Adventures in the American Southwest

[roadtripper]

Back to "working" after a month in the American Southwest!

Since my employer has not yet blocked the VFTT forums, here are my favorite pics & a trip report from the trip that used every single last personal, sick & vacation day I'm receiving this year

Trip Report:
We weren’t supposed to spend much time in the southwest this year. We applied for permits to backpack Mt. Whitney via the standard Mt. Whitney Trail route. If we had obtained these permits, we would have spent a week or two acclimatizing in the Sierras before attempting this peak. Afterwards, we would have topped the trip off with a quick stop in Zion so that those who hadn’t climbed Angel’s Landing or walked the Virgin River Narrows could do so.

Well, we found out in early April that we didn’t get a single Whitney permit. After a quick discussion of our options, we decided to change our base camp from the Sierras to southern Utah.

As a result of the changes, the trip became segregated into three distinct parts:
Part 1 (14 days) ~ Trip w/family (Zion, Bryce, Escalante, Capital Reef, Arches, Grand Canyon)
Part 2 (8 days) ~ Trip w/friends (Zion & Havasu Falls)
Part 3 (7 days) ~ Trip w/Jenn (AZ & CO)

Part 1:
My family wanted to see all the classic southwestern stops on our vacation so we did do pretty much just that. We started with a day hike up the Virgin Narrows with near crystal-clear water conditions that day. We went as far as the junction with Mystery Canyon and decided our feet hurt enough from all the rocks you encounter while hiking up the river. The following day called for a climb up the famous Angel’s Landing, which everybody loved.

We also visited the much quieter Kolob Canyon section of Zion. We hiked a 1-mile trail at the end of the road for some pretty impressive views. From here, we drove to Dixie National Forest for a few hikes recommended to us within a Utah hiking guidebook. We started with the Twisted Forest Trail, which led to a panoramic viewpoint of the Ashdown Gorge Wilderness. The end of the trail offered an elevated 180-degree view of true wilderness. I found the view to be very comparable to the feeling you get while perched on the rocks on the top of Mt. Garfield looking down into the Pemigewasset. We also visited Navajo Lake, which had some neat volcanic rocks along its southern shore.

Leaving Zion, we headed for Kanab, Arizona and Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, which is a fine state park with its extremely fine grain orange and pink colored sand (gorgeous!). You do have to watch out for ATVs throughout most of the park as you hike, though. We went early on a weekday and pretty much had the place to ourselves.

After stopping at Big Al’s Burgers in downtown Kanab (by far the greatest fast food joint I’ve ever discovered), we headed for the north rim of the Grand Canyon, where we had reservations for a small cabin for the night. We made the long drive out to the Cape Royal area of the north rim. The 1-mile Cape Royal Trail provided some incredible views of the Colorado River and the canyon. This turned out to be one of the finest viewpoints I’ve seen from either rim of the canyon. If we had had more time (and a 4wd vehicle instead of a minivan), I would have loved to drive to the lesser-known “Toroweap” viewpoint, accessible by Kanab National Forest service roads to the west of the main north rim facilities.

From the Grand Canyon, we drove to Bryce Canyon for more grand Utah scenery. We decided to do a longer-than-our-usual hike and combined several of the parks popular trails into one long 8.5 mile loop. We walked the Rim Trail from Fairyland Point, connected that with the Queens Garden Trail and the Peek-a-boo Loop. We finished by walking the western half of the Navajo Loop Trail through “Wall Street”, where we saw the remnants of the 2006 rock fall that occurred there.

Since we had some animal lovers in the group, we inquired at the visitor center if they had any prairie dog towns within the park. The ranger keyed us into a secret spot and directed us to a town with 30 or 40 dogs that were very active when we arrived. I know farmers detest these animals for ruining their crops, but I find them incredibly entertaining and could watch them for hours.

The following day we took a speedy tour through Kodachrome Basin State Park and then continued on UT state route 12 (one of the most scenic highways in the country IMHO) to our primary destination of the day, Calf Creek Falls, which is a set of falls with a huge reputation and a place I had wanted to visit for several years. I drove by the trailhead in 2003 and again in 2006 but was short of the amount of daylight required both times to hike the 6-mile round trip hike to the falls & swimming hole. We arrived early in the morning and were able to swim at the falls for an hour or so. It was a truly gorgeous spot that exceeded all expectations.

