Where to stick Canyonlands National Park (05-24-12)

After typing the title and rereading it, I realized it didn’t sound quite the way I intended, but eh, I am leaving it.  I intended to write about Canyonlands National Park in my last post, but decided it would be one topic too many, so I held off.  Now that we are in Moab and have been to Arches, I am thinking “oops” because Arches will definitely require it’s own post and adding Canyonlands to it just plain wouldn’t work.  So, Canyonlands gets it’s own post!

If  I’ve left the impression that Canyonlands is just a so-so place, that would be wrong.  We really enjoyed Canyonlands but it truly is an area geared toward preservation of resources with a little hiking thrown in, so the average visitor will spend only one day (or just an afternoon) in the park.

   Canyonlands is divided into three sections that were carved over eons by the Green and Colorado Rivers. The most remote section is called The Maze.  Backpacker Magazine just named it one of the top 10 most dangerous places to hike, so we didn’t go there.  The fact that not that many people have died there is due only to the fact that no inexperienced hikers are stupid enough to hike there. That was enough to keep me out! The second most remote area is called the Needles District.  That they have a Visitors Center says that it’s ok to visit here.  We stayed in a nearby BLM campground while we explored this area.
       The spires/needles are made of  clearly defined layers of red and white sandstone. The white sandstone is beach sand that came from an ancient sea that has long since retreated.  The red sand came from the mountains.  Over many years the layers hardened into the sandstone that we see today.  I know that we’ve spent the last few weeks doing nothing but hiking in “red rock” areas, and they all start to look alike, but there are differences.  When I start to think I’ve had enough, I remember that once we leave here for Grand Teton and Yellowstone, our surroundings will change dramatically, so we’ll enjoy the red rock while we have it.


That afternoon we arrived, the temperature soared to 94° and the forecast for the next day was for a high of 96°.  Of course, the campground has no hookup, so things (Dozer) got a bit warm. We had a little time to get to the Visitor’s Center, and asked a ranger for some help picking out a hike for the following day.  We decided on the 6 mile hike to Chesler Park, but given the forecast, we decided we needed to be on the trail by 8 am at the latest.  It worked out well because we were back by noon, packed up, and headed into Moab, where we had a reservation for a week at a park with hookup (thanks for the tip Nancy!!)

From Moab we were able to access the third section of Canyonlands- Island in the Sky.  This is the area that is most accessible, and has a scenic drive to show off the best parts. From the vantage points along the road, you can see the rivers cutting through the stone, creating canyons as they go.

Canyonlands even has it’s own arches, although nothing on the same scale as Arches National Park.








We didn’t have that much time to explore Canyonlands, because Arches was calling our name, but we will come back here because there are definitely more hikes that we would like to do.  Meantime, we have lost two days of exploring.  We are sitting here in Moab being pelted by sand and debris as we endure sustained winds of 24 mph, with gusts into the 55 mph range.  It’s supposed to get a little worse later today, so we are hunkered down with the main slide in for stability. You would think I have no excuse for not getting caught up on my paperwork but actually, my new camera arrived yesterday, and we met some new friends, so I have plenty of excuses for not working on my budget.  We went over to Avril and Dan’s place last night to watch a movie, and are thinking of going out for dinner tonight.  I’ve also been trying to learn about the new camera, which has some features that I am really excited about.  It does panorama shots:
I can’t practice with it too much because I am not going to take it outside with the dust storm that’s going on. It has a GPS, which I have wanted since I saw my friend Steve’s camera, and it takes 3D photos, which I doubt I’ll use for a while. It’s pure digital, not digital SLR, but it still has settings for aperture, shutter speed etc. so all that will be a learning curve for me.  Luckily it still has “intelligent auto” so I can just point and shoot, and the camera decides what setting to use!

Miscellaneous things in Colorado(05/20/12)

Well, I hope you all enjoyed Paul’s post.  He may be sorry he volunteered to write it, since I may try to get him to do it more often!

We were lucky enough to witness a solar eclipse while we were at Mesa Verde. I really like Lunar eclipses better, because I can just watch them occur, without worrying about having special glasses etc.  Although we knew about the eclipse, we almost missed it.  After hiking the trail to the highest point in the area, we decided we had enough time to do laundry before dinner.  While we were loading clothes into the dryer, someone asked us if the rumor about there being an eclipse was real.  Well, rats, of course it was, and here we were, just loading clothes.

  Luckily we had about an hour and a half before the “ring of fire” would take place.  We dried the clothes, ran back to the trailer, threw some cheese and crackers etc in the truck, and drove the 40 minute ride to reach the overlook where the rangers would be to hand out glasses and answer questions. They handed out little pieces of paper with pinholes in them so we could all “view” the eclipse. Doesn’t that look exciting?  There was a real camaraderie among everyone there, and those who actually had special glasses, were very nice about sharing them with those of us who didn’t get there early enough to get a pair.

 

While wandering around chatting with people, I found a much better way of viewing the sun.  Several people had cameras, binoculars and telescopes set up.  This guy had the best set up that I could find, and he was awesome about letting everyone get a good look.

The shadows that were created while the sun was eclipsed were really cool.  I remember seeing those strange crescent shapes during an eclipse when I was a kid.

By the time we got home, it was 9 pm, so it turned out to be a very long day.

Dozer has decided that Mesa Verde is one of his favorite places.  There were an abundant number of grasshoppers for him to eat, and the wildlife kept him quite entertained!

Taking a break from hiking and learning about ancient civilizations, we spent one day on a road trip.  We were within 40 miles of Four Corners and I didn’t want to leave the area without checking it out.  The spot where Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah meet is on Navajo land, and there is a small charge for the privilege of seeing where they all come together.  There were also quite a few booths set up where we could buy anything from jewelry to T-shirts.  We managed to walk out without anything, although the jewelry was some of the most beautiful I’ve seen in a long time.

After leaving there, we meandered through Durango, CO and ate at an excellent Mexican restaurant on the way home.

Mesa Verde National Park, CO (05-18-12)

OK,  It’s Paul writing this Blog with Sue’s input of course, see if you can tell the difference. So we left Natural Bridges National Monument after boondocking for two nights and I gotta say the new trimetric gauge that I installed was quite the stress reliever to me. Now I know how low our batteries got and how much amps I’m drawing at any given time. Way cool and I’m sure you guys will agree. Now off we drove to Mesa Verde the home to more than 600 ancient cliff dwellings, and, at one time, home to the ancient Puebloans that lived in this area from 500 A.D to 1300 A.D.   By about 1300, everyone had left, and although no one knows the exact reason why, scientists do know that there was a 30 year drought at about that time, and feel that the problems that the drought caused,- lack of water = no water for plants, crops fail, game moves on to wetter area, etc. played a major role.
You should see the road into the park! Holy cow!  Steep grades and switchbacks like I’ve never seen. No worries though, the F450 took to it like it was a Sunday stroll in the park. The campground was made for little trailers and small class C rental motorhomes which we see everywhere in this part of the country. The spot assigned to us was on a uphill curve and I had to back down around a overgrown bush/tree at about 120 degrees with a uphill ditch on the other side so little room to maneuver. We got it but it wasn’t fun to say the least.  
The first group to settle here lived up on top of the mesas in houses that they built into the ground called pit houses. Picture a square hole in the ground with a wooden timber roof structure packed with mud and brush. They lived in these to be close to their crops of beans, corn and squash that they cultivated.  As the land was plentiful the Indians began spreading out over the Mesas as the families grew. The age at which they got married was believed to be around 13 with a life expectancy of 30 so I could only imagine at the rate the families grew.
Later they began to build above ground homes of stone,again on top of the mesas near their crops. Some of these homes were like apartment complexes with many connecting rooms.   
The last group living there were the ones who began living in the really interesting cliff dwellings. It was believed that they moved to the cliffs as families and groups for many reasons but no one knows for sure. Some think it was to better pass the long winters  by building on the southern exposed cliffs. Others think it was a defensive move yet there were no signs of war and the Europeans had yet to touch north America. 

We took tours of the two largest cliff dwellings, Cliff Palace and Balcony House, both very interesting and pretty well preserved. The guides were very knowledgeable and presented well, telling us where they sleep, cooked, stored food and had ceremonial meetings.  What they couldn’t tell us is what they did with their dead and where they went to the bathroom.  There were no signs of either to be found. The trail to and from them was also very interesting- having to climb wooden ladders, crawl through a short tunnel and scale the side of a cliff.
 

Speaking of tunnels, did I tell you about the tunnel you need to drive through to get to the cliff dwellings? Well, it was way cool !  They dug through the sandstone mesa at one point to avoid having to drive way around it with more switchbacks. We found it to be the right place to test the new air horns I installed on the truck. They sound just like a freight train and just as loud.  

Horn in the tunnel

Natural Bridges National Monument (05-14-12)

Technorati Tags: natural Bridges national monument,Kachina,Sipapu,Owachomo,BLM

After having just hiked to Cassidy Arch, and then arriving at Natural Bridges National Monument, the first question we wanted a definitive answer for was: What’s the difference between an Arch and a Bridge??  We theorized that an Arch is made by wind and sand and a bridge is made by water, but we were wrong.  A bridge is made by the erosive action of flowing water and an arch is made by other erosive forces, such as frost and water seepage.
While I’m on the subject of differences, we also just came from a National Park to a National Monument. A monument is designated by a President, and a national park is designated by Congress.  A park usually protects more than one significant resource, and a monument usually is designated to protect a single resource,
This monument covers a small area, but contains three bridges, all in different stages of “life”- and the bridges do have a life span.  They will continue to erode until they collapse and are no longer bridges.

There is a 9 mile scenic drive as well as 8 miles of hiking trails available for viewing the bridges.  We did a combination of both.  We started hiking at Kachina, the youngest of the bridges.  It is 210 feet high and spans 204 feet.

Unlike Cassidy Arch, we aren’t allowed to walk over the bridges, just under them. Lucky for us we kept our eyes open and got a good look at the petro glyphs and pictographs along the side of Kachina.

We hiked another few miles until we came to Sipapu, which has the widest span, at 268 feet.

We stopped for lunch in the shade created by the bridge, before heading back “up”.  In order to get below the bridges, of course we had to hike down into a canyon. Climbing back out was fun- we got to climb several ladders, similar to the ones used by early Puebloans-except these ladders were bolted together.

After hiking to Sipapu, we circled back to Kachina, and drove to the third bridge, Owachomo, the oldest of the three bridges.





These bridges are out in the middle of nowhere- almost 40 miles from the nearest town.  There is a small campground here, but we’re too big for it, so we found some nearby BLM land and spent two nights there while we explored the area.

Capitol Reef National Park (05-13-12)

The Capitol Reef area encompasses a wrinkle, or fold, in the earth’s crust, which is called the Waterpocket Fold. It was created at the same time as the Rocky Mountains, but instead of rising up as a mountain range, this 100 mile long section folded.

  After leaving Escalante, we drove Rte 12 through the Grand Staircase area until we veered off to reach the town of Torrey.  Capitol Reef has a campground but it’s first come/first served and they have very few sites that will fit us, so we stayed in town instead.  Our first day was spent getting acquainted with the area by way of a few short hikes and a stop at the Visitor’s Center to get some ideas on what to see.

19th century pioneers settled in this area because of the oasis created by the Fremont River. They were able to grow crops here, especially fruit trees, so the community was called Fruita.  One of the trails we took was to the Pioneer Register(you’ll have to enlarge the photo to see the graffiti).  It’s essentially very old graffiti. People signed their names onto the canyon walls as long ago as 1880. Some of them wrote their names by shooting bullets into the wall. To get to the register, we drove a mile or so down a dirt road in a gorge, called Grand Wash, then hiked a short way into the slot canyon. 

Our intent was to also hike another trail that started in the Wash, but it’s no place to be when the weather is threatening, so when we heard the first rumble of thunder, we skedaddled out of there.  I was annoyed by some of the other hikers who were continuing on their way because “Gee, wouldn’t the rangers come and get us if the weather was going to be that bad?” Hello??  Did you not see all the signs posted, warning you to leave if it looks like rain, and stating in no uncertain terms that you are responsible for your own safety?? Ugh (Rant over).

