Mystery Canyon

Since I spend a fair amount of time looking for recent trip reports even for well traveled canyons and not finding any, I decided I would start writing trip reports for those looking for the most current conditions.
On June 24th we did Mystery Canyon in Zion. I applied for the last minute drawing for Subway, Mystery, Englestead and Das Boot. I scored permits for All but Das Boot! With those odds I should have been betting black in Vegas! The group decided Mystery was the most intriguing option and we headed out. We camped on the east side of ZNP because temperatures were expected well over 100 degrees. The Brian Head fire was (still is) raging and a haze settled in all over ZNP. We hit the trail head at 9:15 and began a very leisurely pace through the canyon as we were in no rush to battle the heat. We down-climbed all the stations that had anchors set up until the first mandatory rappel. I did not inspect those anchors or webbing. All other anchors and webbing were in good condition. All the webbing looked like it had recently been replaced. The safety line at mystery springs was also in good condition. There is an accumulation of rope/webbing at the spring on the boulder that you rap to and its probably due for a cleaning. I thought about doing some cleanup but a group caught up to us at the spring. The entire canyon was dry until the spring. No wet suit recommended. We reached the narrows around 5:30PM and managed to beat the heat the entire time. Photos courtesy of Jo Ans and Vickie Ashby.

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