This one had been on my mind for a while and I think had probably never been done before. The goal was to paddle 25 miles of Zion's best whitewater in one continuous park traversing trip. I originally envisioned it as a day trip- a marathon 25 mile packraft run- but Keith managed to talk some sense into me, pointing out the logistics are far more reasonable if done as an overnight. I knew the high intensity continuous action of Deep Creek (6.6mi of III-IV+ with 160ft/mi) at 220 cfs from one previous run but craved to hit it at higher flow and with two more years of paddling experience under my belt- I knew it could only be more enjoyable than my last time. Add together with that the pure bliss of the Zion Narrows (7.3mi of III-IV+ with 80ft/mi), which I had run twice before, and then the Upper Park (5.0mi of II-III with 50ft/mi) to Court of the Patriarchs, which I had run once. Continue on to Satan's Staircase (1.8mi of IV-V with 140ft/mi) and Lower Park (1.6mi of II-III with 75ft/mi), both new to me, and end with the Springdale run (2.9mi of II-III with 35ft/mi), which I had only done in an inner tube at low flows. Keith and I watched flow for weeks to get into the "go" range of 150-600cfs. Finally Memorial weekend lined up with a 300-400cfs forecast and we activated. I had high hopes!
We arrived to the greater Zion area around 10p, surprised at the decidedly wet ground surrounding our campsite. The night was quite cool but tolerable. We arrived in Zion thankfully early enough to get a choice parking space at the visitor center, strolling up to the building at about 7:20a. We found a long, slow moving line at the backcountry desk, my ultimate nemesis. After a solid hour waiting in line it was finally my turn. The person handling the desk was happily competent and we went through the song and dance with minimal pain, ultimately getting an overnight permit for the day of and next day- ideal. By this time there was not a single spot left in the parking lot. We packed carefully next to the car, walked to the shuttle and then shuttled to ZAC. We had time to kill until the shuttle and so it was killed, slowly. Springdale now charges for parking. I could not wait to escape the people. We had a full shuttle with lots to load- more time. Must...escape...Memorial weekend hordes...
Finally we were off and the shuttle van slowly labored under its load up the steep road onto Kolob Terrace. As we climbed the view outside became notably winter-y and what seemed like sensible packing decisions in the Zion parking lot became questioned. Why didn't I throw in my big down jacket? Why didn't I throw in poggies to keep my hands warmer while paddling? Why am I not wearing more clothes? A quiet terror seemed to strike everyone else in the car too (including first time backpackers) as we approached their stop at Lava Point, only the road was closed and impassible and so they had an extra mile and a half to hike along the muddy, snowy road. I'm sure this was not the type of adventure the internet photos promised them. The shuttle stopped in the middle of the road and everyone piled out to sort their gear painfully slow. Finally they left and finally they moved from behind the vehicle so we could actually turn around and leave. They walked down the road with packs heavier than us, their shiny new lantern dangling obnoxiously from the outside of their packs as they carried their rented sleeping bags in their arms. Maybe they survived their hike?
The shuttle drove us onward though the unseasonable road conditions meant we were going to get dropped off well short of our goal with many miles of bonus slippery walking to do. We said thanks to our shuttle driver, shouldered our packs, and set off. It was cold and snowy but thankfully keeping a fast pace meant no issues of overheating. The walk was mostly uneventful, quiet and still. The further we got, the worst the mud got until it was unavoidable and squished up the side of our shoes with each step, burying our tread and adding pounds of weight to our feet. I was not thrilled to add five extra miles to our approach hike but we had plenty of daylight factored in. I found a fist-sized piece of petrified wood in the road which was a plus. The first part of our hike took 1.5 hours, the second we managed to striaghtforwardly navigate for another 1.5 hours. The approach would have been much faster were it not for the muddy conditions but a 3 hour approach for 25 miles of paddling bliss seemed like a fair trade.
It took about an hour to organize, suit up, and inflate at our modest put-in, putting us at a 4:15p launch. Almost immediately we ran into a downed tree across the creek we had to portage, a good reminder that this was wilderness and that we would need to be on high alert. Just after this first obstacle the creek doubled in size and became an incredibly fast, continuously engaging whitewater conveyor. The creek was dropping at a respectable 160 ft/mi. The features were not intimidation-level for me but the continuity and speed was such that I occasionally found myself pulling into an eddy just to have a quick look around and to catch my breadth. We found the flow to be excellent! Throughout the run I had an immovable grin and occasional urge to hoot for joy.
