Three trips to Zion National Park in a year and we continue to find new trails and routes.   One of our favorite hikes is to Observation Point (link to previous article).  The trail goes up the sandstone cliffs, then through a canyon to the upper slickrock.   We could see the bottom of the canyon below us, but the sides were sheer and the drop appeared to be a roped rappel.   About halfway up the trail, though, we were able to scramble down a slope and drop into the canyon.

All slot canyons area dangerous during a rainfall, but the weather was warm and dry.   The canyon walls were only a couple of metres apart at the entrance, but very narrow at the far end.   We had to wade through some cold potholes to get into the deeper chamber.

The deepest part of the slot is the Echo Chamber, the spot we wanted to get to.   The sculpted sandstone walls towered up around us.

At the far end, the canyon can be traversed by putting feet on the sidewall, but to go right through this section, we would have had to plunge into a deeper cold pool, so we worked our way back instead.

Traverses of Zion Slot Canyons from top to bottom all involve technical climbing, but some of the canyons can be explored from the bottom up or in this case, in a section in the middle.   We climbed out of the canyon and back into the warm Utah sun and continued our 8 mile hike up to Observation Point and back.   The hike is an A+ trail all the time, but a little venture into Echo Canyon was the dessert for a Zion offering.