dennargle
Member
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2012
- Messages
- 39
my friend Stephen and I left Friday morning around 8 am. We arrived at the horseshoe canyon trail head around 2 pm. We immediately hit the trail. On the way down we saw one really nicely preserved dinosaur track. To my knowledge there are 4 pictograph panels in the canyon we stopped at each and discussed what the meaning of the artwork could be. Its amazing to me how many perspectives you can interpret rock art through. It is truly some brain candy You can really let your mind run wild with coming up with ideas of what is being depicted. After enjoying the artwork we headed back to the car drove over by bluejohn canyon and camped for the night.
Dinosaur track
High gallery
The flying dude.
Hunting scene
The Hunter
horseshoe canyon.
The Great Gallery
The Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost numero 2
day 2. We got up early and drove over some really rough roads to get to the trail head for some caves i had read about. One of these caves was excavated in the 1980s by a guy from the university of Utah. The oldest layer of the cave dates back to right around 9000 years ago in this layer mammoth, giant sloth, bison and several other types of dung were discovered. The next layer dates back to around 8500 years ago. In this layer many artifacts were discovered that are believed to have been left by the barrier canyon civilization. ( The dudes that painted the pictographs in horseshoe canyon) There is another layer that is about 3500 years old that also contained numerous artifacts. Inside of one of the caves there are some cowboys glyphs that date back to the early 1900s. I find it fascinating that this cave has been called home by mammoths, sloths, bison, several native American cultures, and even modern day cowboys. if the walls of this cave could talk Im sure they would have some epic stories to tell. We explored the area around the caves all day. I discovered a beautiful dinosaur trackway that contains 20+ footprints from multiple species of dinosaur. On this night I knew a storm was blowing in and it was gonna get ugly.We experienced some massive wind gusts that i would estimate to be around 60 mph it was a terrifying night i didn't get much sleep.
The caves
The caves viewed from inside a mini arch.
dinosaur track
More tracks
The trackway
stephen climbing
stephen in the alcove
day 3. We awoke in the morning with about 2 inches of snow on the ground. we decided it would be a good idea to do a hike from camp so we wouldn't have to drive in the snow. We hiked over towards one of the forks of upper horseshoe canyon. for pretty much this entire day it went from snowing + high winds to sunny and calm over and over again. When it was snowing we would hide in the trees and then the sun would come out and we would continue hiking. We saw some really nice views of upper horseshoe canyon and the crazy weather made it that much more exciting.
day 4. We drove over into the glen canyon national recreation checked out the viewpoint into Millard canyon and then headed out towards outlaw spring. The hike was very scenic there are a lot of really tall sandstone domes in this area. When we arrived the springs were frozen and had icicles hanging off of them it was really cool to see. We explored around the area for most of the day. In the late afternoon I watched a storm start to head our way I pointed it out to Stephen and told him we should get back to the car before that thing hits us. On the way back Stephen was a walking a little ways behind me I took a turn back in the direction of the car I guess Stephen didn't notice. Soon after that the storm hit us and we got pounded with some high winds and really big hail stones. I made a dash for the car. I thought stephen was close behind me but i was mistaken. I got to the car and waited for about and hour stephen didnt show up. At this point I was becoming really concerned it was about to be dark this storm was still going like crazy and stephen wasn't prepared to spend a night out in the bush. I called my dad told him of the situation we agreed that if he wasn't back before it got dark then we would call in a rescue crew. In the meantime I honked the horn about once every 10 mins to try and signal him. I really wanted to go out and look for him but the visibility was terrible and I wasn't about to get lost and fuck myself over. Right before it got dark the storm stopped. I quickly dashed over to the area we had been. I got on the highest point and started calling out. stephen came running up to me very much relieved to see me. We avoided a near disaster. stephen and i agreed that he would follow me more closely from now on. I came to the conclusion that I was gonna keep a much closer eye on him to prevent this from happening again.
