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- Aug 9, 2007
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Zion - the land of shuttle busses, tourists and for many fellow hikers and canyoneers - the infamous Watchman Campground. But not this trip! We started south a little earlier for this trip in hopes of finding some primitive camping outside the park in an area I wasn't very familiar with. We made it to camp with about 45 minutes to spare and settled in for the night.
The foreground wasn't much but the sunset was nice.
As often happens on the first night of a trip with good friends, we were up far too late proving that people in their thirties can still shotgun a beer amongst other shenanigans. Towards the end of out late night, I decided to get out my new camera and see how the sky looked. No foreground really, but I'm loving the performance. Should be a great rig for future trips.
The campfire, incoming clouds and a little slice of milky way.
The next morning was a little painful and came way too early, but soon enough we were off to our first canyon of the weekend - Keyhole Canyon. The skies were looking a bit ominous on the drive in, but we knew it was only a 20% chance of storms so we packed up and did the canyon. We took our time in Keyhole, splashing through pools and having a blast with all the little down climbs and rappels. Most of the group is still pretty new to canyoneering so this was the first extended deep, wet slot for some of them.
After we finished Keyhole, we went back to the car to get ready for Pine Creek. Within minutes the wind was howling and the rain was bordering on sleet. Some of the group started getting cold and fast. We ate some food and tried to warm up but the decision was obvious - there's no way we can descend Pine Creek right now if half the group is already borderline hypothermic. My previous trip was on a warm, sunny September day and we still had some folks running for sunshine after the cathedral rap. Starting out that cold with that kind of weather just wasn't an option.
We decided to put on some dry clothes and head into Springdale and formulate a new plan. We went to the VC and checked the permit situation. Everyone still really wanted to do Pine Creek so we set our sights on Sunday. Permits were available but we'd need to be back at 7am on Saturday morning to get one. Ugh... That put a little damper on our plan to overnight Misery Canyon Friday into Sunday but worse was that we'd have to stick somewhat close to Springdale that night in order to get our permit the next day. And we still had to figure out what to do for the rest of the day - off to the Flying Monkey for a planning session over beer and snacks.
After filling our bellies, I had the idea to head up to the Kolob Terrace and find the Cave Valley pictographs and then camp in a nice spot I know of up there. I didn't know where the rock art was up there but blueeyes had told me roughly where to go as we drove past there once.
It wasn't too hard to pickup on the social trails in the area which eventually led us to a more substantial trail that passes through a couple of gates before starting up into the cave.
Pretty unique and very cool pictographs in this cave. I don't remember details but I read in some other's posts that this was a birthing cave. There is a big rock in the center that may have been the birthing rock.
And perhaps these are the birthing pictographs?
Smokey, Ndheiner and colefeet pondering over a Sierra Nevada.
As we hiked back to the car, the clouds were breaking up and the sun came out. It was now starting to look like a fabulous day! Too bad we were now out of time to do Pine Creek!
Classic Zion red asphalt on the Kolob Terrace Road
The campsite I had in mind up on the Kolob Terrace road was packed to the brim with a church campout so we were off to find something new. We checked a few possibilities before eventually moving on to an area I'd camped in many years ago. It was beautiful but the no-see-ums were fierce! There was a little relief out on the slickrock though.
The view towards Zion from this campsite is outstanding, especially with clouds like that and late evening light.
The next morning we were up before light and packing up. We raced into Springdale in time to find a decent line waiting to get permits. Crap! We were about 6th or 7th in line, but luckily they still had enough Pine Creek permits for us. We snagged them up and headed out towards Checkerboard Mesa to start the hike into Misery Canyon, aka Fat Man's Misery.
We were starting a bit later than is ideal because of the need to get permits, but with the long days, it works okay. We were on the trail at 8am and crossing the pass about 45 minutes later.
After a few more miles we were down into Misery Canyon and descending the many consecutive narrow sections. There was far less water in the canyon than my last visit. Pretty much dry in spots that were very deep before. It made some spots a bit trickier but not bad. I definitely enjoyed it more with more water though.
Time to get the boots wet!
The light in the arch room was awesome again.
Jen getting ready to swing on in.
Looking up from the arch room
The sun was hitting right into the pool this time making for an incredible light show.
I didn't take a lot of pictures through the next sections but got the camera back out again after the last rap.
Such great light through this section.
Starting into the rather grim looking depths of the last narrows and the famous grotto and double arch.
The water was so much lower here this time around.
Jen admiring her surroundings
Nate in the final stretch of narrows below the grotto.
The pools in the lower section were all filled in with sand this time. This drop was a bit more difficult last time because the water below was several feet deep.
Jen walking through Parunuweap. We stopped and filled up our water reserves at the nice spring between Misery and the exit point.
It was nice and overcast for much of the hike out, particularly the really steep stuff. Someone has gone through and killed most of the cairns on the route out which has created quite a problem of trails going various places they shouldn't. If I hadn't done the hike before, we would have most certainly ended up in the wrong place. Remember - keep going high high high and just because there are footprints going that doesn't mean it's right. The goal is to crest out on top of the ridge and regain the trail near where you crossed the ridge to access the upper canyon.
With about 6 miles to go, I bonked. I'd been feeling pretty good all day except for some weird nerve pain in my knee, but after out first break on the exit route, I just crashed. My knee was acting up big time and I was just toast. It became quite the epic to just get out that day. I was very grateful to have brought trekking poles!
I was a bit sad not to be able to do Fat Man's as an overnight as originally planned, but it was still a fantastic day with good friends. Sadly, I over did it and was unable to do Pine Creek the next day. Or for that matter, even walk down stairs for the following week and a half. It's been 2 weeks now and I think I'm ready to get out on a mellow hike next weekend but it sure is frustrating how poorly my knee is healing up. Until next time...
