I don’t know if I can rely on my time stamps – I don’t always remember to update the time when I leave Alaska. I know we caught it in shade with some decent reflected light and we started hiking very early. I don’t remember the time, but it was still fairly dark.

Have fun, you are going to like it!

Thanks for checking. I look forward to hearing from you.

Jeff

You should have a great trip! I don’t remember for sure, let me look back at my timestamps and I’ll let you know.

Ron

Great information about the Subway. I will be going there in the first week of November. If 11 AM is right for the Subway, what time do you suggest for the North Creek waterfall to have the water in shade and the reflected light on the canyon wall above/behind it.

Thanks for your help

I did the hike from the bottom up, so keeping things dry wasn’t really a problem. In Alaska, I use a dry bag. I would take your camera, and just put it in a dry bag. Just pull it out where it is safe and you shouldn’t have any problems. I did use a tripod – it was fairly dark in there.

Have fun!

Sounds like a great trip!

I mostly used the 24-105, but I did use my wider angle zoom on occasion, along with my 100-400. I wouldn’t bring the 100-400 on the longer hikes like the Subway or the Narrows, but I think you will want it in Bryce for isolating individual hoo doos, and for photographing wildlife, and you can often see deer in both parks.

Have fun,

Ron

I’ve seen some photos from last weekend that showed near peak colors in the Subway – they are probably past peak in the higher country, but I would still expect good color in the lower elevations.

Have fun!

Ron

I think it took us about 2 hours each way, but we pushed hard. There isn’t much of a trail, so you will lose some time route finding. It was slow going for only 4.5 miles. I finally pulled out my GPS because I couldn’t believe we weren’t there already given how hard we are going, but we hadn’t – it is just a long hike.

Once you enter the Subway, you can’t go very far unless someone is there climbing down from above and offers their ropes – I hear that happens. You basically enter and wrap around a bend to your left and then run into a steep rock wall, I bet it is only a 100 yards or so. I am standing about as far as you can go when I captured the above photo, and the light you see is coming in the entrance.

Be careful carrying your camera around, the floor is really slick.

You are going to have fun, it is an amazing place!

Awesome photo!

Thank you very much for your nice write-up of the Subway! I’m doing it in a few days, and have been reading everything about the hike. I will be doing the “bottom up” portion of it like yourself.

Do you remember about how long it took you to actually hike to the entrance to the Subway? Once inside, how much further did you go before you had to turn back?

Any tips are greatly appreciated!

Best,

-Frank

Must have been a really fun time though. Thanks for the photo info, it seems pretty straightforward. Congratulations on a successful trip and on a wonderful shot!

Take care Ron,
Kristy

This was taken this past October 31st. It seemed like a pretty good time of year. It was a little chilly in the morning, I think I wore pants with zipper legs. I know I was down to shorts for the hike out. The water didn’t seem too cold, and you are not in it very long.

Nothing special otherwise. This was shot at ISO 200, f/22 and 30 seconds. Needless to say you will need a tripod.

Hope that helps,

Ron

What a FANTASTIC photo! The Subway is one of my must-do-places to photograph! I’m wondering if you might reveal to us any extra photo tips on how to take this shot (the exif data, any special filters used, anything you might have done differently, etc.)? What month was your visit and do you remember the water temp? I would love to plan a trip for this year and I would be most grateful for any advice!

Thanks so much,
Kristy

I think you would love this place! We have been here two weeks, and now my list of places to see here is longer then when I got here!

I believe in the middle of summer you need to hit the Subway a little before or after mid-day to avoid getting direct sunlight into the canyon.

This was a little before mid-day (11:00), and I think that is a great time for this time of year because the sun is hitting the far walls of the canyon outside the Subway. This provides that nice warm glow of reflected light into the canyon. It is so dark in there, all you want is some reflected light at the entrance, direct light it too bright.

Ron