Put-in
The creek cut widely through the softer units of the Carmel and Temple Cap formations before hitting the top of the Navajo Sandstone where inescapable walls closed in and built higher with each mile. Despite me wanting to savor the run and stop many times for photos, we were making fast time. The creek was mostly a continuously riffled flume with very few distinct rapids but the speed, scenery, and constant maneuvering required meant this was still every bit as good of a run (even better!) than I remembered. After 2.5 miles (1 hour) we reached a complex log jam I recalled from my last trip, which were carefully portaged on the left as before. Here I could particularly notice the extra water we had on this trip; this flow was much better and I would even happily take some more.
Two hours of paddling (now 6:15p) got us to the start of the Class IV+ rapid that Jeff and I portaged last time. Keith and I carefully scouted each of the three features. Keith wanted to see how I fared before making a decision. The rapid generally looked much better than the lower conditions I saw it in last time and being that this was the second time I saw it I was extra compelled to run it. I calmed my nerves as best I could, lined up, paddled to launch speed, cleanly plummeted over the first drop, readjusted in the short pool for the meaty middle sequence, stuck my line (though with temporary blindness from a faceful of water), paddled hard to line of on the left at the bottom, dropped then pulled hard to the right to strike a glancing blow against the pillowing rock at the bottom. Success! Keith got surfed by a surprising feature but otherwise also had a clean run. We left the IV+ rapid at about 6:50p.
We had another fast 40 minutes of bliss in lower Deep Creek where the whitewater and scenery continue to please though the canyon becomes generally less sinuous in this stretch. Mossy walls of red megacross-bedded sandstone, dark narrow corners, bright green vegetation, no sign of humans. I could do this all day! We had a total of five log portages we made and probably an equal number of logs we could skirt around, over, or under. We reached the confluence with the North Fork at 7:30p, taking a moment to look at campsite #1, to walk a hundred feet up the North Fork, and to read through campsite descriptions. We still had some daylight and were not too tired and so finding the best camp was the priority. Though we stopped at a few campsites along the way for a quick look we went with campsite #6 at the mouth of Kolob Creek, which according to the NPS screenshot we had was 10-15min+10-15min+5-10min+5min (30-45min) of hiking from the confluence. We paddled this 0.9mi in 6 minutes!!!
We found Kolob Camp to be quite nice with a lower level "garage" to pull boats onto and string out a drying line and a higher level platform for camping right above the Kolob confluence. Settling into dinner at camp I was thrilled by the comfortable air temperature. It was nothing like the frigid snowy temperatures we started the approach at and I was quite comfortable in the mid-weight thermal clothing I opted to bring. I was really satisfied to be at the end of a solid day of wilderness paddling that also happened to be flip free. We slept out without the shelter hoping the trees would protect us from the dew.
Happily no dew. We got back on the water at 8a, moving fast but also stopping for some photos. There were a few more logs to go over, under, and around, and Goose Creek to pass before we reached the obvious fresh rockfall a few hundred feet upstream of Big Spring that we heard about.
We stopped to scout the aerated frothy rapid and found a line that we both thought would work but there did seem to be a good chance of going for a swim. Somehow we came up with the hasty and perhaps not fully thought out plan of running it back to back. I went first, flipped instantly in the pinch at the top, and clambered to the side as my boat and paddle floated on. Keith followed seconds later, same result. We looked at each other for a couple seconds then jumped in to float after the boats which already were halfway to Big Spring. Keith and I both swam at last a half mile (my longest swim!) until we were reunited with our paddles and boats. We both sustained pretty heavy bruises from impacts with rocks and I was feeling pretty chilled. The next stretch of narrows were some of the deepest, darkest, and narrowest including the famous Wall Street section but unfortunately zoomed by in a manner of minutes.
We turned a corner and I was delighted to see a ray of sunlight piercing the dramatic 110ft waterfall pouring out of Imlay slot canyon, more water than I had seen before there. It was too much to pass up so we posed for a few photos. I drooled over the thought of descending Imlay at this flow, but probably also shivered thinking of the frigidness.
