Bill
.
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2012
- Messages
- 991
I trying to get out of my trip report slump.... this ones from the BCP Zion get together in May
Clint and I started our trip by leaving my place Thursday afternoon and driving directly the to the Kanarraville trail head. There were a few cars but once we made it in to the narrow section of the canyon we only saw a few groups of people hiking out. There was one group assisting their friend who had fallen down the upper ladder and he was bloody, bruised, cut, scraped and broken. After seeing this guy slowly work his way down canyon it became pretty clear that falling off a ladder in Kanarra has some pretty sever consequences.
Once in the canyon we had the entire place to our selfs. We made it out of Kanarra just before dark then drove towards Zion and up the Kolob Terrace road to meet up with Nick at his campsite. We set up our tents then stayed up late talking around the camp fire.
Friday morning we got up around 7:30, packed our bags, and got ready to meet the rest of the backcountrypost.com group at Lava Point. We made it to the trail head at 9:10. We said hello to everyone then headed down the trail towards site4. Once we reached Potato Hollow we took a long break and found the cleanest water we could and started filling up all our water containers. We went for a walk down around the edge of Imlay canyon then started up the 1mile long up hill section of the west rim with extra water weight in our packs.
Imlay Canyon panorama
We made it to site 4 around 3pm and had plenty of time to kill before sunset. I took a power nap then wandered over to the edge to find a good view point for sunset. Of course there were some great clouds in the sky prior to sunset but they slowly dissipated once the light was right. Once the sun set it got really windy and I crashed out before it was dark.
30sec exposure over phantom valley with a 10-stop ND
90 second exposure sunset.
Saturday morning Clint and I were up early and on the trail before anyone else in the group. We hiked out along the west rim and down into Little Siberia where we took a long breakfast break. Once we came over the ridge and were above scout lookout I got cell service so I called April. She and Whitney had driven down with the boys while we were on the west rim and stayed in our car camping site. They were on their way to the park so we planned on meeting up at the Grotto.
Until we reached Scout lookout we had only seen six people aside from our group in 26 hours, between Scout lookout and the Grotto we saw a few hundred. We made it to the Grotto with some time to kill so laid back to relax while we waited for April and the boys. Once my socks came off I noticed that both my pinkie toes were covered in huge blisters, in fact my feet were a huge pussy mess of blisters and pealing skin that I hadn’t even noticed until the hike was over. I got my feet cleaned and bandaged just as the boys got off the bus. We talked about the hike across the west rim then took the car keys while they hiked the narrows.
Clint and I took the shuttle down to the very busy Zion visitor center then realized we forgot to ask them where they parked the car. I don’t know how we did it but we found my montero in the giant parking lot in about 60 seconds and it was nothing short of a miracle. We drove into town for some food, picked up Clint’s car on the Kolob Terrace road, met back up April and the kids, then went for a long swim in Pine Creek. There was a local setting up a rope swing and he showed us how it’s done Springdale style.
@whitwilli
After our swim we drove back to camp high on Kolob Terrace road and spent the night hanging out with all the friendly folks from BackCountrypost. Sunday morning everyone packed up camp early and headed off to the subway while April the kids and I went back to Zion canyon to do a little hiking up hidden canyon followed by some more swimming in the Virgin before heading home.
Hidden Canyon Trail
Featured image for home page:
Clint and I started our trip by leaving my place Thursday afternoon and driving directly the to the Kanarraville trail head. There were a few cars but once we made it in to the narrow section of the canyon we only saw a few groups of people hiking out. There was one group assisting their friend who had fallen down the upper ladder and he was bloody, bruised, cut, scraped and broken. After seeing this guy slowly work his way down canyon it became pretty clear that falling off a ladder in Kanarra has some pretty sever consequences.
Once in the canyon we had the entire place to our selfs. We made it out of Kanarra just before dark then drove towards Zion and up the Kolob Terrace road to meet up with Nick at his campsite. We set up our tents then stayed up late talking around the camp fire.
Friday morning we got up around 7:30, packed our bags, and got ready to meet the rest of the backcountrypost.com group at Lava Point. We made it to the trail head at 9:10. We said hello to everyone then headed down the trail towards site4. Once we reached Potato Hollow we took a long break and found the cleanest water we could and started filling up all our water containers. We went for a walk down around the edge of Imlay canyon then started up the 1mile long up hill section of the west rim with extra water weight in our packs.
Imlay Canyon panorama
We made it to site 4 around 3pm and had plenty of time to kill before sunset. I took a power nap then wandered over to the edge to find a good view point for sunset. Of course there were some great clouds in the sky prior to sunset but they slowly dissipated once the light was right. Once the sun set it got really windy and I crashed out before it was dark.
30sec exposure over phantom valley with a 10-stop ND
90 second exposure sunset.
Saturday morning Clint and I were up early and on the trail before anyone else in the group. We hiked out along the west rim and down into Little Siberia where we took a long breakfast break. Once we came over the ridge and were above scout lookout I got cell service so I called April. She and Whitney had driven down with the boys while we were on the west rim and stayed in our car camping site. They were on their way to the park so we planned on meeting up at the Grotto.
Until we reached Scout lookout we had only seen six people aside from our group in 26 hours, between Scout lookout and the Grotto we saw a few hundred. We made it to the Grotto with some time to kill so laid back to relax while we waited for April and the boys. Once my socks came off I noticed that both my pinkie toes were covered in huge blisters, in fact my feet were a huge pussy mess of blisters and pealing skin that I hadn’t even noticed until the hike was over. I got my feet cleaned and bandaged just as the boys got off the bus. We talked about the hike across the west rim then took the car keys while they hiked the narrows.
Clint and I took the shuttle down to the very busy Zion visitor center then realized we forgot to ask them where they parked the car. I don’t know how we did it but we found my montero in the giant parking lot in about 60 seconds and it was nothing short of a miracle. We drove into town for some food, picked up Clint’s car on the Kolob Terrace road, met back up April and the kids, then went for a long swim in Pine Creek. There was a local setting up a rope swing and he showed us how it’s done Springdale style.
@whitwilli
After our swim we drove back to camp high on Kolob Terrace road and spent the night hanging out with all the friendly folks from BackCountrypost. Sunday morning everyone packed up camp early and headed off to the subway while April the kids and I went back to Zion canyon to do a little hiking up hidden canyon followed by some more swimming in the Virgin before heading home.
Hidden Canyon Trail
Featured image for home page:
