Pine Creek Zion, again?

I ventured down Pine Creek yesterday, including some of the Devil's Anchor Work.

Full Report available here: Pine Creek Sept 25

Did they open canyoneering in Zion? In the newsletter, it shows it is still closed, but permit site has some canyons showed up again (pine creek is in red, not sure what it means). I plan on being in the area the second weekend of October, and would love to squeeze in a canyon in the park

The complex Zion National Park website was never meant for a rapidly changing situation. In the best of times, updating the site would be challenging; we are in the worst of times and the Park is very short-handed... so there will be pages on the website that lag behind reality.

The reality is that some canyons in Zion have been opened to the public. More might open as they consider the consequences of the Cyanobacteria blooms and, well, all the other consequences of opening canyons. The bestest place to see what is open and available is on the Zion Wilderness Permits site. Your Zion Express Permit is one way to get permits. Otherwise, you can make a reservation and pickup your permit in person the day before or day of at the Wilderness Desk window - which has limited hours.



Please note that it has been very dry in Zion, but also, many of the canyons have not seen descents this year! So expect many changes, many surprised, and many anchors that need to be re-rigged. The Park is very short handed - calling out SAR for your bad choices is even worse now than it is in general so please, be extra super duper smart, make good choices, ratchet down the risk-taking, please.

Looks like Pine Creek is currently closed, but will be available next week. I see November is closed off to reservations - I am guessing that is because they want to see how things go for a bit before committing to it being open in November.

Tom

Thanks Tom!