Mystery Canyon 3B

[rcwild]

One of the better known canyons in Zion, Mystery offers the classic Zion experience in a nice compact package.

Rating: 3B III
Time Required: ~7-9 Hours
Longest Rappel: ~120 Feet

Permit Information
Permits required and can be obtained at the Zion NP Visitor Center.

Camping/Lodging
There are campgrounds in Zion NP, numerous hotels in nearby Springdale and plenty of primitive camping in the vicinity.

Preferred Season
Spring and Fall are best, summer OK but can be hot

Water Concerns
Wading, short swims

Special Challenges
The entry gully is loose and eroding badly. Please be careful on your descent to avoid making this worse.

Equipment Suggestions
Standard Technical Gear (harness, descending device, helmet, multiple locking carabineers, slings, etc), 200’ rope and 50’ pull cord (or another combination of choice to overcome 120’ rappels), ~50’ of webbing, rap rings/links, ascenders, wetsuit depending on weather

Topographic Maps
USGS 7.5/ Map ‘Temple of Sinawava’

Directions to Trailhead
Once in the park take the shuttle bus up Zion Canyon to the Weeping Rock trailhead.

Trailhead UTM Grid Coordinate
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Approach
Follow the trail starting up Echo Canyon. After a couple of miles branch left and continue climbing up the trail toward Observation Point. At the Observation Point trail intersection continue along the East Mesa Trail to the top of Mystery canyon just east of pt.6840. Carefully descend the loose entry gully. This gully is eroding badly so please be careful on your descent.

Canyon Entry UTM Grid Coordinate
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Description: Standard Route
Numerous rappels and down-climbing, rock hopping and scrambling. Care should be taken to stay in the drainage and avoid social trails in the beginning of the canyon. There is an airy traverse to the anchors at rappel #12 that is sometimes belayed. This rappel can be done in two stages or one long rap with single 200' rope and 50' pull cord. The last rappel #13 is 115'.

Exit
Once in the Virgin River simply walk downstream to the Temple of Sinawava. Take the shuttle bus back to your car.

Canyon Exit UTM Grid Coordinate
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[rcwild]

Reserved for accident reports from this canyon

[oldno7]

It's amazing how storms in Zion are so area specific.
After all the flash floods Mon. night Mystery is still bone dry up to the springs. The lake is dry. as of 7-16-08

[oldno7]

It is no longer acceptable to leave the watercourse from Death Gulley to the turn. Please stay in the watercourse, as of last Saturday(9/20/08) All social trails have been blocked off and bolts placed to make sure all stay in the watercourse. The NPS is watching these improvements closely.

[rickt]

over the weekend i was part of the ACA service project/NPS work crew who did some work in Mystery canyon. Thanks to those who helped with this effort. The park has long wailed and knashed their teeth at the social trails around the first four down climbs in upper mystery. i recently went thru mystery with a first time group from the wasatch mountain club, which included four climbers, and found myself somewhat amused at their reluctance to tackle those early downclimbs without having some protection. i went first, and showed them it could be done and how to do it, and they all did it, without problem. these guys are real climbers, not a poser like myself, but i got to thinking about it later, if these guys, who are climbers, are reluctant to tackle those downclimbs onsight, how can the park ever realistically expect all of the gumbies who traipse through there to even think about it? answer- they can't. i talked to annette about this, and came to the (sad?) conclusion that they could knock down the cairns marking the social trails, and cover the trails over til the cows came home, but until they provided a visable and viable alternative, people were just going to keep walking around these drops. They need to be hung, or bolted. Everyone coming down the canyon has a rope, and a harness. If they can't, or won't downclimb the drop, they can jolly well gear up and rap it. This suggestion obviously met with considerable resistance in some quarters, and led to a ranger trip thru the canyon to examine this heresy. following the trip, and a committee meeting and discussion, they decided that there was some credibility to the argument, and to give it a try. So they bolted the first drop, hung the next two with webbing and a rap ring, and replaced a shaky bolt that was already at the next drop. as we were leaving the first drop we had a somewhat disheartening experience- a group came in behind us, and without so much as a second glance at the bolt, tromped through the considerable debris we had covered the social trail with. one guy in the group had done mystery before, and that was the way he did it. the rangers shared with them their work and its purpose- but it is obvious that besides doing the deed, there is a considerable education element involved in getting people to stay in the watercourse. so it was suggested that i share this experience and new beta here, to bring everyone up to speed on what the park has done, and is trying to do. me, i'm going to keep downclimbing the drops, just as i always do when i see a bolt or sling and ring i don't need. but if we get the word out about the rappeling option, for those who are unable or willing to downclimb them, and emphasize the parks unhappiness with social trails and their makers and followers, we can do the park and the community a service. if the purists can just choke down the thought of publicizing new bolts and advocating their use, on drops that any worthy canyoneer can easily overcome without them. the trouble is that too many canyoneers are unwashed, and under educated, and this is whom the park has been forced to address. this has been shared with tom and shane to include on their websites- if we are all aware of this situation, and share it with those newbies we come in contact with, hopefully we can help in the parks efforts to protect the resource.


