02/02/2024
I just saw this picture and it made me do a double take. This picture is from a slot canyon near Kanarraville Utah just outside Zion National Park. It reminded me of an experience I had when I was 12 not too many miles away inside of Zion NP up Kolob Canyon, one of the branches of “The Narrows”. On that day, we set off in the morning. I was with my brothers, Mike, and Dave, my dad, my uncle, Brent, and my two cousins, Dan and Richard. We entered the riverbed by descending a steep slope that basically dropped us off into the canyon. that alone felt like a harrowing experience. We brought a rope with us just in case, but really, it was because we knew there was a rock to jump off into a pool of water not too far up the canyon. My dad had traveled this canyon years before and had pictures to show us. We were going to take our lunch break at this rock, and use the rope to keep on climbing up. Little did we realize that it was literally going to be a lifesaver…
We followed the river until we made it to “lunch rock”. There was no other way around. The only path was through…
If you can use the picture above to imagine we came upon this rock and where you see a trickle of water coming through, there was a heavy flow of water gushing through. Standing above on the rock we were about 8 feet above the water which was about 10-12 feet deep. There was going be NO jumping in and climbing back up with the way the water flowed it was a one way down scenario Directly below the waterfall the water churned like a washing machine. . There were no ladders that day. Uncle Brent went first and found it hard to kick out of the churning water. He warned that the rest of us would need to get a good jump. Dave, Mike, and I jumped and cleared without problems. As Richard was positioning himself to jump, he slipped directly into the churning waterfall. Waiting for a head or arm or anything to surface my dad surveyed from above hoping for the best. After 20 seconds he dropped in to rescue my cousin. Searching frantically to no avail. 15 seconds turned to 30 and turned to a minute. Fully exhausted and running out of hope… To be continued