millard canyon
millard canyon/ Cleopatras chair
outlaw spring
day 5. We geared up and headed down to the northeast spur fork slot. We went down one of the upper forks it was spectacular lighting there was a lot of fun down climbing we soon came to a dry fall that we couldn't pass we hiked back up and looked for another route into the canyon. We came around corner and saw a giant owl sitting on a bush it flew off into the sky it was really neat to watch. We found another fork and descended into it. We soon hit a challenging obstacle it was an overhanging slide that dropped down about 13 feet into a deep sandstone pit. stephen climbed out of the canyon and went around it i decided to slide. I down climbed about 3 feet aimed my legs into the pit and let it rip. I landed perfectly into the center of the pit it was quite the rush. soon after we came to another impassible dry fall we made our way up and out of the canyon. We decided to take it easy and attempt the canyon again tomorrow. we climbed on top of a mesa and chilled up there until the sun set.
Orange art
The lasals
day 6. We headed straight for where we had spotted an entrance point the day before we climbed down and were finally in the main part of the canyon. The narrows in notheast supr fork are some of the best Ive ever been through the lighting is so surreal it makes the walls of canyon look spectacular. We explored every fork of the canyon we could make it up. In the middle of the canyon there is a slide that at first looks really dangerous but in reality its quite safe and fun to slide down. We made it down the lower end of the canyon stemmed over many pools to get to the corkscrew section. This part of the canyon is nuts! it is so twisty and curvy and the slot goes up and down. its a lot of fun to go through but we eventually hit a point where without ropes we could no further. We turned around and started the long walk back to camp.
day 7. We packed up camp and headed toward the tallest mesa we could see. The views from on top were absolutely amazing we could see for a good 50 miles in each direction. The abajos and lasals were covered in fresh dusting of snow from the storm several days before. We hiked around the top of the mesa all day enjoying the view from different locations. On the drive back to the highway we saw more bats then i have ever seen anywhere! It was insanity they were swooping all around are car almost running into us just about every time. I saw one that went under the front of my car and came out the back! never underestimate the power of echolocation. We made the decision to just drive straight home instead of camp somewhere along the way. We got back around 3 am much to my surprise the next morning i woke up and it was Friday we had completly lost track of time and stayed and extra day haha.
Featured image for slideshow:
Dinosaur track
High gallery
The flying dude.
Hunting scene
The Hunter
horseshoe canyon.
The Great Gallery
The Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost numero 2
day 2. We got up early and drove over some really rough roads to get to the trail head for some caves i had read about. One of these caves was excavated in the 1980s by a guy from the university of Utah. The oldest layer of the cave dates back to right around 9000 years ago in this layer mammoth, giant sloth, bison and several other types of dung were discovered. The next layer dates back to around 8500 years ago. In this layer many artifacts were discovered that are believed to have been left by the barrier canyon civilization. ( The dudes that painted the pictographs in horseshoe canyon) There is another layer that is about 3500 years old that also contained numerous artifacts. Inside of one of the caves there are some cowboys glyphs that date back to the early 1900s. I find it fascinating that this cave has been called home by mammoths, sloths, bison, several native American cultures, and even modern day cowboys. if the walls of this cave could talk Im sure they would have some epic stories to tell. We explored the area around the caves all day. I discovered a beautiful dinosaur trackway that contains 20+ footprints from multiple species of dinosaur. On this night I knew a storm was blowing in and it was gonna get ugly.We experienced some massive wind gusts that i would estimate to be around 60 mph it was a terrifying night i didn't get much sleep.