With hungry bellies, we headed for an awesome local restaurant called Capital Reef Café, which I found several years ago using the great guidebook Roadfood. After dinner, we made a decision to skip our campsite for the night and drive to the town of Moab since nobody else in our group besides me had been before. We took a quick scenic drive through Capital Reef National Park before doing so.

We didn’t have much time to spend in Moab so we decided to concentrate our visit on Arches National Park, where we did the standard hikes to Delicate Arch and Double Arch. More importantly, we rushed straight to the Moab Brewery after these hikes, where we more than made up for our physical efforts of the day =)

After Moab we headed back to Las Vegas where I lost an amount of money I’d rather not discuss publicly . At this point, my family flew home and nine of my friends flew in for the second part of the journey:

 

[roadtripper]

Part 2:
With friends & gear settled, we picked up and drove our rented 15-passenger van from Las Vegas to Zion National Park for a group campsite at the Watchman Campground. Again, we started our Zion adventure with a walk up the Virgin Narrows. We ended at the waterfall in Mystery Canyon and turned around. We found out that the river was temporarily closed the following day due to excessive water flow (>140cfs, which is the cutoff). The river continued to be very muddy for the next two days so we were glad we walked in the river when we did.

The next day we packed all morning (it was the first time backpacking for 4 or 5 of the people in our group) and picked up our backcountry permits in preparation for our overnight hike of the West Rim Trail, which we were set to start that afternoon.

The original plan was to start backpacking at around 4pm and arrive at our designated campsite (#4 for those who have hiked the trail) at around 8pm. We decided to start a bit earlier (2pm) due to the poor late afternoon forecast (40% chance of thundershowers). We arrived at camp at around 6:30pm and it started pouring immediately after we had finished preparing and eating dinner. We rushed into our tents and played card games while a rather sever thunderstorm pushed on through for a few hours. We were actually camped high on a plateau at roughly 7K feet (the highest point on the plateau was probably only 100ft higher), so the lightning was quite intimidating at certain points throughout the night. Experiences like these are creating an irrational fear of lightning in me – is there a name for this type of phobia?

The views on the West Rim Trail are outstanding and the trail does live up to its reputation as the “premier” backpacking trip in the park. The best part of the 14.5-mile adventure is that you get to climb Angel’s Landing near the end of the journey--and early enough in the morning before the hordes of day-hikers crowd the narrow ridge.

We did obtain 10 permits to hike the “Subway” in Zion as well, but we didn’t feel confident enough in our rappelling skills to take on this task. A few of the group members were a bit bummed by this, but the weather forecast was showing a 50% chance of thunderstorms that day anyway. Oh well – next time!

After Zion, it took a full day of driving to get to our campsite for the next night, which was the closest KOA Kampground to Havasupai Hilltop. The next morning, alarms woke us at 4:30am and we set off for the trailhead to Havasu Falls. We arrived at the Havasupai Hilltop trailhead at around 6:30am and hit the trail around 7am. Most people who were hiking down to the village & falls that day had already left – including many who hiked at night through darkness to avoid the summer heat completely.

We reached our campsite between Havasu Falls and Mooney Falls (there are dozens of campsites spread over the half of a mile that separate the two falls) at around noon. After lunch, we spent the rest of that day, as well as the entire following day, swimming and exploring both sets of falls. Several of us discovered that you can actually get behind Havasu Falls and jump through it (there is a ladder behind the falls to help you jump out far enough). This was somewhat dangerous and I would not recommended this in high water flow (the water flow was medium for us). There is also a cool small cave to left of Havasu Falls and a behind-the-falls grotto a little downstream from Mooney Falls worth exploring.

We heard reports from others that the trail to Beaver Falls (3 miles south of Mooney Falls) is becoming increasingly tricky to reach, so we decided against trying (my friends had heard of a secret “green room” there and wanted to find that). There is also a gorgeous waterfall upstream of Havasu Falls that I’d love to explore, but this area is reserved for tribal members only (there are pictures online from the early 1900s of this waterfall).

