000ft. At its end the canyon floor veered off to the left and plunged into the second 1000 ft long narrows. This one was much friendlier and soon relented at The Crossroads area of the canyon.
The post-Crossroad narrows (~1000ft) had some more great features, especially big potholes, flooded slot corridors, and a couple logjam obstacles. This stretch even had two excellent jumps. Just in time the canyon spit us out into some sun with a second joint following sandy corridor (this one ~1200ft long).
Yet another left turn plunged us into the deepest, narrowest, darkest, coldest, longest, and most sinuous narrows of the canyon (over 3500ft!). Here things began to feel real and we realized everything up to this point was just a prelude. Though the first stretch was filled in with sand making easy travel, the number of logjams, downclimbs and swims soon increased. For one hundred foot stretch of canyon the passage was so dark I almost pulled out my headlight to see what was ahead- I had not been in narrows this dark in a while! We made steady progress, making quick work of the obstacles, but all of us, especially Dave, were getting colder and colder. We enjoyed what we could but continued on hoping the right turn in the canyon would allow a brief dash of sunlight. We passed through the Iron Room and then through a neat mossy corridor.
We stopped a couple times in the sun, which certainly helped bring up our body temperatures. I typically scouted ahead to try and keep us moving down the next obstacles. At one point the slot opened up into a wider, shelved section of canyon which offered some good sun. From here on the canyon changed character, tending to drop in longer rappels. One more 50ft rappel skirting a pool dropped us into the final jointed passage. We then strolled to the end of the passage where we found the obvious changing rock. We stocked up on water and food, changed out of our wetsuits, and ever so slightly warmed up. Now only the multi-stage big wall rappel sequence remained. We were all well aware we were not out of the canyon yet.
Feeling less shaky, we climbed up the short chimney and began our sequencing for the final raps. Dave would lead the charge, Ryan would be middle and I would go last. Overall the 3 rappels went quite smoothly and I was thoroughly impressed at the cleanliness of the last two. The view was incredible- the amphitheater of rock, the lush vegetation below, the tiny Upper Emerald Pool below with its even tinier tourists, the blinding light of the sun out in the main Zion canyon. It was less scary and more beautiful than I thought. The anchor stations were surprisingly comfortable. The second to last rappel is off a well placed (precarious!) tree which leads cleanly to the Bird Perch, a cozy ledge easily fit for three. From here it is a clean 290ft freehanging abseil to the edge of the pool below. The frictional heat on the rappel device was incredible! The device was not a big enough heat sink so the heat spread down to the attaching carabiner and even the D-ring on my harness! Nevertheless I managed to find good control between the device and a leg loop, and in a few minutes was back on terra firma. The rope pull went surprisingly smooth and Leigh was already there waiting so we were good to go. Just a simple matter of parting the waves of tourists going painfully slow on the trail.
What a great trip! Certainly one of the most satisfying canyon trips I have done in the US. The challenges, the variety, the beauty, the sustained endurance of it, all led to a great experience that I shared with a couple awesome people. Though the cold did get to us at times, our team worked well together and I thought we handled everything the canyon threw at us superbly. Of course we would have had more challenge if the water levels were low or if we didn't have a pre-made anchor at every drop, but all things considered it was a great way to see the canyon and I was thankful not to be doing the last sequence after dark as I hear can happen. Over several years I have been through something like 22 different canyons in Zion including most of the ones considered worthwhile classics. While there is still plenty to do there, for the moment I am satisfied and content to turn my interests elsewhere, to other regions. Heaps was a good note to end Zion on. So I feel like it's a bit of a farewell to Zion for the moment. I've seen it grow in number of tourists, seen more and more things getting permitted, seen more and more camping areas exploited and ultimately closed, and seen Springdale explode from a tasteful park town to an overdone tourist village. Fortunately the backcountry has not changed nearly as much. May it persevere.
Thanks to Ryan, Dave, and Leigh for a great few days in Zion.