I knew Imlay signaled the beginning of the end of the Narrows. Minutes later we reached the Orderville confluence and seemingly seconds later the waterfall exiting Mystery Canyon. Bummer! We got one final nice corridor with shiny spring-soaked walls bathed in reflected light, then the last turn revealed the platform at the end of the Riverside Walk Trail and the first people we had seen since we started our trip. Now 10a, from here on it would be people, people, people. The fun bouldery rapid just past the end of the Narrows was in good read-and-run form, and the rock weir a little further down was trivial at this flow.
Orderville confluence
From the Temple of Sinawava we had 5 miles of sunny and mild class II-III in the upper valley, which allowed more attention to be paid to the towering cliffs. The constant attention from Memorial weekend touristas was something I was not looking forward. I refused to make eye contact and usually pivoted away from these lesser lifeforms; to them we were the most interesting wildlife in the park suitable for their super cool social media snaps. Fortunately many were less observant than I would have guessed (too busy looking at their phones!) and so I made a game of stealthily slipping past undetected. Keith seemed more tolerant. The regulated line for people to cross the bridge to Angel's Landing was something straight out of Disneyland. Seeing the 300ft+ waterfall pouring out of Heaps from the river was truly an impressive sight. Unlike Imlay, my mind was split on whether Heaps would be a good time in its present condition and I racked my brain to think of any potential challenges there might be with the final rappel sequence. It was 11a when we reached the bridge at the Court of the Patriarchs in front of the gateway weir to Satan's Staircase. We took a good snack break, refilled water, and downed ibuprofen, portaging the weir and resuming the river at high noon.
About 4800 years ago a one mile wide by 2 mile wide landslide let loose from The Sentinel on the west wall of Zion Valley, which completely dammed the valley as far as the Temple of Sinawava for 700 years. The Virgin River cuts steeply (140ft/mi) through this landslide deposit for 2 miles between the Court of the Patriachs and Canyon Junction. The nearly continuous boulder rapids make this the most challenging stretch of whitewater in the park. I didn't know quite what to expect and so we set off with extra cautious eyes downriver. After only 500ft we encountered an apparently long-time stable river-wide boulder sieve. We carefully ferried back to the left bank of the river and portaged to just below the log jam. The next 2500ft was impressively continuous action including a quarter-mile stretch demanding constant attention.I had not had a bolt of adrenaline like this stretch offered in quite a while. Things eased slightly for only a moment at a prominent corner, then we had another long rapid adjacent to the 1995 landslide. Keith and I took a long walk up to the road to scout the whole rapid. After lots of debate I decided to run it and Keith to portage. Happily I had a really clean run and stuck to the line I had planned. It was some of the better whitewater on the whole run. A few more discrete rapids and a straightforward weir followed but the intensity and commitment now felt lower. We reached Canyon Junction at 1:20p, taking 1.3hrs to get through Satan's Staircase despite the portage and scouting.
Keith portage and the snake
Satan's Staircase goodness (and below)
After the Staircase there was one more jagged weir we opted to portage, then just 1.6 miles of cruisy Class II-III riffles to the park boundary. We hit the park boundary minutes later, than had the final 3 miles of Springdale riffles.
Lower Park
We reached the North Fork Road (oops private) towards the end of Springdale at 2p- good timing! I had a main highway adjacent drying party/ garage sale spectacle going while Keith grabbed the bus to retrieve the car from the visitor center. Thankfully this was just enough time to dry some gear and so I had less cleaning to do at home. The drive home was uneventful other than making the mistake of checking my work email and finding infuriating things to brood over. Nevertheless the trip was fantastic and everything I hoped. Thanks to Keith for tagging along.
Deep Ck (III-IV+) 6.6mi 160ft/mi
Narrows (III-IV+) 7.3mi 80ft/mi
Upper Park (II-III) 5.0mi 50ft/mi
Satan's Staircase (IV-V) 1.8mi 140ft/mi
Lower Park (II-III) 1.6mi 75ft/miSpringdale (II-III) 2.9mi 35ft/mi
300-400cfs on Springdale gauge
