The Subway Hike in Zion NP

The Subway Hike in Zion NP

Yours truly won permits to the famous Subway hike in Zion National Park!!!

One day in May, I just happened to be on recreation.gov and casually looking at what permits were available. I saw that the subway was up for grabs so I put in 3 different dates in July for my husband and I. I honestly did not think we would get them, but sure enough a couple weeks later I got the email confirming we were accepted! I did a double take and was like omg it’s happening!

We booked our trip and started to do our research plus talk to friends who had done it too. We made a gear list and made sure to have everything in order for this hike.

This hike is just over 10 miles (sorry AllTrails you were way off!) out and back and over 2,700 ft of elevation gain. I would rate it hard and I’ll explain why…

First, you start your hike on a pretty smooth trail and then boom big vertical drop down to the water, and I’m not joking, it’s a steep trail and guess what you’ll have to climb this back out so just remember that! Once you get down near the stream, the fun part begins! Up, down, and around the boulders. This trail is all over the place so you need good navigation skills and or a downloaded map because it can get tricky in spots. Best advice is to stay close to the stream the whole way up.

This trail was a full body workout, but I will say the views were amazing! The canyon views, wildflowers, wildlife, dinosaur tracks (yes you heard me right!), the flowing stream, endless waterfalls and pools and of course the main event! 

With only .3 miles left to the subway, we switched into our neoprene socks and got out our hiking poles for stability. We hit the deeper water section and you just can’t avoid it. Embrace the wet shoes and feet! We walked up to the subway and it’s just a magical site. Cool teal pools with walls engulfing you.  We even came up to some really cool birds wading in the water. It took us 3 hours to get there and we started early to try and avoid as much heat as we could since we did this in the summer.

We hung out near the subway for a bit and then headed back through the obstacle course! Again, that descent in the beginning was a tough climb out so just be prepared and take your time. It ended up taking us just over 6 hours to finish and boy what a wild ride it was. We would absolutely do this one again since it was so fun and different from a lot of the hikes we do. I hope you can snag a permit for this hike because it is so worth it when visiting Zion NP. XOXO Kimmy

Recommended: Bring at least 3 L water (You can not filter your water there since it has a bad algae in it), snacks, hiking poles, and neoprene socks (Here's the ones we bought off of Amazon: https://amzn.to/46Ha2zc . Of course look at your 10 essentials list for hiking anytime you go out.