This area in and around Zion National Park is the capital of canyoneering, a relatively unknown adventure sport that combines climbing, rappelling, bouldering, swimming, and hiking. Canyoneering is more than a thrill; it’s an exercise in problem solving and backwoods improvisation, as participants may have to calculate how to squeeze between canyon walls a few feet wide, navigate sheer rock cliffs, or swim through troughs of muddy water.

“It’s kind of like the average joe’s extreme sport,” says Draper, who has been guiding canyoneering trips for Zion Rock and Mountain Guides for the better part of a decade. “You see some cool stuff and get a little excitement sliding down ropes.”
Canyoneering, or canyoning, as it is sometimes known, took root in Europe in the 1970s and became popular in the United States in recent years. Today, the sport is practiced everywhere from Canada to Switzerland to Australia … even in Japan. Dean Woods, who owns Zion Rock and Mountain Guides, says he first began exploring U.S. canyons in the 1970s but that the sport didn’t become better known locally until about a decade ago.

“It’s definitely growing and becoming more popular, although it’s still pretty obscure,” says Tom Jones, a Utah guide and gear maker who runs the website CanyoneeringUSA.com. Woods and Jones believe the main appeal of the sport is that with a minimum amount of tools and knowledge of the sport -- or simply a good guide -- any fit individual can do it and thus get to enjoy rugged, wild, and stunningly beautiful journeys few others have experienced. “People of all different skill levels can go through a canyon together,” Jones says. “It’s one of the few places in the modern world where we can still explore.”