Zim: 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.