We left our campsite at 4am on the third day, hiked back up to the rim, and drove to Vegas where all of my friends flew home. My girlfriend (Jenn) & I continued on for another week.

Part 3:
This part of the trip was purposely left unplanned so that Jenn & I could decide wherever we felt like going on a day-by-day basis. This was unlike us; typically we love to know exactly what we are doing and where we’ll be doing it. However, we wanted to be flexible and try a week of picking and choosing where to go last minute. We end up choosing southwestern Colorado because neither of us had ever been.

We started by driving through Telluride, Ouray & Silverton to the town of Durango and did a few short hikes around that town. The following day, we hiked to the Alta Lakes, which was a set of pretty but not spectacular small lakes at around 10,000ft if I remember correctly. The next two days involved more high altitude lake adventures, primarily a 2-mile hike to Potato (Spud) Lake and a 7.5-mile round trip hike to Lower Ice Lake Basin and Upper Ice Lake Basin, which offered spectacular alpine scenery and I would say are must-see attractions if you are in the Silverton area.

We begin thinking about trying to climb Mt. Sneffels as our first 14er as the weather forecast was very favorable, but we made a tragic mistake of not renting a 4wd SUV for this part of the trip. We read reports & heard stories from locals that the Yankee Basin Rd (access road to the standard route up Sneffels) was in a serious state of disrepair due to the heavy snows of the last winter.

After spending some time in town (great town!), we headed back towards Arizona for the last two days of our trip. We made a quick stop at the Four Corners monument just to say “Ya, we’ve been there” ($3/person) and then decided to stay in Page, AZ for a night to check out Lake Powell since we both didn’t know really anything about the lake (or the entire area for that matter). We found out about Horseshoe Bend from the back of a postcard in a gift shop there and ended up doing the 1.5 mile round-trip hike to it that begins just south of town on AZ 89. What a phenomenal place this turned out to be! I had seen several pictures of this place (including photos by Ansel Adams & John Gavrilis), but I had been unable to spot exactly where on the Colorado River it was while searching Google a few years back. We were both pretty thrilled to learn about the trailhead from the postcard. It’s tragic that so many people drive right by and have no idea what they are missing. It’s definitely another must-see if in that area.

We had in our possession two permits to “The Wave” for our last day of the trip via the BLM lottery process which occurred three months ago for the month of August. For those who haven’t heard of this place (which is also called “Coyote Buttes North”), it is a remarkable rock formation with gorgeous red, yellow & orange tones and impressive waves & curves that only 20 people are allowed to visit daily. It’s a 5.5-mile hot but easy hike across sand & slickrock to this very special place.

Next Time in the Southwest!
~ Day hike or backpack Buckskin Gulch
~ Rent a houseboat and/or kayak on Lake Powell
~ visit Rainbow Bridge National Monument
~ Peek-a-boo & Spooky slot canyons
~ the “Subway” in Zion
~ visit the recently discovered dinosaur tracks outside Kanab, AZ on BLM land (prints from 4 species discovered just last year)
~ Antelope Canyon, even though you must hire a guide and it’s supposedly expensive
~ Muley Point Overlook
~ Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands
~ Fisher Tower outside Moab
~ Hickman Bridge in Capital Reef
~ fishing in central Utah
~ Mt. Sneffels in southwestern Colorado or at least hike to the Blue Lakes below it.
~ find a cheap cabin in Durango and move there!

Complete Pictures:
Part 1 ~ pics
Part 2 ~ pics
Part 3 ~ pics

 

[Little Rickie]

"Steel Reserve"

 

[1ADAM12]

Very nice! Are you sure those are pictures? They look more like paintings

 

[mtnmama]

Roadtripper glad to see the cute girl (Jen) is still with you!
I'm so jealous wish I could have been there.
What beautiful pics I just love the Wave.
I've always wanted to camp on the reservation and swim in
Havasu Falls.
Next time I'm out there.
Great report!!!!

