The Narrows

We decided to hike the narrows yesterday.   It's one of the best known hikes in Zion, so one of the more popular ones on the weekends.  For us that's fine... as we have nothing else to do mid-week when it's much less crowded.  There are three options for the hike.  The first takes about eight hours and starts from the furthest north point of the main park road and hikes upstream to "big springs" then back down again.  The second takes two days and hikes 16 miles from the top with an overnight somewhere along the river, while the third hikes the 16 miles from the top in a single day.  For the last two options only 40 backcountry permits are available each day, with only 12 camp-sites available along the way.  As we made last minute decisions, no camp-sites were left so we did the one day top-to-bottom hike.  About 60-80% of the hike is in the river bed, so its a fairly long 16 miles with an expected length of 12 hours from trail head to trail head.  We got our permit, and reserved a shuttle to take us on the hour and a half drive to the top (Chamberlaind Ranch trailhead I think) the night before.  We started hiking at 8AM.  It was a bit chilly.

Athena.  Staying dry and walking slow.  Lots of over exposed photos, so I tried color correcting.  Enjoy the terribly edited photos throughout this post.

The first bit of the hike is mostly dry, with frequent river crossings.  For a while you try not to get wet, as that's what you always do when you hike.  "Keep your feet dry!"  After 5 or 10 river crossings you sort of give up.  There is something joyful about walking up to a river and just walking through it without breaking stride. 

Oh you know... just walking THROUGH THE RIVER

The further you get the more time you spend in the water.  It's not that deep in most places but the bottom is unfriendly so the going is a bit slow.  Slow but fun, as the scenery is wonderful and you get to hike in the middle of a river in the wilderness.   After a couple miles the few other people you saw at the trail head either pull ahead or drop behind, so you hike alone.  It's peaceful and nice.

We met this little guy at the first section of narrows.  No way around.  It was a north going Zax and we were a south going Zax.

The first section of 'narrows'  is a few miles into the hike.  From there you spend the rest of the time with canyon walls towers above you on both sides for the rest of the hike.  We entered the canyons fairly early in the morning, so stayed cool most of the day.

We made what little way we could for the deer.  Someone was excited.

The canyons widens at points, allowing more light and letting meadows and small stands of trees along the water.  At other places the walls block the light and create long stretches with almost nothing green growing.

A narrow!  

"look natural.  I don't want a posed picture."

More pictures of a river...

Campsite one is just to the right.  It would have been awesome to stay a night.

Lots of flowers still! Everything is still blooming. Aquilegia formosa I think, or "Crimson Columbine"

A larger creek enters the canyon eventually adding more volume to the river.  Things get a bit deeper, and more interesting.  All along the way there were little black birds that at first i thought were drinking from the river.  But it looked like they were catching water bugs in the small rapids.  They would perch on a rock next to the flowing water, dip their bills in, and then dive under completely and pop back up.

"Big Springs"

The lower narrows.  This is what you get if you hike up from the bottom.

The bottom-up hikers without permits are only permitted to hike up to big springs.  Once you pass that it begins to get much more crowded.  Eventually its like angels landing, and the beauty of the place is lost in the hoards of people.  For some reason when you put some tourists in a canyon, they have to scream just to see if it will echo.  It's like an involuntary reflex.  They just realize they are in a canyon and start yelping.  When you've got 50 or so of them doing this it gets fairly annoying.  The last three miles or so were like this.   All the wildlife disappeared and was replaced with slow moving yelpers.

We were planning on a climbing today, but our bodies hurt.  Hiking in the river is a bit tough on your ankles and knees, and walking though water for so long apparently leaves you sore everywhere the next day.  So... we went to the park's "Human History Museum",  and drove to the west side of the Mt. Carmel tunnel to make lunch.

Just making some Chili.

We've stopped just outside of the north entrance to Zion for Kolob Canyons,  where we will climb tomorrow.  I got to make lunch with a western whiptail lizard for company.  I watched him hunt for bugs as I was stirring my chili.  And we saw a bunch of big horned sheep on the way out.  So that was a fun rest day.

This master hunter kept me company while cooking. Aspidoscelis tigris I think, the "western whiptail."

Zion via Bryce and Lake Powell

Done with crack climbing for a bit.  My hands are so happy about that.

From Indian Creek we headed north on 191 to I-70 west, then down 24 to 95 south in order to stop by lake Powell and do some swimming.  After sleeping by an awesome arch bridge on the banks of the colorado river, we headed to the visitors center and talked with a super excited ranger who thought we should spend a couple weeks at lake Powell.  Aside from her over enthusiastic endorsement, she was actually quite helpful and recommended a sweet back-road trek over to the Bryce canyon area, stopping by a cool little slot canyon on the way.

We did go swimming.  It was cold and terrible and not recommended.