We didn’t want to do a major hike that day anyway, because the following day was our “biggie”.  We were hiking to the Navajo Knobs, the highest spot in the area, a 10 mile trip with 2500 ft of elevation gain.  The knobs are the highest white rock in this picture.

The first part of the hike was pretty standard, but a mile or so into it, it got really interesting.  When I could stop and catch my breath, that is.  You can see the long diagonal ledge in this picture- each one is about 1/4-3/4 of a mile long.  Once you reach the end, you turn the corner, head downhill a bit, then go up the next ledge.  There were 4 of those ledges to walk up.  At times, we were within feet of the edge, looking straight down, and in other places it was wider.

 

The view at the top was amazing, and worth the trek up there. 

After that kind of hike, I wasn’t sure how much I’d be up for another one the following day, but the things that we wanted to see involved another hike of 6 miles, sooooo….off we went. This time we were hiking the Frying Pan trail, to see the fold from a different perspective, and the Cassidy Arch Trail.  Cassidy Arch is named for Butch Cassidy, who had a hideout in this area. The view from the top of Frying Pan trail was pretty good, but not as good as the one from Navajo Knobs.


 
Cassidy Arch, however, was really cool.  This trail is what we call a “twofer”.  It has an interesting destination, but the trail to get to it is interesting as well.  Hiking on the sandstone is a lot of fun. The arch itself is huge- the top of it is about 30 feet wide, and you can walk across it.  Even I did, it felt so wide.  I took pictures of the view looking down, but it’s impossible to do it justice in a photo.

Our stay in Capitol Reef was short, and we’d love to come back and explore some of the other areas.  The park is huge, and this was just one small area of it.

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument (05-07-12)

The 1.9 million acres of Grand Staircase Escalante are some of the most rugged, and remote acreage in this country. This area is so remote, it was the last area to be mapped, and for a long time, showed up on maps as a huge, blank white spot.  there aren't many roads that go through the National Monument, but Utah rte 12 is one of them, and its one of the most beautiful drives we've been on.  



     Our first expedition was to the visitors center, which we've been to before, but this time we wanted to check out the hiking, and also to find out where there was BLM land where we could park for free because the state park here only had two nights available.  

Armed with the information we needed, we set out early the next day to hike to lower Calf Creek Falls. This is an interpretive trail, so we picked up a sheet that pointed out what we would be seeing along the way.  There were petro glyphs as well as ancient granaries high in the canyon walls. 

After a 3 mile hike into a canyon, we turned a corner and this is what we saw.  Such a gorgeous waterfall!  When I had found out about this particular hike online, the person who hiked it mentioned swimming in the pool, so I was all excited and ready to bring the swim suits.  When we talked to the ranger however, she smiled and said we can swim there, but with a water temperature in the low 50s, we may not want to.  Oh well. We did wade in up to our knees, and watched some young guys swim all the way to the falls.

With our time here somewhat limited, we made the most of the day by continuing our adventure after the hike.  We drove up Rte 12 and came to an area where we could stop and admire the view.  To our surprise, the view included a top-down view of the falls that we had just hiked to!  If you enlarge the picture you can see the waterfall, but it also gives you a sense of what hiking in a canyon is like around here. (the top picture also pictures the canyon we hiked in.)

We spent the afternoon driving Hell’s Backbone Road, a road that was built in the 1930s by the CCC in order to connect Boulder Utah with the neighboring towns.  The main attraction on that road, beside the feat of actually building the road itself, is the 100 ft bridge with 1500 ft drop offs on both sides that they built.  Quite an accomplishment on their part!

Continuing our exploration of the area today, we headed to Hole in the Rock Rd. and parked the trailer in a small lot.  We had to drive 26 miles down a washboard road to reach our destination- Coyote Gulch, home of Peek-a-boo and Spooky canyons. We debated for quite a while whether we wanted to drive to the end of the road, but in the end, decided it wouldn’t be worth the 100 mile trip.  The road ends at Lake Powell, at the “hole in the rock.”

In the 1800s, a group of Mormons left the Salt Lake area and headed out to colonize a new area. They decided that coming through this way would be a short cut to their destination, saving them months of traveling.  150 people, with 80 wagons made their way through this area,  and kept going, right up till they came to the Colorado River, which was 1800 feet below where they were standing. There was a small “hole in the rock” leading to the river, but it wasn’t big enough for anyone to get through.  They spent the next 6 weeks blasting and digging in order to widen the hole, so they could reach the river.  Tenacious!

After climbing down into Coyote Gulch, Peek-a-boo canyon was the first one we came to, but the entrance to the canyon itself required a climb of 12 feet.  Since the canyon is only .3 miles deep, I decided it wasn’t worth the risk of injury, and I waited for Paul at the entrance. 

He actually said it’s one of the coolest slot canyons he’s been in, with all kinds of nooks and crannies, and places he had to either crawl through, or climb over.  As soon as he left, a woman who works for the National Park Service as a biologist showed up, so I had a nice chat with her while I waited.

A half mile further down Coyote Gulch was Spooky Canyon.  I know why it’s called that- because it’s so narrow and dark (and cool, which was great, since it was hot out) that it’s spooky.  Apparently quite a few people have literally become stuck, and have had to be rescued.  Luckily we weren’t two of them. Again it is a short canyon, but fun.  You can see Paul in this picture if you look into the canyon. He couldn’t wear his hat or his backpack to get through this area.

As if we didn’t get enough accomplished today, we hitched the trailer back up and left Escalante at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  That’s highly unusual for us, since we ordinarily like to be finished traveling by then, but we decided to get as far as we could towards Capitol Reef National Park, our next destination.

Zion National Park (05-06-12)

   Zion is one of the easiest National Parks to visit.  The RV Park we are staying in is a half mile from the pedestrian entrance to the park, so we can just walk to the park if we want, but the town of Springdale also has a free shuttle service that runs up and down the main street every 10 minutes or so. If we want to go shopping at the cute little shops down the street, we can just hop on the shuttle- which we did, the other day.
   Once in the park, the driving of private vehicles is severely restricted.  Instead, there is another free shuttle system that runs every 5-10 minutes that will drop you off at any one of about a dozen stops.  So much easier than fighting traffic and trying to park.

After our total body workout hiking The Narrows, we tried to take it easy the next day by doing a shorter hike- Hidden Canyon.

Although the trail was short, there was 850 feet of elevation gain in less than a mile, which is pretty steep. 

 

The trail curved along the solid rock, with drops of several hundred feet in several areas.

 

With chain available in appropriate spots, I didn’t have any issues with the heights, and enjoyed the incredible views along the way.

Once we got to the canyon itself, we didn’t walk too far into it. The scenery was on the trail to get there, and we were already tired, so we turned around (we also heard that there was a bevy of Boy Scouts up ahead).

 

Yesterday was our day to tackle Angel’s Landing.  One of us even made it all the way to the end!  It wasn’t me, that’s for sure!

Angels landing is a 5.5 mile long trail, with about 1500 ft of elevation gain.  It is probably one of the best known trails in this area, because of how challenging it is to complete.  The elevation gain isn’t the issue.  The last half mile or so traverses along a ridge that at times is only 4 feet wide, and has 1000 ft drop offs on both sides(um, no thanks!)

This is Angel’s Landing from a distance.  The peak on the left, combined with the saddle, or dip, comprise the last half mile of the trail.

 

I left the door open for the possibility of my completing the entire trail, but I get Vertigo when I am close to a drop off, so I really wasn’t leaning towards attempting it. Luckily there is a flat spot where the wimps can wait.  There was a volunteer at the summit, and I chatted with him about what the last half mile really entailed.

What he told me is that the beginning section, shown in the picture above, is the easy part.  There are chains most of the way, for people to hold on to, but once you get over the small ridge, the trail narrows, curves to the left, and becomes more challenging.

I took this shot with the zoom in most of the way.

You can see the people grabbing the chain as they head up the saddle.

These are two of the pictures Paul  managed to take along the way:

Paul had someone take his picture once he reached the edge of Angel’s Landing.

