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The hike up Left Fork Creek to the Subway takes you past many beautiful photography locations. Waterfalls, cascades and pools abound. If you can resist the temptation to pass them by whilst hurrying to the surreal Subway formation there’s some decent shots to be found.

Waterfall & Cottonwoods | Left Fork Creek

After around 2 miles we debunked for a rest stop, and found ourselves next to this giant pool, and I could not resist trying a shot. The richness of the colors, with deep blue water and the bright yellow and oranges from the cottonwoods and canyon wall behind.  Plus I was determined to take away at least one non-archetypal Subway shot.

We stopped off on the hike out, which seemed to take half as long, for another break. One part of photography I enjoy the most is stepping back from the camera once in a while, sitting down, and just taking it all in.

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Newspaper rock is a giant panel covered in hundreds of petroglyphs left by Fremont, Anasazi and Navajo cultures over the last 1000 years.

After scanning the petroglyphs with my Canon 70 – 200mm lens for about ten minutes, until I came over this group of small footprints, and tried to work a composition around them moving up from one end of the frame to another.

In our forefathers footsteps | Newspaper Rock

Newspaper rock is littered with petroglyphs, it has to have one of the greatest concentrations of rock art in the Southwest. Horses, anthromorphs, humans, horned creatures, wheels, hunters and various squiggles are overlaid on around and next to each other.

Puebloan rock art fascinates me, but the most difficult aspect of it for photography,  is which elements to compose around, especially at Newspaper rock, where there’s so many elements.

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Past the crack and the cascades you reach the main event of the hike and for photography, the Subway itself, the tunnel shaped formation that gives the hike it’s name.

A semi circular tube that snakes along for a few hundred metres has been hewn out of the rock by Left Fork Creek, which you walk along (and through) as the towering cliffs close in above you.

The subway | Left Fork Creek

At certain times of the day, the sun hits these high canyon walls, reflecting back down into the Subway and illuminating it along one side. This added to the deep blue pools creates some ethereal light inside the Subway. Subdued yet bright, rich yet dull, seemingly all at once.

The  subway looks small, but the formation is around 15ft high, and at the opening of the chamber the canyon walls vault up a couple of hundred feet above you. You are a literal ant in comparison.

I took this whilst standing ankle deep in water, but my Solomons kept me bone dry. I always see shots framed historically landscape from the Subway, so tried opted for a portrait framed image, composing around one of the mini waterfalls to the back of the Subway formation.

Tunnel of light | Subway, Left Fork Creek

Whilst there I met Ed Margiewicz, unlike Ed’s previous three trips to the Subway, we were fortunate enough to catch the light reflecting off the canyon walls, illuminating the curvature of the Subway.

It’s a special place. Demanding physically, but worth every step for the sight at the end.

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Further up toward the Subway, as you climb up over the cascades of Left Fork Creek, the Subway keyhole formation starts to form around you like a big round chamber.

Here the fast flowing river of Left Fork Creek saws through the muddy red of the kayenta sandstone cutting deep into it. The entire river seems to flow through this narrow channel before tumbling down the cascades.

The Crack | Subway, Left Fork Creek

After trying a few compositions using the crack as a lead in line, I changed over my Manfrotto 055 X Pro B to it’s horizontal position and opted to shoot straight down, which made more of the cobalt blue water channel and the yellows autumn leaves so abundant in Zion this time of year.

Out of curiosity I dunked a tripod leg in. It’s swift flowing and surprisingly deep!

The hardest thing about the Subway, both in terms of photography and hiking, is there’s only a small window of opportunity to catch the light at the Subway formation at the very end of the hike. But there’s so much to shoot en route the temptation is to forgo stopping off and motor on for the main event of the Subway.

Resist if you can! There’s so much to shoot

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The subway is an unforgettable experience, both for photography and backcountry hiking.

You have to work for it though. The Subway demands a hard 4 miles hike upriver, following the Left Fork Creek with no trail for most of the way you criss-cross the river, climb up, over  and around chokestones.

Cascades | Subway, Left Fork Creek

The visual pay off at the end of this grueling hike is more than worth it, and is saved all for the last half mile. As the canyon walls narrow down a tube like formation starts to form in the walls of the canyon chasm.

Shortly before the main event of the Subway, the canyon widens out into this series of cascades, where tiers of kayenta sandstone tumble down sandwiched in by the towering orange cliffs on either side.

In autumn, the beauty of the Subway is enhanced by the yellow and reds of the surrounding trees littering the creek bed and the riverside visible here in the trees at the top of the watefall tiers.

After getting up at 6am, hiking for about 4hrs, we reached these cascades which we had to pull ourselves away from to ensure we hit the Subway for optimum light. Made for an excellent lunch stop off though on the way back.

The Subway is exhausting. But unmissable.

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Paul Marsden. All rights reserved.