The back route towards Bryce took road BLM 12000 towards Burr Trail Rd.  It's unpaved, and drives through a desert plateau area that eventually runs into the back side of the Capital Reef National Park.

Lots of cool cliffs.

The landscape was mostly a rock plain for a while, with pockets of sand/dirt where stunted little trees and prickly things grew.  The sides of the road provided dirt for the plants, creating a green strip on either side.

Everything still blooming.  I liked the lack of green on this plant so much that I destroyed a bit of cryptobiotic soil getting to it accidentally.

The rock formations in capital reef where larger than I expected.  Entering the park takes you up a series of steep switch backs through huge sandstone walls.

vroom vroom.

Driving down the west side of the formation, we descended into a much wetter environment.   The super excited ranger from lake powell had told us about this cool little slot canyon on the way down, so we decided to stop and take a look before heading on Bryce canyon.  The weather did not cooperate at first, so we sat and had a beer in the back of the car ( "engage couch mode!" ) and I sketched a bit while watching the storm.

 

After waiting for the rain to stop...  a slot canyon!

From the back.  There was a little pool right behind me from the rain.  Everything echoes in the canyon.

There were a bunch of single antelope wandering around near Bryce.  I remember seeing them on the Boulder-Denver drive, so it was neat to spot some again. We ended up sleeping in the national forest near the park, as it's much more free than national park camping which is pricey.

The amazing accommodations in Bryce.

The weather was 70% chance of thunder storms so we decided to take a fairly short hike through the park.  I think it was called the figure eight loop, which follows the Navajo loop till it touches the Peek-a-Boo loop, then does the whole Peek-a-Boo loop and finishes with the other half of the Navajo loop (about 6 miles or so? maybe more-ish?).  

Bryce!  Lots of photos that look much like this one.  It's one of those places that is really cool in person, but if you take pictures they just look mostly the same.

Pan-o-ram-a.

Vertical panorama!  Hard to take, and doesn't make much sense.  Perhaps not really worth it.

The impending storm, which we avoided all together.

From Bryce, we headed to Zion on 89 to 9, which takes you through the mile long tunnel connecting the two parks under Mt. Carmel.  Along the way we stopped to restock, and ended up with some sweet dried chili mix.  Many of the stores have dried cans of food for the Mormon's emergency stocks, and a frustrating lack of fresh fruit.  That night I did a bit of bouldering in Zion.  It's frustratingly poorly documented, but fun.  I'm trying to add the problems I do to mountain project, but it's slow and I'd rather be doing other stuff.

Look at me not sending!  What a fail boat.

We finally climbed on sunday!  The Kung Fu Theater wall near the Mt. Carmel Tunnel was in the shade with a nice short hike.  On the way we saw one of these bad boys.  After four single pitch routes, we walked over to Ataxia Tower to do a two pitch tower by the road.

I found an old ice axe tip on top of the tower.  Someone had an unhappy day.

The park regulates traffic through the tunnel, so there is usually a long line of cars waiting with a nice view of the route.  "There's a ROCK climber up there! We should go, she'll probably kick our asses when she gets down!"  was probably my favorite exclamation from the crowd.  We did six pitches in total.

• Kung Fu Theater -  Danielson, Miagi, Hong Kong Phooey, and Japanimation.
• Ataxia Tower - Ashtar Command (2 pitches)

Cooking dinner on the side of the road.

This morning we did the Angels Landing hike.  To get to the trail head, you have to take a park shuttle up the scenic drive through the canyon.  A couple years ago they introduced the shuttles during peak seasons, and stopped letting private cars drive up.  It makes for a nice quiet park, but is a bit frustrating, as it restricts the times you can access areas to the times the shuttles run.

Crowds of people everywhere.  Crowds of unfit, unprepared people.

The hike is really steep, in the sun for much of the way, and has a decent amount of exposure for the last mile or so.  It's also super popular, meaning that on a day like memorial day it's packed with people and is mostly a traffic jam.

"A decent amount of exposure"

 I was thinking the whole way that they should remove the posts and chains.  These were installed back when it was OK to deface large portions of national parks in order to allow people to trample and toss garbage a bit further into the woods.

Where the chains rub the rock they dig trenches for themselves.  Each link has carved its own shape into the soft sandstone over time.

On the way up, people grip the chains and lean back, then heave themselves up.  On the way down they scoot along on their asses hugging the wall.  Sort of depressing.
In any case I was pissed that I had to wait behind these fat-asses out for their only exercise this year,  and then I had some very short but very nice interactions.  The first was with some dude that I didn't even talk to.  This guy was joking about turning 70 soon, and was letting us pass him on the way down as we were a "bit more nimble" than him.  He was with his wife and his kid.  He was out there taking his kid on an awesome hike made possible by all the chains and paved paths and such.  It seemed like that was why they had made hikes like this and why it was OK for them to be a bit over-run with people at time.  So an aging father could take his young son on an adventure every once in a while.

