Red Butte Wilderness

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Jan 19, 2012
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Havent posted a TR in a while but last weekend a buddy and I hike/bushwacked a pretty cool loop. In 2009 as part of the Omnibus Public Lands Act several new wilderness areas were created in Southern Utah. One being the Red Butte Wilderness. Like most of the other wilderness most of these new areas were adjacent to Zion National Park basically extending its borders. For anyone who has driven Kolob Terrace Road, Red Butte is the pyramid shaped red butte (obvious why it was named what it was eh?) visible near the Hop Valley trailhead.

I had been to Red Buttes before but never hiking into the north end of the wilderness toward the border with Zion N.P. Our goal today was to get into Zion and hopefully find some awesome views of the peaks of the Kolob Finger Canyons. Mission Accomplished!

In general our route to the border followed a huge drop off into tributaries of LaVerkin creek. Once we arrived at the Zion boundary (surprisingly well marked!) we had to decide what to do. Keep going North or head east and try to get to the cliffs overlooking Hop Valley) We decided to go east which ultimately was a great choice! There wasnt much of a path in general. It involved lots of bushwacking, at points I didnt know if we could get through the oak and manzanita but in general wasnt too bad. Several steep climbs up and out of washes and we even found a pretty solid running spring. Eventually we made it to overlooking Hop Valley and I was blown away! Such an awesome viewpoint and one that I personally have never seen photographed from the vantage point we had found far above the valley! After hangint out on the edge for a while we turned south and found an old cattle road (still can run cattle in Hop Valley) which eventually turned into a still used cattle road with piped in water and everything.

All an all a great backcountry adventure! Oh by the way NO PEOPLE!!

13148219_10209432409314199_615414317_o.jpg Hop Valley 2.jpg Red Butte.jpg Red Butte_1.jpg zion.jpg 13112539_10209422804674089_1207788152_o.jpg 13140850_10209422805594112_225292697_n.jpg 13128772_10209432393433802_1079430454_o.jpg 13148434_10209432392793786_1979606207_o.jpg 13113067_10209432392393776_916435338_o.jpg 13120803_10209432392593781_377517014_o.jpg
 
So sweet! I love the views down into Hop and looking across. Not just off the beaten path, but looking right down on the beaten path.
 
Thanks for adding to the perspectives I'd like to find! I thoroughly enjoyed my hike thru Hop Valley. To get above it would round out the experience.
 
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