Left Fork of North Creek - Zion National Park - 5/15/16

 Six hikers were lucky enough to win the National Park Service lottery to hike up the left fork of North Creek (usually just called the Left Fork).  This is one of the most stunningly beautiful areas in Zion NP.  We arrived at the trail head at 9am after stopping by Zion Adventure Company to pick up some neoprene socks (really wetsuit booties).  We had to hike about a mile from the parking area down into the canyon before we started hiking up the Left Fork.

  After a couple of river crossings in a quarter of a mile we realized that we should probably slip on our neoprene socks.  Some hikers wore the 3mm socks while others wore the 5mm.  It turns out that for this day 3mm would have sufficed.  We hiked up about a mile when one of our hikers hit his head on an overhanging rock.  Luckily we had a former medic and several first aid kits along.  The injury was very slight, just an abrasion, so we continued on.

  After about 3 miles the scenery changed dramatically and we were hiking up terraces of water falls.  After about 4 miles we reached the bottom of the Subway, so called due to the rounded sides of the slot canyon.  This area was very beautiful and subject of many professional photographers.  At this point the river was basically impassible, so we stopped and had our snack break and hiked out.  The only bad part of the hike was the 400 ft of elevation gain needed to get back out of the canyon and back to our vehicles.  But it was worth it!  A great hike to end our Zion NP outing on. ~ Jerry

8 miles; 1500 feet elevation gain; 6.25 hours