We only hiked an hour in the dark before we saw the dirt road and our hearts lifted in an indescribable relief. We would’ve survived out there, no doubt, but
boy is it nice to come back to dry clothes and a very warm fire with warm food
after our longest hike of the trip. Escalante-Grandstaircase National Monument,
the most wild place of our trip requiring off roading capabilities and map-compass skills. We were never lost here, but there were times we weren’t where
we thought we were. Once the light was gone, we couldn’t use the topo map and
had to rely on following our own foot prints to return. However we weren’t walking solely on sand which is how we lost our own path. Only hours before we were
squeezing ourselves through a slot canyon barely large enough for human bodies. I like this park, it kept us on our toes.
Our Epic Roadtrip
We left November 6th and in the course of two
weeks we had the honor of visiting Death Valley, Zion, Bryce, Escalante, and
the Great Basin National Parks (I received and Junior Ranger Badge at each one
of course). Each park was stunning and
geologically mesmerizing, however Zion and Escalante proved to have the most
memorable personal experiences. We came on this trip with one goal in mind: slot
canyons. From The Narrows in Zion to two trails called Peek-a-boo, and many inbetween, we
accomplished our goal tenfold.
Zion’s Angel’s Landing:
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| The top of the peak behind John is the Angel's Landing, and the edge to the right is the trail |
Then I saw it. It stopped me in my tracks. That .5 miles
wasn’t just a wee bit more in elevation, it was a steep ascent on what looks to
be an extremely narrow ridgeline and the people look like they are climbing
straight up it. The blood rushed from my face, I had to sit down and avert my
eyes. While I sat there by a tree we coined later as “shit my pants” tree
numerous hikers came to our spot and had the same revelation. “No way I’m doing
that”. They turned and left and others took a moment to gather courage before
heading out.
I pondered many things in this moment.
1)
This is a popular hike. Lots of people are doing
it. Where loads have people have gone before I should be able to as well.
2)
Park service wouldn’t have this trail if it was
so dangerous that I am very likely to die going up that.
3)
It is probably easier than it looks.
So we go. There are chains bolted into the rocks and in some
places foot holds have been carved out from either use or Park Service to
assist when scrambling up the rocks. I looked around at some of the people
doing this.. Some where middle aged and don't look like
they do much hiking, some were teens with crappy footwear. (Highly discouraged
by park service for this hike). When you’re on the ridge, there are a few
moments you can tell how high you are and understand if you fall it is certain
death, but mostly it was wide and comfortable and has cushion for a drop to the
knee if your foot slips. My worry was gone, but I still held tight to the
chains, made sure John was close, and calculated each step.
On top we were rewarded indeed. We could see down the valley
to the south and up the valley to the north, both speckled with equally tall if
not taller bluffs bordering on both sides of the river. It was both beautiful
and empowering. I was even a little embarrassed I had the reaction I did when
seeing the ridge. We got down it just fine also and were even comfortable
enough to take a few photos. Trying to beat the light, we continued on the West
Rim trail where the Angel’s Landing trail branched out from, did some off
trailing on the edge of a yet another bluff and found ourselves staring
straight at Angel’s Landing and the iconic carved out switchbacks leading up
halfway.
The following day we hiked in the Narrows, which had been on
my bucket list since 2010. We rented some water gear and hiked up a river
exploring the depths of this beautiful canyon that has also claimed lives
during flash floods. If we hadn’t the water would’ve been extremely cold. We
had amazing weather so no worries on rushing water. Pictures don’t do justice
for the atmosphere in places like this, but that didn’t mean I didn’t try to
capture it. We also explored a few other
trails and found ourselves discovering more and more impressively carved rock
in the walls of the canyons we navigated.
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| Beautiful water in The Narrows |
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| The Narrows |
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| Hidden Canyon, Zion |
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| Hiking up Hidden Canyon |
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| Hidden Canyon |
On our way out of Zion we found petroglyphs in the park.
There are many all through out the park, but they don’t advertise their
existence. Tourists have a bad habit of destroying things, and these carvings
are very fragile. The spot, if you know how to find it, has a plaque talking
about the images. You can see where people have damaged a few, and even one
spot where a huge slab of rock, 15x3 feet or so, had been expertly removed. We
studied them, I tried to come up with my own conclusions of their meaning, and
then we moved on.
After a day of Bryce exploration and having the temperatures
dip below freezing on us over night (I got frost nip on my nose as it was the
only thing not covered with the sleeping bag) we got to the park that was the
center of this whole trip and why we brought the gas guzzling Toyota
Landcruiser: Escalante Grand Staircase. First day we explored all the roads,
all unpaved, some not even mapped, and full of ruts and large rocks. John had a
blast out there, like letting a kid out to recess. This is what this vehicle is
made for! (Story continues after a series of awesome pictures)
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| Escalante |
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| Escalante |
Second day in Escalante we hiked out to a canyon I won’t name because of
what we found. I feel like the elevation has knocked me on my ass. I was
running around in Zion, Angel’s Landing’s 3,000 feet elevation gain was
nothing. But here, only 5,500 ft above sea level I’m left tired and breathing
harder. Escalante has no maintained
trails. This park is relatively new getting it’s National Monument title in
1996 and is operated by the Bureau of Land Management. That being said, it operates differently than
other parks people would be used to. You have to know what the hell you’re
doing out there for one. Our hike this second day was a testament to that.
There are trail heads built and a log, but after the sign you’re on your own to
determine which direction is the right way for where ever you are headed.
Luckily other people have built cairns for us, the one and only time those ugly
stacked stones were useful to us. Otherwise people build them as a testament
they’ve been to a spot and you find a bunch of rock piles distracting from the
natural views. But here, HERE they have a real purpose for others to follow. We
walked a ways through the desert admiring the plants and tracks of animals. We found a baby version of
a large cactus John owns that is braving the Portland winter right now. Rocks
have eroded in all different shapes and sizes. One spot alone allowed me to
find the shapes for this picture:
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| Strike marks |
You feel very small in land like this. You can see large
monuments in the distance. You think you’re close enough to walk to them, but
the more you walk, they don’t get much closer. We stuck to the upper edge of
this canyon we were following. The drop off was a long one and got longer the
further we walked. I was definitely challenged with learning to trust my shoes’
grip on the sloping rock as we walked, failing and panicking at times. It was
on our way back that we came across a tool making site of Native Americans.
People have been living off the land here for thousands of years and we were
told there are plenty of petroglyphs and sites like this out there, unwritten
about and left as is for preservation. We were extremely fascinated by the rocks here
and stopped often to pick one up and examine it, try to figure out its erosion
history. Something smooth and red caught our eye. Our first thought was someone
came out here and was breaking rocks apart for fun, until we found more, and
more, and more. John, who’s father worked in Petroglyph monument when he was
younger and was more familiar with sites like this, suddenly realized what we
were looking at. We walked right through it completely clueless. It was our
interest in rocks that stopped us. A few pieces of rock even showed the marks
of their strikes. That was pretty cool. I examined a lot of pieces and tried to
paint a picture of the people who came before us and spent their days making
sharp tools to skin an animal, probably socializing while they worked. But we
were losing the sun so we had to move. I don’t want the Internet to discover
these historic places, nor could I tell you how to find it if I wanted to. I
hope the area stays the way it is for many thousands of years to come.
That night we drove out and camped at a very remote spot at
the trailhead of the longest hike of our trip. A flat bit of land on top of a
bluff, one of the highest points around, gave us the most remarkable view of
the sky one could get. No mountains, city lights, street lights, or even clouds
blocked our view. Coincidentally, there was a meteor shower the two nights we
were camping there that I read about previously. Joke was on me though, we went
down to sleep not long after the sun does and the shower peeked closer to
midnight each night. I learned that later after two nights of watching the sky
for hours in the early evening, confused that I only saw two shooting stars.
SPOOKY AND PEEK-A-BOO CANYON:
Day three we go out on our adventure following a topo map
and using a compass. Our outdoors skills will be exercised today and we were
excited! We were aiming for two canyons that run parallel to one another called
Spooky and Peek-a-boo. Two thirds of the
hike was just getting to the start of either canyon, which required following
different drainages (which also turned into canyons) and we wormed our way to
the canyons in mind. We weren’t always where we thought, and sometimes we had
to use fun techniques to get ourselves through spots. But we were impressed by
all the things the desert had to offer, minus stifling heat, so the childlike
discovery of everything there kept our spirits high and ready for more tricky
ways to get through these foreign places. However, not being 100% confident on
our location came into play later when we were “pretty sure” we had entered
Spooky Canyon from the North. The footprints in the sand were what gave us a
clue, but then again, there was no sign.