I asked him if he thought I would have made it, and he said no.  There was one spot where you had hold onto the chain and swing your leg over a steep drop to get to the other side. He’s been wanting to do that trail and I’m glad he got the chance.  I am equally glad I didn’t attempt it and then have to turn around halfway through. 

The Grandfather of All Slot Canyons

Zion Narrows is a slot canyon in Zion National Park, and one of the premiere slot canyons in North America. Over the course of millions of years, the Virgin River has carved a deep canyon in the surrounding terrain.  In one of the Narrowest portions, called Wall Street, the canyon walls are less than 25 feet apart and rise well over a thousand feet. Hiking the Narrows means hiking in the Virgin River.  In order to do that, the water flow needs to be under 150 cfs (cubic feet per second).  The last time we were here, it was flowing too fast and the water was too high.  This time, the cfs was 109, well within the range for hiking.  There are several ways to hike The Narrows- hiking “Top Down” , or Thru Hiking involve a commitment of 16 miles.  If you hike “Bottom Up” you can hike as far as you want and turn around.  That’s the one we chose to do.
  The day we arrived here we headed to Zion Adventures, where we got information about renting Dry Suits, poles and special boots. Armed with the information about the river (water temperature being 40 degrees) we elected to reserve the necessary equipment for the next day.  The weather forecast was for a high of 88 and we figured that would be the best day to walk through a cold river.

the ultimate test of a zip loc bag

  I wish I could say we got up early the next day and hit the road, but we didn’t, so our day was shorter than we would have liked it to be.  Everything took a little longer than we expected.  We had to repack our backpack, leaving only what we needed, and double bagging everything we brought.  Swimming and/or falling in the water was a distinct possibility.

Once we got to the outfitter, we found neoprene socks and boots that fit, which took a while.  Once we were ready, we wore the boots, but carried the dry suits so we wouldn’t swelter on the way to the trail.  After taking the Zion shuttle to our stop, we used the benches to put our dry suits half way on, leaving the top half wrapped around our waists for the hot, 1 mile walk to the river.

The outfitters had told us to wear multiple layers of fleece- and we really wish we hadn’t listened.  Between the dry suit and fleece, we were hot most of the day.

Anyway, once we were in the water, the adventure began.  In the first mile or so we would see people venturing up the river in shorts and water shoes, which was relatively easy since the first few river crossings were shallow.

As we got deeper into the canyon, and the walls got more narrow, the river got deeper and faster.  We crossed the river dozens of times and once we were deep into the canyon, we had to walk in the water for longer stretches, until there was someplace to get out. 

I did have some struggles.  I was nervous about falling on my wrist, since the brace wouldn’t fit under the suit, so I was trying to be extremely careful with my footing while in the water. Even knee deep water, when its rushing, can be challenging and exhausting to walk in.  Our sticks were invaluable.
 



Paul gave me pointers such as facing into the water flow so I could maintain my balance easier.  Easy was a relative term though.  On one of the crossings, I came to a clichéd frozen panicked moment when I didn’t think I was going to make it across.  It took about 2 seconds to realize that I was about half way (of course) and one more second to realize that I was using valuable energy just standing there trying to stay upright.  It’s not like I could relax, with the water flowing past me trying to knock me over. From that point on, I did better by trying to keep a reasonable pace. It was certainly a better workout than any Thigh Master on the market!

After a couple of miles, the walls started closing in, and the canyon was gorgeous.  The water was a pretty blue/green and because it was deeper, it was actually easier to walk in. 



turn-around point



Nearing the end of the Wall Street section, we chatted with  fellow hikers who informed us that the next section required actual swimming.  Since it was so close to the end, we elected to pass on the swim, and turn around.



some guy deliberately floating down the river in his dry suit



I started out the day with the camera bagged inside Glad ware and in the back pack, but every time I wanted to take a picture, I had to have Paul wait for me (makes it tough to get good shots of him), take the camera out, shoot, wrap it up and give it back to him.  About half way through, I kept the the Glad ware package inside my dry suit, which had just as good a chance of staying dry as in the backpack.  It survived the day, and neither one of us actually fell in the water, which was nice.

We were extremely tired by the time we got out.