rick

[redneckoutfitters]

last sunday 9/21/08 my friends and i went through this canyon. we found it to be heavly bolted. in fact we down climbed three rappels before we realized it was bolted. almost all the webing has been replaced. we only replaced one anchor and it was just because of a tradition we have set in place. the canyon is very dry until after the 115' rappel so make sure you bring plenty of water.

[IanOutThere]

To finish off our month of canyoneering, and before heading up into the mountains, we did Mystery as our final goodbye to Zion for the season on June 23rd, 2010.

Again, I love the earliest shuttle bus as the driver usually just heads for the trailhead you request. We got to Weeping Springs and blasted up the trail for two hours to find the canyon entrance. I could see how people get anxious and head off into nowhere before patiently waiting to get to the access gully. The Death Gully is aptly named but no big deal for a small party wearing helmets.

We encountered a party of 6-7 at the beginning of the first big drops and they let us pass. The drops were straightforward and well-anchored. The canyon was beautiful. I added some webbing to a nice webbing anchor that looked a little crispy. And also marveled at the amazing 1/2" bolts a little further along (these are the best bolts I've ever seen in a canyon, I understand most of the re-bolting in RedRocks are these sweet big bolts, ideal for soft rock). Coming up to the cool,exposed 2nd to last drop we found a good-looking webbing handline and two sets of anchor bolts. The 2-person party ahead of us (ZAC employees) were just finsihing rigging their rappell off the expansion bolts (left). We waited, took pictures, and then made our way out to the station. We found a set of bomber glue-ins just right of the expansions with chains and a nice big rapide. We rigged from this anchor as in all my climbing worldwide (esp. in Thailand) have learned that glue-ins are always the first choice in soft rock or where water and weather may impact the fixed gear heavily (would enjoy hearing others commets of this). These particular inset glue-ins I've never seen outside Zion but they seem just great. Anyways that was a very asthetic rap and it was nice to be plunging down into the small pool at the bottom after a fairly hot and dry decent.

The last rap into the Narrows was a full on circus with tourists taking pictures of us and the previoius party from all directions. Really fun rap with perfect views into a magical spot + tons of people = not too bad. Overall a really mellow canyon with no bad anchors and generally very straightforward rappells. Death Gully was a littl tiresome but not worthy of crying about (I remember reading Kelsey's rant about the park service dping something about that trail and after I saw it I was wondering what the hell the Park Service would do to shore up a trail down a 1000ft erosion gully, albiet building a redwood stairway with a 1000 volunteer boyscouts?).

On this trip I sat back and took lots of pictures, as my girlfriend Michelle wanted to "guide" me on this trip and practice what she had been learning over the month. I had to take a bunch of patience pills and just sit back while she coiled, and flaked, and rigged and she did a great job the whole day and it felt great to not have to do a thing. THis canyon worked well for her unofficial practicum.