The caves
The caves viewed from inside a mini arch.
dinosaur track
More tracks
The trackway
stephen climbing
stephen in the alcove
day 3. We awoke in the morning with about 2 inches of snow on the ground. we decided it would be a good idea to do a hike from camp so we wouldn't have to drive in the snow. We hiked over towards one of the forks of upper horseshoe canyon. for pretty much this entire day it went from snowing + high winds to sunny and calm over and over again. When it was snowing we would hide in the trees and then the sun would come out and we would continue hiking. We saw some really nice views of upper horseshoe canyon and the crazy weather made it that much more exciting.
day 4. We drove over into the glen canyon national recreation checked out the viewpoint into Millard canyon and then headed out towards outlaw spring. The hike was very scenic there are a lot of really tall sandstone domes in this area. When we arrived the springs were frozen and had icicles hanging off of them it was really cool to see. We explored around the area for most of the day. In the late afternoon I watched a storm start to head our way I pointed it out to Stephen and told him we should get back to the car before that thing hits us. On the way back Stephen was a walking a little ways behind me I took a turn back in the direction of the car I guess Stephen didn't notice. Soon after that the storm hit us and we got pounded with some high winds and really big hail stones. I made a dash for the car. I thought stephen was close behind me but i was mistaken. I got to the car and waited for about and hour stephen didnt show up. At this point I was becoming really concerned it was about to be dark this storm was still going like crazy and stephen wasn't prepared to spend a night out in the bush. I called my dad told him of the situation we agreed that if he wasn't back before it got dark then we would call in a rescue crew. In the meantime I honked the horn about once every 10 mins to try and signal him. I really wanted to go out and look for him but the visibility was terrible and I wasn't about to get lost and fuck myself over. Right before it got dark the storm stopped. I quickly dashed over to the area we had been. I got on the highest point and started calling out. stephen came running up to me very much relieved to see me. We avoided a near disaster. stephen and i agreed that he would follow me more closely from now on. I came to the conclusion that I was gonna keep a much closer eye on him to prevent this from happening again.
millard canyon
millard canyon/ Cleopatras chair
outlaw spring
day 5. We geared up and headed down to the northeast spur fork slot. We went down one of the upper forks it was spectacular lighting there was a lot of fun down climbing we soon came to a dry fall that we couldn't pass we hiked back up and looked for another route into the canyon. We came around corner and saw a giant owl sitting on a bush it flew off into the sky it was really neat to watch. We found another fork and descended into it. We soon hit a challenging obstacle it was an overhanging slide that dropped down about 13 feet into a deep sandstone pit. stephen climbed out of the canyon and went around it i decided to slide. I down climbed about 3 feet aimed my legs into the pit and let it rip. I landed perfectly into the center of the pit it was quite the rush. soon after we came to another impassible dry fall we made our way up and out of the canyon. We decided to take it easy and attempt the canyon again tomorrow. we climbed on top of a mesa and chilled up there until the sun set.
Orange art
The lasals
day 6. We headed straight for where we had spotted an entrance point the day before we climbed down and were finally in the main part of the canyon. The narrows in notheast supr fork are some of the best Ive ever been through the lighting is so surreal it makes the walls of canyon look spectacular. We explored every fork of the canyon we could make it up. In the middle of the canyon there is a slide that at first looks really dangerous but in reality its quite safe and fun to slide down. We made it down the lower end of the canyon stemmed over many pools to get to the corkscrew section. This part of the canyon is nuts! it is so twisty and curvy and the slot goes up and down. its a lot of fun to go through but we eventually hit a point where without ropes we could no further. We turned around and started the long walk back to camp.
day 7. We packed up camp and headed toward the tallest mesa we could see. The views from on top were absolutely amazing we could see for a good 50 miles in each direction. The abajos and lasals were covered in fresh dusting of snow from the storm several days before. We hiked around the top of the mesa all day enjoying the view from different locations. On the drive back to the highway we saw more bats then i have ever seen anywhere! It was insanity they were swooping all around are car almost running into us just about every time. I saw one that went under the front of my car and came out the back! never underestimate the power of echolocation. We made the decision to just drive straight home instead of camp somewhere along the way. We got back around 3 am much to my surprise the next morning i woke up and it was Friday we had completly lost track of time and stayed and extra day haha.
Featured image for slideshow:
