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This is my trip report from the BackcountryPost get together down in Zion this past weekend. If you were one of the folks who came on this one, you're welcome to create your own trip report or add your photos to this one in a reply. Either way works!
March 2012
This trip started bright and early in Salt Lake on Saturday morning. I often like to get down the night before and car camp but it didn't work out that way this time. Instead neiloro, myself and pixie1339 all met up and were on our way out of Salt Lake at 6am.
We made good time and with a couple of stops we were at the Kolob Visitor Center at quarter to 10 picking up our permit. From there it was off to La Verkin to meet up with Cody and Miss Buffalo.
Unfortunately, Yvonne had a rough time with her flight arrangements and we ended up hanging out at the Maverik for a while. Not only had her flight been cancelled but then the flight she did get ended up losing one of her bags! And then to top that off, there was a wreck on the freeway leaving Las Vegas so she was a couple hours late getting to our meet up spot.
Lucky for us the weather was absolutely amazing for chatting in the parking lot of the Maverick gas station in La Verkin!
A little after noon, Yvonne arrived and we were on our way towards Zion. We dropped a truck at the Coal Pits Wash Trailhead and then went on to find Huber Wash. The plan was to hike up Huber Wash, connect with the Chinle Trail, then traverse over to campsite #5 to spend the night before descending Coal Pits Wash the following day.
Huber Wash starts was not all that scenic but it was still awesome to finally be hiking again! Here's a few shots of lower Huber Wash.
The view from the trailhead.
Some cool layers on a crumbly wall along the wash bottom.
After a couple of miles we reached the dry fall which prevents hiking further up the wash to the Chinle Trail. We had already seen a few pieces of petrified wood along the way but here we found a large collection.
We stopped and had a break at the dry fall and noticed there were large chunks of petrified logs sticking out through the sandstone above us.
After exploring around we were on our way to the bypass that would get us up onto the rim and on to the Chinle Trail. The route was not all that clear. We scrambled up a ways and still couldn't see a clear route onto the rim. Cody went down to see if there was a ledge around the drywall and I bushwhacked up and found the exit tucked away behind a fin of rock.
The exit was easy, just a couple of 4th class moves and were were up. It was a bit more challenging with big packs though and particularly tricky with my ankle. It felt great hiking but I was totally unable to plant my foot for scrambling.
Looking down on the exit crack.
The next section of the hike was through the Petrified Forest section of The Chinle Trail. It took a few minutes of walking through the forest before we connected with The Chinle Trail. Along the way we found amazing pieces of petrified wood, some full of beautiful colorful crystals. I didn't get any pictures of them but I held up one of the big pieces for others to shoot so hopefully someone will post one.
We had some nice views of the big peaks around Zion.
The Chinle Trail. There wasn't as much petrified wood as I would have imagined along the actual trail. We did see several half buried petrified logs though, one was at least 70 feet long before it went underground. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures.
Looking towards The Eagle Crags. Cody had spent the previous night up there.
We were running behind and hoped Scoggins Wash would have water so we could steal a closer campsite and skip hiking all the way to site 5 that night. Unfortuantely, Scoggins was dry where the Chinle crosses. We realized not far down the trail that there was water in Scoggins just below but we decided to just push on for site 5, even if we didn't get there by dark.
neiloro and pixie1339 hiking along the Chinle Trail
We caught a tiny bit of alpenglow as the trail descended into Coal Pits Wash.
We made it to Coal Pits Wash and campsite 5 just before dark! And look at all that water! Woohoo!
Our mileage for the day was about a half mile less than my GPS read because I turned it on before we realized we could drive up a dirt road to get closer to Huber Wash. We probably did more like 7.75 miles that day.
It got cold fast after the sun went down. It felt like the high had gone a bit over the forecasted 70 degrees during the day so it was surprising how cold it got. We all cooked up dinner and sat out on my tarp chatting and watching the stars for a few hours. I went down by the river and took some star photos with my new Canon 5d Mark II. I was really excited to get it out and see how well it does with night shots. Unfortunately, the only clouds of the day came after dark so I couldn't do a star trail but I did get an excellent time lapse sequence. I'm compiling sequences for another big compilation so I won't be posting the unusually cool results just yet but I will share this frame from the sequence.
EDIT:
Here's a star trail image from the sequence.
It got cold cold cold that night. Cody, neiloro and I all slept sans-tent and all woke up covered in frost. I didn't sleep well at all and was actually pretty cold in my 20 degree bag. My nalgene bottle had about 3/8" ice all the way around the inside. So much for the 42 degree forecasted low temp!
Frost on the backpacks
neiloro's frost print
Eventually we made our way down Coal Pits Wash which turned out to be the most beautiful part of the hike. Everything was mostly dead still, and to make things look even more desolate, the entire area had been burnt out from a forest fire a few years back.
We hit this as the day was warming up and I HAD to jump in. It was sooooooo cold! I'm sure someone will be posting photos of me desperately trying to get back out of it!
After passing site 6 and the confluence with Scoggins Wash, the canyon opens up very wide. This is also when some nice clouds made their appearance.
The last mile and a half of the trail stayed up on the bench above the wash. It was pretty uninteresting but at least we had those nice clouds for a while.
While this was definitely the least scenic place I've ever been in Zion, it was still very cool to see. I've never seen petrified wood like I did out there and it was awesome to meet up with some BackcountryPost folk and get out and play so early in the season.
March 2012
This trip started bright and early in Salt Lake on Saturday morning. I often like to get down the night before and car camp but it didn't work out that way this time. Instead neiloro, myself and pixie1339 all met up and were on our way out of Salt Lake at 6am.
We made good time and with a couple of stops we were at the Kolob Visitor Center at quarter to 10 picking up our permit. From there it was off to La Verkin to meet up with Cody and Miss Buffalo.
Unfortunately, Yvonne had a rough time with her flight arrangements and we ended up hanging out at the Maverik for a while. Not only had her flight been cancelled but then the flight she did get ended up losing one of her bags! And then to top that off, there was a wreck on the freeway leaving Las Vegas so she was a couple hours late getting to our meet up spot.
Lucky for us the weather was absolutely amazing for chatting in the parking lot of the Maverick gas station in La Verkin!
A little after noon, Yvonne arrived and we were on our way towards Zion. We dropped a truck at the Coal Pits Wash Trailhead and then went on to find Huber Wash. The plan was to hike up Huber Wash, connect with the Chinle Trail, then traverse over to campsite #5 to spend the night before descending Coal Pits Wash the following day.
Huber Wash starts was not all that scenic but it was still awesome to finally be hiking again! Here's a few shots of lower Huber Wash.
The view from the trailhead.
Some cool layers on a crumbly wall along the wash bottom.
After a couple of miles we reached the dry fall which prevents hiking further up the wash to the Chinle Trail. We had already seen a few pieces of petrified wood along the way but here we found a large collection.
We stopped and had a break at the dry fall and noticed there were large chunks of petrified logs sticking out through the sandstone above us.
After exploring around we were on our way to the bypass that would get us up onto the rim and on to the Chinle Trail. The route was not all that clear. We scrambled up a ways and still couldn't see a clear route onto the rim. Cody went down to see if there was a ledge around the drywall and I bushwhacked up and found the exit tucked away behind a fin of rock.
The exit was easy, just a couple of 4th class moves and were were up. It was a bit more challenging with big packs though and particularly tricky with my ankle. It felt great hiking but I was totally unable to plant my foot for scrambling.
Looking down on the exit crack.
The next section of the hike was through the Petrified Forest section of The Chinle Trail. It took a few minutes of walking through the forest before we connected with The Chinle Trail. Along the way we found amazing pieces of petrified wood, some full of beautiful colorful crystals. I didn't get any pictures of them but I held up one of the big pieces for others to shoot so hopefully someone will post one.
We had some nice views of the big peaks around Zion.
The Chinle Trail. There wasn't as much petrified wood as I would have imagined along the actual trail. We did see several half buried petrified logs though, one was at least 70 feet long before it went underground. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures.
Looking towards The Eagle Crags. Cody had spent the previous night up there.
We were running behind and hoped Scoggins Wash would have water so we could steal a closer campsite and skip hiking all the way to site 5 that night. Unfortuantely, Scoggins was dry where the Chinle crosses. We realized not far down the trail that there was water in Scoggins just below but we decided to just push on for site 5, even if we didn't get there by dark.
neiloro and pixie1339 hiking along the Chinle Trail
We caught a tiny bit of alpenglow as the trail descended into Coal Pits Wash.
We made it to Coal Pits Wash and campsite 5 just before dark! And look at all that water! Woohoo!
Our mileage for the day was about a half mile less than my GPS read because I turned it on before we realized we could drive up a dirt road to get closer to Huber Wash. We probably did more like 7.75 miles that day.
It got cold fast after the sun went down. It felt like the high had gone a bit over the forecasted 70 degrees during the day so it was surprising how cold it got. We all cooked up dinner and sat out on my tarp chatting and watching the stars for a few hours. I went down by the river and took some star photos with my new Canon 5d Mark II. I was really excited to get it out and see how well it does with night shots. Unfortunately, the only clouds of the day came after dark so I couldn't do a star trail but I did get an excellent time lapse sequence. I'm compiling sequences for another big compilation so I won't be posting the unusually cool results just yet but I will share this frame from the sequence.
EDIT:
Here's a star trail image from the sequence.
It got cold cold cold that night. Cody, neiloro and I all slept sans-tent and all woke up covered in frost. I didn't sleep well at all and was actually pretty cold in my 20 degree bag. My nalgene bottle had about 3/8" ice all the way around the inside. So much for the 42 degree forecasted low temp!
Frost on the backpacks
neiloro's frost print
Eventually we made our way down Coal Pits Wash which turned out to be the most beautiful part of the hike. Everything was mostly dead still, and to make things look even more desolate, the entire area had been burnt out from a forest fire a few years back.
We hit this as the day was warming up and I HAD to jump in. It was sooooooo cold! I'm sure someone will be posting photos of me desperately trying to get back out of it!
After passing site 6 and the confluence with Scoggins Wash, the canyon opens up very wide. This is also when some nice clouds made their appearance.
The last mile and a half of the trail stayed up on the bench above the wash. It was pretty uninteresting but at least we had those nice clouds for a while.
While this was definitely the least scenic place I've ever been in Zion, it was still very cool to see. I've never seen petrified wood like I did out there and it was awesome to meet up with some BackcountryPost folk and get out and play so early in the season.