The second interaction was with a chubby kid in a tank top and baseball cap.  He was heading up as we were coming down.  He was obviously scared of the heights, and having trouble with the steep grade, but he was doing it.  I told him the rest of the way wasn't bad, and he said "OK, might as well then..." and kept moving.  As he passed us standing aside near the edge so he could use the chain he said, "you two are so bad ass just standing over there.  I mean... bad ass compared to me" and then he huffed his way on up.  It was so clearly not in his comfort zone to do this hike, and he was clearly struggling from being out of shape on a difficult climb.  But he was excited and outdoors and going-to-finish-no-matter-what.  And that was simply awesome.

What a devilishly handsome fellow.

A second devilishly handsome fellow! What luck!

Pano near the top.  Not at the top, as at the top is more of a parking lot than a trail.

Brilliant selfie.

There's that devilishly handsome fellow again! My gods!

All in all a good morning and a good start to our Zion stay.  More climbing tomorrow, and maybe hiking the narrows the next day.

A new color of cactus bloom.

Arches and Heading to Zion

we have packed all our stuff... and are headed to Zion!  We spent our last rest day at Arches National Park

The french couple eating an apple on the side of the arch have been immortalized in probably hundreds of photos.  Most people just don't have the balls to sit down for a picnic literally on top of the formation people have just hiked across the desert to photograph.

What a dork.

Super cool lizard that let me get really close to photograph him.  This little guy is a long nosed leopard lizard, or "Gambelia Wislizenii"

It didn't take us quite as long as we thought to get the route that Athena really wanted to do in Indian Creek, but we've done it and are moving on.

Most routes have name plates like this,  seen here with a delicious grapefruit for lunch.

In addition to 'Top Sirloin' on the Second Meat Wall, we did

• Second Meat Wall - Cube Steaks, Tube Steaks Tomorrow, and Meat Machine
• Optimator - Soul Fire (One route... what a lazy day.  It's like we aren't even climbers.  We did climb the first half of Soul Fire three times though, as we got a rope stuck, and then almost lost a cam.  The cam was retrieved in one of the most spectacular saves ever seen.)

At the Second Meat Wall... sunny and windy day.

We will probably stop by lake powell tonight, so we can go swimming tomorrow.  Sort of a long drive but the desert is hot in the summer.  After that Zion, where we have a couple really cool canyoneering type hikes lined up.  We should be just fine, as it seems like canyoneering folks are just really bad climbers.  So... we should do awesome.

Rest Day!

We decided to take a rest day and come into town for... McDonalds! woot.  Also we are off to see some arches in 'Arches National Park'.  The climbing is going well...

• Critics Choice Wall - Bunny Slope and Eds World
• Pistol Whipped Wall - Spaghetti Western, Hand Cannon , and tried Tommy Gun (which was awful).
• Reservoir Wall - Excuse Station, No Excuse, and Pente.  Pente kicked my ass.  Just total destruction.

At the base of Bunny Slope we found that a rattle snake had taken up residence next to all of our stuff.  After carefully moving everything away from the snake (who seemed extremely angry at me for disturbing him) I got a picture of the little guy!

RAWR says the unhappy snake.

The desert continues to bloom!  It's so green.  The cactuses are blooming as well, which is really cool.

We have been staying at the cottonwood creek campground for the last couple days, and will be there till friday or so. It's nice and secluded.

"Sweet ride dude." - Everyone

RIP Stupid Bird

I finished packing my stuff on thursday.  I've now got just a 5'x8' storage unit and that's in my car.  It's nice to not have so much stuff.

super stable packing job.

After a fairly sketchy night spent sleeping in a residential grand-junction neighborhood, we made it down to castleton towers area.

On the way, I managed to hit both a mole/mouse type thing as well as some stupid bird that decided to run across the road.  Had the bird flown across the road, as it should have, it would still be alive. Anyway... we went down to the north chimney route on castleton tower.

The tower, as seen from the roofless pit toilette. Definitely the toilette with the best view that I know of. 

The tower is about and hour or so hike in.  It's not that long of a hike, but you have to climb up these choss/sand/gravel slopes which is exhausting.  The climb is three pitches.

The second/third pitches follow this huge chimney... hence the name of the route.

On top....

A selfie I guess.  I hear thats what the kids are al doing these days.

Headed down.

 The desert is in bloom this time of year which is really nice.  Lots of yellows and purples and pinks everywhere, and it's greener than I have ever seen it.  Also a bunch of lizards, which I'll identify when i get a chance.

I've seen these before, but this time they all have orange/red colored heads.

 So a successful day, and aside from all the small animals I keep murdering with my car a successful start.  We are headed out in a sec to get food for next week.  The plan is to spend all week in indian creek, so no cell/internet till next weekend.

For some reason people don't like my sandals.  I think they are just fantastic.