Labyrinth Falls

Well, I thought I had been to Labyrinth Falls. Turns out I hadn't. I hiked down to the Barracks numerous times, but never had been below where there was a pretty powerful waterfall with a small down climb. I wanted to see it and this was my last patrol day. It was fitting that Derrick would be with me. It seemed like this year whenever I was going to go out and do something fun and adventurous Derrick was the one going with me. I guess that showed how much I trusted him and just how awesome Derrick is at his job. He can sometimes have a surly attitude but most of the time Derrick was a pleasure to hang with at work and honestly he can be the most helpful and polite person to visitors and coworkers.
 I was going to miss my patrol days with him. Well this day started out as usual for a trip into the Barracks. It was up the canyon between Checkerboard and Crazy Quilt, then down the slickrock. We did not take the journey into Misery Canyon but instead just followed the exit route in. It went pretty quickly and along the way we could see a fire burning off to the south.
After dropping into the Barracks, I remembered just how truly stunning this place was. I am so impressed every time that I am down there. Soon we were at the waterfall I always turned around at. This time, though, we were able to find a way to down climb it. It went pretty easy and then it was terra incognita. This was a beautiful part of the canyon with pools to wade and small waterfalls.
There were a few short down climbs before coming to a very beautiful and large waterfall. Okay, this had to be Labyrinth Falls. This is a turn around point where all other parties were required to turn around. From the look of the place, most people did not even get close to this place and probably most people assumed that the previous waterfall was Labyrinth Falls. On this day, I got permission to rappel below there to check out conditions to make sure that other people were not going down there. We would leave a fixed line and ascend back up. Unfortunately, just as we arrived it started to rain.
This was not a good place to be in a flash flood.
The canyon was very narrow and this was a large river flowing through a very narrow canyon. I think the closure of Parunaweap by the NPS to protect it as a Research Natural Area had saved numerous lives because this place seemed to flood frequently. We were now deep in the heart of it and Derrick and I reluctantly had to perform a hasty retreat. A little adrenaline kicked it up for us and we were soon safely above the canyon climbing out of the slightly tricky exit route.
 Having done it so many times, though, the route just seemed easier and the rain never came down too hard. So we had the hot sun to keep us company as we took our time getting back on the slickrock. I was disappointed that I didn't get below Labyrinth Falls, but I was happy I got to spend my last patrol day doing something new. Zion truly meant something more than just a place to live and work to me. It really was ingrained in who I was as a person. I wondered if I could find that in our new home in Oregon.