Featured image for home page:
The foreground wasn't much but the sunset was nice.
As often happens on the first night of a trip with good friends, we were up far too late proving that people in their thirties can still shotgun a beer amongst other shenanigans. Towards the end of out late night, I decided to get out my new camera and see how the sky looked. No foreground really, but I'm loving the performance. Should be a great rig for future trips.
The campfire, incoming clouds and a little slice of milky way.
The next morning was a little painful and came way too early, but soon enough we were off to our first canyon of the weekend - Keyhole Canyon. The skies were looking a bit ominous on the drive in, but we knew it was only a 20% chance of storms so we packed up and did the canyon. We took our time in Keyhole, splashing through pools and having a blast with all the little down climbs and rappels. Most of the group is still pretty new to canyoneering so this was the first extended deep, wet slot for some of them.
After we finished Keyhole, we went back to the car to get ready for Pine Creek. Within minutes the wind was howling and the rain was bordering on sleet. Some of the group started getting cold and fast. We ate some food and tried to warm up but the decision was obvious - there's no way we can descend Pine Creek right now if half the group is already borderline hypothermic. My previous trip was on a warm, sunny September day and we still had some folks running for sunshine after the cathedral rap. Starting out that cold with that kind of weather just wasn't an option.
We decided to put on some dry clothes and head into Springdale and formulate a new plan. We went to the VC and checked the permit situation. Everyone still really wanted to do Pine Creek so we set our sights on Sunday. Permits were available but we'd need to be back at 7am on Saturday morning to get one. Ugh... That put a little damper on our plan to overnight Misery Canyon Friday into Sunday but worse was that we'd have to stick somewhat close to Springdale that night in order to get our permit the next day. And we still had to figure out what to do for the rest of the day - off to the Flying Monkey for a planning session over beer and snacks.
After filling our bellies, I had the idea to head up to the Kolob Terrace and find the Cave Valley pictographs and then camp in a nice spot I know of up there. I didn't know where the rock art was up there but blueeyes had told me roughly where to go as we drove past there once.
It wasn't too hard to pickup on the social trails in the area which eventually led us to a more substantial trail that passes through a couple of gates before starting up into the cave.
Pretty unique and very cool pictographs in this cave. I don't remember details but I read in some other's posts that this was a birthing cave. There is a big rock in the center that may have been the birthing rock.
And perhaps these are the birthing pictographs?
Smokey, Ndheiner and colefeet pondering over a Sierra Nevada.
As we hiked back to the car, the clouds were breaking up and the sun came out. It was now starting to look like a fabulous day! Too bad we were now out of time to do Pine Creek!
Classic Zion red asphalt on the Kolob Terrace Road
The campsite I had in mind up on the Kolob Terrace road was packed to the brim with a church campout so we were off to find something new. We checked a few possibilities before eventually moving on to an area I'd camped in many years ago. It was beautiful but the no-see-ums were fierce! There was a little relief out on the slickrock though.
The view towards Zion from this campsite is outstanding, especially with clouds like that and late evening light.
The next morning we were up before light and packing up. We raced into Springdale in time to find a decent line waiting to get permits. Crap! We were about 6th or 7th in line, but luckily they still had enough Pine Creek permits for us. We snagged them up and headed out towards Checkerboard Mesa to start the hike into Misery Canyon, aka Fat Man's Misery.
We were starting a bit later than is ideal because of the need to get permits, but with the long days, it works okay. We were on the trail at 8am and crossing the pass about 45 minutes later.
After a few more miles we were down into Misery Canyon and descending the many consecutive narrow sections. There was far less water in the canyon than my last visit. Pretty much dry in spots that were very deep before. It made some spots a bit trickier but not bad. I definitely enjoyed it more with more water though.
Time to get the boots wet!
The light in the arch room was awesome again.
Jen getting ready to swing on in.
Looking up from the arch room
The sun was hitting right into the pool this time making for an incredible light show.
I didn't take a lot of pictures through the next sections but got the camera back out again after the last rap.
Such great light through this section.
Starting into the rather grim looking depths of the last narrows and the famous grotto and double arch.
The water was so much lower here this time around.
Jen admiring her surroundings
Nate in the final stretch of narrows below the grotto.
The pools in the lower section were all filled in with sand this time. This drop was a bit more difficult last time because the water below was several feet deep.
Jen walking through Parunuweap. We stopped and filled up our water reserves at the nice spring between Misery and the exit point.
It was nice and overcast for much of the hike out, particularly the really steep stuff. Someone has gone through and killed most of the cairns on the route out which has created quite a problem of trails going various places they shouldn't. If I hadn't done the hike before, we would have most certainly ended up in the wrong place. Remember - keep going high high high and just because there are footprints going that doesn't mean it's right. The goal is to crest out on top of the ridge and regain the trail near where you crossed the ridge to access the upper canyon.
With about 6 miles to go, I bonked. I'd been feeling pretty good all day except for some weird nerve pain in my knee, but after out first break on the exit route, I just crashed. My knee was acting up big time and I was just toast. It became quite the epic to just get out that day. I was very grateful to have brought trekking poles!
I was a bit sad not to be able to do Fat Man's as an overnight as originally planned, but it was still a fantastic day with good friends. Sadly, I over did it and was unable to do Pine Creek the next day. Or for that matter, even walk down stairs for the following week and a half. It's been 2 weeks now and I think I'm ready to get out on a mellow hike next weekend but it sure is frustrating how poorly my knee is healing up. Until next time...
Featured image for home page:
so you can get up in the Uintas and point me in the right direction in August.