 

[cooperhill]

Great Trip Report and great pics - it brings back lots of good memories - I was out there in 2004 and have wanted to go back ever since. We stopped by the Four Corners Monument - felt like I got fleeced. We also stopped at Mesa Verde NP which we loved - but it was in the off season so it wasn't too crowed. Did you run into any fires? We got to watch some prescribed burns across from the Grand Canyon-North Rim. I also remember thousands of deer on the long road into the park.

 

[prino]

Lost for words at the quality of those Pics.

Great Report!

 

[HuiYeng]

Wow....That's wicked gorgeous. Your pictures have just convinced me of my next vacation destination! Great report and pictures!!! Beautiful!

 

[roadtripper]

I've always wanted to camp on the reservation and swim in Havasu Falls.

It's my favorite swimming hole in the whole country and something everybody should see (in fact, just about everybody can since you can take a helicopter or mule down to the campground/falls).

Did you run into any fires?

There were dozens of prescribed fires throughout Bryce Canyon while we were there. They had to put up signs to tell people not to call 911 when they see them.

Lost for words at the quality of those Pics.

It's the new camera that's responsible - Canon Rebel Xsi. So far I'm very impressed with it....

 

[DougPaul]

Spectacular area.
Been there several times and I wanna go back...

BTW, if you liked the Horseshoe, check out Goosenecks State Park, just below Muley Point...

Doug

 

[Nadine]

Wow, what a trip! Worth every vacation day you had

 

[SherpaKroto]

One word: Damn!
The first good excuse for missing BL'08 that I've heard!

 

[pudgy_groundhog]

Terrific pics! Looks like you had a blast. How crowded was Havasu? I would like to visit it a different time of year because I was really disappointed when we went (late May).

We saw Horseshoe Bend as well, but didn't get a decent picture. I think Steve came across it when researching online for our trip a few years ago. It's a gem of a spot -- little effort for big reward.

We still have to visit The Wave. We were unlucky with permits/timing last time we were there.

*sigh* I love the southwest. Can't wait to go back! Looking through your pictures was fun.

 

[timmus]

I spent my vacation in Oregon, and it was great, but wooooah mama, Utah's NEXT !!!

Amazing pics, good job.

 

[roadtripper]

How crowded was Havasu? I would like to visit it a different time of year because I was really disappointed when we went (late May).

The good news is that Havasu has been cleaned up a bit. They removed the trash cans in the campground so now it's much more clear that everyone needs to pack their own trash out. I'd say the trash in the campground was almost nonexistent - as compared to it being quite horrendous when we went in 2006.

There is still a decent amount of trash on the trail down (esp near the parking area), so that's still a bit of a problem. They do reimburse you $5 for carrying up a bag of trash now, so that may explain why it seemed cleaner than in 2006.

The bathrooms were MUCH nicer this time but that may just be due to the timing of when they helicopter them in/out. The natives were also much more friendly this time around throughout the trail down, the village and at the falls.

The current rule is that 250 people are allowed to camp down there per night, which may be higher than when you went a few years ago (but better than the 350 they were allowing last year). FYI - it's now $74 for 2 nights of camping and the permits. Most people stop swimming at around 4pm which makes for very good privacy (esp at Mooney) after that. The best pictures that people seemed to take was around 6-7pm.

We went down wed-fri and wed night definitely seems like the quietest night of the week (campground was only like 60% full as compared to thursday night which was 100%). You still have to leave the trailhead at 5am in the summer to get prime choice of your campground site when you get down there since everybody leaves early (we left at 7am and were one of the last groups of the day)

 

[pudgy_groundhog]

Glad to hear it's been cleaned up some. The trash and total disregard for the land was so disheartening when we visited in 2006.

Like you, we were able to avoid the hordes of people some by hanging around Havasu Falls in the late afternoon/early evening as most people left by then. Our best pictures were that time of day too.

We also got up early one morning to hike to Mooney and Beaver Falls and didn't see anybody until later in the morning. Mobilizing early always helps.

We thought if we go back we'd stay at the lodge to avoid the "campground" (which really just looked like a third world refugee camp filled entirely with teenage boys when we were there). I know visiting in an off time would have less people, but then it would be a little too cold to swim (which is one of the best parts about visiting there).

 

[king tut]

Wow! Those photos are spectacular.