The canyon was narrower than those of Zion and more
resembling canyons of photos I’ve seen represented in the Southwest. The walls
were carved like graceful waves like someone with a serrated butter knife
carving an edge in a dollop of whipped cream and it had hardened. If there
would happen to be a flash flood (again, clear skies) there would be no way to
get out. The ground was mostly soft sand with bits of tiny rocks in it, but
eventually we came across a section where part of one of the walls had
collapsed forcing us to scrambled over car sized boulders. We didn’t get too
far before John, who was ahead of me, pointed out there was a drop off ahead. A
big one. In fact, looking down we could see inbetween the boulders and saw they
didn’t land on ground, the ground was way below the boulders we were standing
on. Are we in the right canyon? It was obvious we weren’t going to make it over
the drop off ahead so we back tracked and looked for a way to get under the fallen boulders. There just
happened to be a narrow space to wedge your way down, the thing of
claustrophobic’s nightmares. The scrapes on the rock indicated others have
attempted this so John we down and scoped it out. He came to the conclusion
that to continue in the canyon we had to go this way. It took me a few attempts
to get through that sliver of a hole, finding the right way to bend out my legs
without them getting caught. I was not only squeezing through something tight,
but the ground I was aiming for was 6 feet below where I was starting. I almost
called the quits right there, but I didn’t. I started filming after I got
through that hole which you can watch below. It didn’t get easier after that.
The canyon closed in leaving us barely enough room to squeeze through sideways.
Our backpacks trailing behind us in one hand we shimmied through the narrowest
hallway of my life. If this was not the right canyon and we found more spots
that would be impassable, that would mean backtracking and trying to get back
out the hole I barely made it through. That thought was scary, but man this
place is cool! Let’s see how far we can go!
Cue 4 minute video
I went over the drop off with John’s help, sacrificing to
the canyon Gods some of my own flesh in the process and we continued on our
spooky adventure. Halloween came late for us this year. We were squeezed and
pressed a while longer and popped out to an open area, able to walk face
forward again and breath deep fresh air. What an impressive canyon! And we were
only half way done. We went back through Peek-a-boo, a parallel canyon with the
most challenging entrance. I lost more flesh getting into it, but once we
conquered scrambling up the slippery sandstone we were rewarded with a
majestically carved canyon with loops and swirls. Oh it was beautiful. It was
not much wider than Spooky, but we could at least walk forward, occasionally
slipping down and crawling up rock. At one point, being accustomed to staring
at the ground to not trip, I spotted a snake that John had nearly stepped on.
He didn’t see it and I stopped after he walked by it as it curled in defense
and faced me. John had warned me of snakes in canyons saying they sometimes
fall in and are pretty upset to be there. Not much food for them, or escape. We
pondered if it was a rattlesnake, but it didn’t rattle or even shake its tail.
Later, when showing the picture to John’s parents, it was confirmed this was a
rattlesnake that lost its rattle, and it didn’t move much (or strike fast)
because it was only 50 degrees out, which is pretty cold for the little fella.
Luckily I had a means to pass him without getting in biting range, and I even debated
attempting to save him some how. But I don’t know snakes, and I didn’t want to
risk assuming it wasn’t a rattlesnake or other poisonous snake just because it
didn’t rattle at me.
We hiked on and that’s where we join into my opening story.
The rest of the trip we came across 6 feet tall pictographs
(painted pictures), roads built on top of ridge lines, and Nevada desert. We
stopped in Great Basin on our way home, enjoying a fast paced hike at our
highest elevation yet and exploring the coolest cave I have ever been into. It
was a sadness and a relief to get home, for our adventure was over, but access
to a hot shower and easily cooked food was a luxury I had missed. I had one day to pack for both Wisconsin and
the adventure "down unda" before I was on a plane to go home and visit my family.
When I get back to San Francisco I will have one day to regroup before we get
on yet another plane and head to Hawaii for a week for more adventures. Tune in
for those upcoming tales.
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| Lehman Caves, Great Basin |
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