At the end we met up with the nice folks we caught up with from ZAC (who like the other large party we saw in the canyon shuttled into Zion Ranch and this avoided the climb up from the canyon floor) and chatted all the way back to the visitor center. Got in the car, it was 105, and blasted out of Springdale headed for Meadow Hot Springs and the cooler weather of the north.

IanOutThere

[nonot]

So the NPS is not worried about the death gulley damage but is up in arms over bypasses around the first few drops....huh?

[rcwild]

So the NPS is not worried about the death gulley damage but is up in arms over bypasses around the first few drops....huh?

Not a factual statement.

[nonot]

From Weeping Rock on Monday, 6hrs bus to bus.

The new anchors are well placed, obvious, and will hopefully keep people away from the bypass trails. A cairn was found at the first bypass, none at the second bypass. Lakebed was dry, Virgin narrows was chocolaty brown. Everything was in very good shape (except of course the death gully, which was easier than the last time I went down, but still no fun.)

[degbert]

Planning on doing Mystery for the ACA Rondy. Is the lake still dry?

[AlexGeorge]

We did Mystery On the August 28th and it was completely dried up.

[david_mcnay]

I did it just last week and the lake is completely dry, and the Mystery Springs is just barely not a swim, still get pretty wet. Didn't take a wetsuit. We saw a group from CA at the end of the first set of rappels and they were all wearing wetsuits. I felt bad for them.

[jnrose5]

The route description for Mystery Canyon states that parties will need a "200’ rope and 50’ pull cord (or another combination of choice to overcome 120’ rappels)." I'm curious what folks who've done this canyon have used. Avoiding carrying two ropes is obviously the intent, but is there a particular technique that's helpful on this particular rappel? Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

[rcwild]

The reason people are using 200 feet of rope and a short pull cord or whatever is that 240 and 120 are not really common rope lengths. No need to get custom length ropes for every canyon. for the two big rappels in Mystery, feed 120 feet of your primary rope through the rappel ring and block it. Connect your short pull cord, or length of webbing, or tie together a string of shoe laces or bras to extend the pull side so it reaches the ground.

[vegasnative]

T Avoiding carrying two ropes is obviously the intent,

I'm not sure avoiding carrying two ropes is an obvious intent... The ACA's standard is to carry 3X the longest rappel and for good reason... This means you will typically always be carrying at least two separate ropes into the canyon... If the longest rappel is 100' you'll have at least a 200' and a 100' rope with you... The third length doesn’t need to be the same diameter rope you're group is using to descend the canyon with since it's for emergency and/or contingency purposes, although, it should be a diameter that can be used to rappel and/or ascend with (min 8mm)... I've struggled with this standard a few times, especially when descending a canyon with an experienced group where everyone raps single strand and half the rope is kept at the top clipped to the anchor or such for contingency purposes... I've left the second rope (emergency rope) in the truck a few times and twice have been bitten and put in a situation where that extra length would have made life much, much easier... I'll typically carry an 8mm 100' or 200' whichever is needed in the bottom or racked over my pack... I was with a group of canyoneers and our rope got stuck... typically we would just ascend and unstick the rope, although, when the rope got stuck the dry rappel was turned into a waterfall... the water flowing was ice cold and unfortunately we opted to leave our wet gear in the truck that day since two other groups that did that canyon the day before expressed that the canyon was dry and we definitely wouldn't be needing that type of gear... Three of us tried to ascend and only got a few steps vertical before starting to shiver with about a 100' or so to still ascend through the waterfall to get to where the rope was stuck... By the time we were finished trying to ascend it was dark and our group couldn’t come to a group decision on whether or not the part of the rope we could cut would be long enough to finish the final rappel… although, if we didn’t leave our 100’ 8mm emergency rope in the truck that day it would have never been an issue… we would have cut the rope tied the two together and been off and running… I'm only mentioning this part because these are the things we just don't think about... the unobvious $#!t that happens... we always run the obvious through our heads and think we have it all handled and covered and then something else happens and you get stuck…