WAVE OR WASH? 50% chance of rain and snow

Alison

Alison

Hooligan in search of Hoodoos
Joined
Jan 18, 2012
Messages
110
So I made it to St. George and Chere and I will be MTBing today which is awesome because it's blue skies and mild temps. The issue is that the national weather service is calling for 50% chance of rain and snow tomorrow and we have permits to hike the wave. :( I've been on house rock road in a drizzle and it's nasty. Would prefer to not repeat that! I guess we will just take our chances and head out that way at early-ass a.m. knowing we can always turn around if it's going to unleash on us. What are your thoughts? Also, has anyone entered House Rock Road from the South?
 
Such a tough call. Is it supposed to be warmer than when Chere went last time? If not, I think it would probably be alright. (banking on frozen roads)

Don't bother entering from the south. It's WAY longer that way and while much of the road is more open and smooth, you still will have about as much crud and other badness coming in that way but it will be a lot longer.
 
I agree with Nick. Parts of the road south are nice but other parts are in my opinion worse. The only difference is there are fewer washes south so if it was raining it may be impossible to cross say Buckskin going north.
 
Seldom Seen Anderson said:
I agree with Nick. Parts of the road south are nice but other parts are in my opinion worse. The only difference is there are fewer washes south so if it was raining it may be impossible to cross say Buckskin going north.
Click to expand...

Very true.

But I just remembered, there is one really big hill just north of the Lone Tree turnoff that could be extremely difficult or impossible if it was wet and muddy. It's just before the road hits the long straight stuff. (south of the Wire Pass trailhead)
 
Having driven out when the roads are a muddy mess, I think the south is easier than the north. If it's raining the buckskin will be flowing and you'll have to cross it if you come from the North. I have crossed the wash when it's about 1 foot deep in a 4x4 truck and done fine, but when we stopped to check it our before crossing it, we noticed it had been much higher... Probably around 2 to 3 feet deep. The north is windier too and it's much easier to keep your speed up driving a straight line, which you may need to do to keep from getting stuck in muck and the south is mostly straight and wide open.

So in my opinion, if the weather is good use the North entrance, if it turns bad while you're there I'd leave through the south. I should mention when we drove out in the muddy mess we were south of the lone tree so we didn't have to deal with that hill.
 
Last feb there was a ton of mud on the south end while the north was dry.

Look at it this way.. you have a 50% chance of the trip sucking if you get wetand cold. But if you make it to the trail head and have gear to keep dry you will have a 100% chance of having a kickass day at the wave.
 
Huge change of plans! We really don't feel like being challenged with the 60% chance of rain. It's mainly the road and getting stuck. Monday is wayyy toooo busy!!
 
We both have to work. I still need to plan out what I am doing Monday and Alison needs to be on the road by 2. Just not worth the stress.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk
 
ah, bummer. Maybe when I get out there again we can all take a field trip to the wave :) Hope you still had an enjoyable weekend (sounds like it!)
 
And for the record, it was a good call. Utah was sloppy wet today. Will be Happy to see how intrepedix does out there today.
 
The road was dry when we got there and when we left.

There were a few sprinkles and flurries throughout the day but not enough to saturate the ground.
 
The radar on NOAA made it look like the storm was sitting right on top of the Wave! We checked at 4:30 this morning and made our final decision to not go.
 
But we looked at the radar!! Seriously... now I wish I would posted a screen shot of that. o_O
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top