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.