Yellow Knolls

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Jan 19, 2012
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Because of the tshirt and shorts weather we have been experiencing in Southwest Utah I couldnt pass up a holiday to go do some hiking. Our destination Yellow Knolls in Red Cliffs National Conservation Area. Rather than the short approach to Yellow Knolls we decided to take the Black Gulch trail, follow the wash down to the yellow knolls area, and loop back to the parking lot. The trails in this area are poorly marked (we never saw any signs for Black Gulch, in fact after looking at a map later we were not in black gulch at all! It was on the other side of the road) but fortunately it is pretty easy and straightforward to find your way to the knolls. We made a big circle around the southern end of the knolls and eventually found a trail after exploring around the sandstone.


Highlights included

1.the contrast of white sandstone with dark lava rock
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2. A relatively little hiked area within 10 miles of St. George
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3. Some neat sandstone formations that reminded me of parts of white pocket (on a much smaller scale)


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and

4. The checkerboard mesa-esque area of the knolls and there was a lot of it! Very cool!!

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Awesome! This is one of the hikes that was on my short list for last weekend, but we didn't end up doing it. How was the vehicle access? Could a car make it to the trailhead okay or is it strictly high clearance territory?
 
Or give my ignorance, but are these the same Yellow Knolls that are up Cottonwood Canyon Road out near Big Water?



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wnorton @ Southern, UT
 
Great pics by the way.

Thanks for sharing.
Wade



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wnorton @ Southern, UT
 
That's crazy -- I was just looking at that area on Google Earth and thinking I really want to get out there and explore! I kid you not just last week I was scoping it all out (Yellow Knolls and an area farther NE). Doing searches yielded very little -- except a Saint George hiking group was headed there a few days later! For such a little visited area I thought that was an incredible coincidence... now this! I wonder if this is the new mini White Pocket?

Good pics and thanks for sharing.

- Jamal
 
Not quite White Pocket but cool stuff nonetheless! There is some cool stuff in and around the Cottonwood Canyon Wilderness! (was that the hiking group destination they were going to? Yants Flat?)
 
Yep -- that's where they were headed. That entire area from Yellow Knolls all the way over to Heath Cyn and Yankee Doodle looks really cool. I'm anxious to get in there and see what can be done from bottom up. That's probably not the ideal way -- but I want to connect it with a longer route.

BTW -- I can't believe it's that warm there now.

- JG
 
:) Very nice. I'll have to do this next time I'm down there.
 
I think you're thinking of Yellow Rock, which is similar, but more colorful.

Thanks. I tried finding it once and somehow missed it. :)


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wnorton @ Southern, UT
 
Thanks. I tried finding it once and somehow missed it. :)


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wnorton @ Southern, UT

I hear you there. I was taking my wife on her first backpacking trip between yellow rock and the box of paria. To make a long story short we missed the yellow rock trail, made a way to intense scramble to the top looking for yellow rock, were eaten by demon gnats from hell and called it quits after about 3 hours! We did at least find yellow rock!! I will have to post the TR someday.
 
Jammer some pics from the redrock group meetup...

Yep -- I saw those and they are what got me semi-depressed. It's silly I know, but I had hoped this was an undiscovered place and that I could bring back some cool photos after a trip this spring. Then, when I saw all the recent activity it bummed me out a little. I mean I'm excited to see that it is a pretty cool area, but bummed as it's a reminder that there really aren't any 'undiscovered' spots out there. Reminds me of a time on one of my long hikes I was in Reece Canyon out in the middle of the Kaiparowits. I was running low of water and trudging through sand in what seemed like the most remote place on earth. Then... I came upon a discarded Pepsi can. I realized that not only was I not the first person here (even recently) but somebody was comfortable enough to bring along cans of Pepsi! :)

With a good looking forecast I might have to bump up my trip to St. George!

- Jamal
 
True not undiscovered but that entire wilderness area doesn't see a ton of foot traffic other than right off the few roads in the area! I bet you can get deep in there and not find any "pepsi cans"! :)
 

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