Ross
Member
- Joined
- May 18, 2012
- Messages
- 295
Apologies if anyone has seen this trip report on another site, but I've never put one on here and thought it's about time. A few new photos are on this one though, but I couldn't attach the panoramics unfortunately because when I tried uploading here it said they used too much memory. I'll also add a few taken with another camera and stored on another laptop soon, so the words might not quite match the pics.
This isn’t so much a hike trip report as a road trip report of a series of hikes – none longer than about 9 hours - during a 3-week vacation that took us to some amazing places. I thought I’d run through the trip and some of my favourite photos, and include a few slightly lesser visited places.
The first stop was Valley of Fire State Park where temperatures at sunset remained 108F, but the next morning brought more bearable temperatures for a few hours of exploring around the slickrock..
By contrast the morning shade in Kanaraville canyon the next day was actually unexpectedly cold
View attachment 15825
Then after doing the Narrows top down, I did some of it bottom up with my family.
The next day we aimed for Fat Man's Misery, but trying to take a sandy road to cut down the time backfired as we reached a wash bank we couldn't get up and so it would have been a long very hot hike to start the slot, so instead it was Poverty and an exit out of the East Fork of the Virgin through the short but beautiful French Canyon.
View attachment 15826
That night menacing storm clouds were the backdrop to zion's sunset.
And a similar weather situation at Lake Powell
Heading east a morning thunderstorm restricted our plans to a short hike up to the Nautilus, where my 6-year-old thought she was in rock playground heaven – scrambling up and down the corkscrew of rock probably around 50 times!
She then had a thoroughly good time with her new friend from Kanab hiking Round Valley draw – leading the pace in the canyon and having fun in the ankle deep mud at some of the rockjams, but slowing to more of a bored dawdle along the rim which didn’t offer the same fun and excitement. Thankfully there was some cloud cover.
View attachment 15827
She also enjoyed posing in Waterholes.
A long drive then took us to Arch Canyon where an unpaved road led us to a gorgeous sunset rim viewpoint.
And the next day the Black Hole where despite it being August the water was only just about bearable in a wetsuit.
That was our turn around point to head back west to tackle the Spencer trail which offered another amazing Colorado horseshoe similar to the more famous one in Page. It was a steep slog up and I was thankful both for my dawn start and the fact that the whole way up was in the shadow side of the cliff, but on my return to Lees Ferry I was so hot that I couldn’t resist a dip in the ice cold Colorado waters released from the depths of Lake Powell. Unsurprisingly for August, no-one else was mad enough to do the trail.
By the time I was down a welcome dip in the Colorado which was freezing, but refreshing. (I picked a spot that a park ranger said was safe, but beware of swimming in it as most of it is not)
En route to Prescott we stopped at some rim overlooks near Tuba City.
before a drive down to the Granite Dells where we caught a good dusk
Somewhere in between those stops above we'd camped overlooking Lake Powell, where my arachnaphobe girlfriend was put off camping after spotting a tarantula wandering around the tent.
At Granite Dells a distant rainstorm threatened to get us, but it never did.
Featured image for home page:
This isn’t so much a hike trip report as a road trip report of a series of hikes – none longer than about 9 hours - during a 3-week vacation that took us to some amazing places. I thought I’d run through the trip and some of my favourite photos, and include a few slightly lesser visited places.
The first stop was Valley of Fire State Park where temperatures at sunset remained 108F, but the next morning brought more bearable temperatures for a few hours of exploring around the slickrock..
By contrast the morning shade in Kanaraville canyon the next day was actually unexpectedly cold
View attachment 15825
Then after doing the Narrows top down, I did some of it bottom up with my family.
The next day we aimed for Fat Man's Misery, but trying to take a sandy road to cut down the time backfired as we reached a wash bank we couldn't get up and so it would have been a long very hot hike to start the slot, so instead it was Poverty and an exit out of the East Fork of the Virgin through the short but beautiful French Canyon.
View attachment 15826
That night menacing storm clouds were the backdrop to zion's sunset.
And a similar weather situation at Lake Powell
Heading east a morning thunderstorm restricted our plans to a short hike up to the Nautilus, where my 6-year-old thought she was in rock playground heaven – scrambling up and down the corkscrew of rock probably around 50 times!
She then had a thoroughly good time with her new friend from Kanab hiking Round Valley draw – leading the pace in the canyon and having fun in the ankle deep mud at some of the rockjams, but slowing to more of a bored dawdle along the rim which didn’t offer the same fun and excitement. Thankfully there was some cloud cover.
View attachment 15827
She also enjoyed posing in Waterholes.
A long drive then took us to Arch Canyon where an unpaved road led us to a gorgeous sunset rim viewpoint.
And the next day the Black Hole where despite it being August the water was only just about bearable in a wetsuit.
That was our turn around point to head back west to tackle the Spencer trail which offered another amazing Colorado horseshoe similar to the more famous one in Page. It was a steep slog up and I was thankful both for my dawn start and the fact that the whole way up was in the shadow side of the cliff, but on my return to Lees Ferry I was so hot that I couldn’t resist a dip in the ice cold Colorado waters released from the depths of Lake Powell. Unsurprisingly for August, no-one else was mad enough to do the trail.
By the time I was down a welcome dip in the Colorado which was freezing, but refreshing. (I picked a spot that a park ranger said was safe, but beware of swimming in it as most of it is not)
En route to Prescott we stopped at some rim overlooks near Tuba City.
before a drive down to the Granite Dells where we caught a good dusk
Somewhere in between those stops above we'd camped overlooking Lake Powell, where my arachnaphobe girlfriend was put off camping after spotting a tarantula wandering around the tent.
At Granite Dells a distant rainstorm threatened to get us, but it never did.
Featured image for home page:
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