This ultra-popular journey through Zion National Park's Left Fork of North Creek to the "Subway" and all of its gorgeous and calming water cascades - one after the other - exceeded my expectations and turned out to be a favorite hike for 2023.  Having scored a permit only two weeks before, we were able to park in the Left Fork Trailhead parking lot (you have to put a permit tag on your dashboard), descend from Kolob Terrace to travel this stream to a magical world of green pools, red waterfalls and a tunnel of fern-covered sandstone walls.  It takes about three miles of boulder-hopping and clear stream wading to get to the spectacular stuff, but it's so well worth it.

I went with three friends who knew the route, and other friends who were seeing Subway for the first time also.  The pathway up the Left Fork is pretty straight forward:  it heads up-canyon, and around a major waterfall in about 3.5 miles from the trailhead.  Much time is spent walking in the crystal-clear water.

Less-Traveled Kolob Terrace:  Beautiful Forests, Wondrous Canyons and Colorful Sandstone Peaks
Compared to Zion Canyon, which received a record number of visitors - five million in 2021 - Kolob Terrace, Zion's west section, is a much-less visited area of Zion National Park.  It's accessed via Kolob Terrace Road that ultimately ends at the Kolob Reservoir at an elevation of 8,100 feet - a marvelous place to see in autumn with the blue water and yellow cottonwood trees.  A good list of adventures is posted in Joe Braun's Hikes in the Kolob Terrace.  Kolob Terrace is also a great place for star-gazing and astrophotography.  Zion NP became certified as an International Dark Sky Park in 2021.

Das Boot is another classic Zion canyon on Kolob Terrace.  It involves dark, convoluted narrows and long swims.  If you prefer to be above the land instead of below, there are knolls named Spendlove, Cave and Tinaja to climb.

​Peak time on the Subway hike for fall color is late October/early November to capture the bright red and yellow leaves that fall in the round potholes and decorate the deep red sandstone cascades.  Looking down into the Left Fork from the rim, yellow cottonwood trees line the bottom water course.

The hike begins in a volcanic rock flow for ~ 0.5 miles from trailhead to rim, and in fact, it's important to note these black volcanic rocks on the rim when you get down into the creek, so you have a mental picture of the place you came down, and you don't pass it up on the way back out of the water.  The 400' descent from the rim is steep and slippery in a few places.

As you hike upstream, negotiating many pools, boulders and rocks, you occasionally catch glimpses of the magnificent Navajo Sandstone formations on the plateau above.  We didn't pause too long because we had four miles of relatively slow hiking and the day was short.

Amazing Place!
And then you reach the almost supernatural world of the "Subway".  Hanging ferns thrive on the dripping curved walls and round-sculpted lime green pools appear with water continuously pouring in and out.  How did this stream sculpt this almost perfect tunnel?  Crimson sandstone, polished by continuous water flow is slippery, I saw a few other hikers take minor tumbles.  A few in our party waded through the cold deeper pools at the end of this section to a small waterfall.

A few climbers with full wetsuits were descending from the Subway top down route which involves rappelling and deep water swims - the canyoneering route that begins further upstream.  Sounds like a worthy goal for a future hike!

Finding the point at which the trail leaves the canyon to ascend steeply to the rim was not difficult.  I had the waypoint recorded on my GPS, so I knew we were getting close.  Signs mark the way out of the stream, but it's best to remember the scene you memorized on the way in:  the black volcanic rocks next to the orange sandstone on the rim.

References
Biek, R.F., et al.  2010.  Geologic Map of the St. George and East Part of the Clover Mountains 30' x 60' quadrangles, Washington and Iron Counties, Utah.  Utah Geological Survey.

​Beeline Route Out and Back

• Descend from Egypt Trailhead to base of bowl:  0 - 0.7 miles
• Cross Egypt Bench to Escalante River:  0.7 - 3.8 miles
• Neon Canyon to Golden Cathedral:  3.8 - 5.0 miles

The reward for three miles of sand trudging interspersed with short beds of slickrock through open country with little shade except from the occasional juniper or pinyon pine is the brilliant and glowing red, orange and purple soaring Neon Canyon  walls.  The grand finale of this hike is the huge skylights and manganese-stained grotto walls of Golden Cathedral at the end of Neon, reflected in a pool beneath.

​Now I can see how Neon Canyon got its name.  The colors are intense.  Canyoneers rappel through the opening, getting access from a trail on its west rim.  Stav is Lost website has a good canyoneering trip description of Neon Canyon.

Fred and I got close to this remote marvel a few weeks before, but we heard thunder and saw clouds building when we got near Neon's opening, so we nixed the plan of going up this narrow canyon and headed back to the trailhead via Beeline Trail.  On that hike, we checked out the huge petroglyph panel along the Escalante River, approaching from the Fence Canyon route.

From the trailhead, identify Point 5270, a round dome to the east.  That is your landmark to hike toward, as Neon Canyon is just to its left.   The terrain that spreads before you is "Egypt," an elevated bench above the Escalante River, which flows right in front of Point 5270.  The "Standard" Golden Cathedral Trail aims toward and travels along the north rim of Fence Canyon on the left in image below.  The Beeline Trail goes in a more or less straight line toward Point 5270.   A map of our GPS tracks hiking the Standard/Beeline loop is on my last post Neon Canyon/Escalante River Petroglyphs Hiking Directions.​  

The canyon walls at Neon's opening and all the way through are stunning; trees growing against them seem small in scale.  A path leads through a garden of wildflowers in September.   A trail on the left side of the first bend in the canyon takes you above Neon's west rim and to the beginning of the canyoneering route.

After a walk in the cool shade of Neon, reach Golden Cathedral in a little over a mile.  We saw evidence of a recent flash flood in the fresh carved sand on the stream banks.  The pool reflects the three skylights above.

We stayed for awhile, appreciating the serenity, until the sun started to fill the canyon, shining on part of the grotto.  The best time to photograph Golden Cathedral is before the sun hits it, so you don't get too much contrast.  The reflected light from the upper Neon through the skylights is what gives the glow to these beautiful walls.

With every Escalante visit, our to-do list grows exponentially in this land of remarkable personality.  There's so much out there to explore!