Snowshoeing the West Rim

I was scheduled for a day hiking the West Rim. Unfortunately it had snowed so much that the trail was covered with snow. Fortunately I owned a pair of snowshoes that I loved and thought of it as an adventure. Annette thought it was a good idea, so I headed out. The trail up to Angel's Landing did not have much snow left on it. It was all paved so there was not any mud either. When I got to Walter's Wiggles, there was some snow there, but it was mostly ice considering that the Wiggles were in the shade. There were quite a few courageous people trying to go out to Angel's Landing. I did not understand the allure, especially in these kind of conditions. Past the turnoff for Angel's Landing is where the snow started to get deeper. I met a European hiker coming back and he said that he was not prepared for these kind of conditions. I was prepared though and soon I was throwing on the snowshoes. The snowshoeing was rather easy with some wet snow. There was quite a bit of snow up there though probably up to one foot deep. I felt so out in the wild even knowing that if the conditions were not like this I may be seeing quite a few people. My goal was to get up on to the West Rim, but I knew that might not be logical. Since I did not know the trail very well, I did not want to take any risks. It was beautiful with the cliffs around me all white, whether with snow or with the rocks of the Navajo Sandstone. Soon I was approaching the spot where I knew I could run into some trouble, Little Siberia. I was right because as I approached the spot where you start to come out of the trees and get on to the rocks, the snow was thick and looked like it had slid off the cliff. I took a look around the corner, but could not tell where the trail was and where the snow was just thick. So I decided that this was good for the day. I got all the information that I needed as a backcountry ranger and could report that camping on the West Rim would not be a good idea for at least a week or two. I headed back down and took a look at Angel's Landing. Walking out on the trail even a slight bit, I thought, it would be a better idea to go on another day. If someone asked my opinion on going there, I would tell them it seemed rather dangerous. As I got down to the trailhead, I took a look over toward the Emerald Pools to see the water coming out of Heaps Canyon pouring into the Upper Emerald Pool. I heard on the radio that there was a rescue going on at the Riverside Walk. I decided that I should head back to the office in case Annette needed to go on the rescue. Instead, Ray called me on the radio and I went on the rescue. I did not do anything more than just hike out there and hike back, but it was good to be called upon. I looked forward to more rescues in the future.

Zion's Unpredictable Spring Weather

My second week of work in Zion started with a different backcountry experience. Annette and I met up with Cheryl Decker who was in charge of Reveg at Zion. We were working on the exit from Spry. They had decided that the sandy slope that was the original exit for Spry was too much of an eyesore. Now people were supposed to go down the boulderfield which added a 100 ft, free hanging rappel to the trip. Our job on this day was to hike up the old exit and rehab it. We raked over anything that looked like a trail moving large dead trees and trying to block any easy access. The weather was hot and I did not wear any sunscreen. Thus I ended up with a sunburn at the end of the day. Just a few days later, though, Annette and I were hiking on the East rim in a torrential downpour. We were getting soaked. It was a nice hike, though. Ten miles mostly through the trees on the high plateau, but finishing on some slickrock meeting up with the Observation Point trail. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures because I was afraid of my camera getting soaked. Just a few days later, though, I had a couple of hours in the morning to hike, so I decided to hike the Chinle Trail. I could not find the trailhead, but I knew it was down a certain road, so I parked and walked the road until I ran into the trail. The snow had come down pretty good the night before, so it was a soggy trek. It made the cliffs around me so pretty, especially Kinesava. I continued to hike and the weather began to move in. Soon it was snowing, but it did not matter. At places the trail became harder to find, but the coolest thing about it was all the petrified wood everywhere. It weaved in and out of big drainages. All of them looked fun to come back to. This was supposedly the best time of year to come to this part of the park because of all the heat during the summer. I was not going to experience that because during the summer I was going to be working fees. I had to make my backcountry time worthwhile because there were going to be long days of collecting money. I was wondering what the summer would bring as I had met one attractive female near my age at the visitor center. So far I did not know much about her, though, but took every effort to go up and talk with her whenever she worked. The time to turn around was coming quickly as I had to run the desk the rest of the day. The snow was really dumping by the time that I turned around. The cliffs looked so amazing and I really enjoyed the Chinle and wanted to come back here again soon. But it was back to the desk for a bit before I got another chance to enjoy my time in Zion's backcountry.

First Random Zion Hike

When going to Canyon Overlook early in the week, I saw that right across from the tunnel there seemed to be another hiking possibility. It seemed there was a canyon and when I looked on the map, sure enough, it was called Gifford Canyon. I knew absolutely nothing about it, so I figured that it would be worth exploring. I had to negotiate some slickrock right at the beginning of the hike that took me to the left of the canyon. After scrambling around a bit, I wound my way down into the canyon itself. The bottom was sandy with patches of quicksand that would soak my feet and get me muddy. I would come to big pouroffs, but I could always find a way around them. First there was a big dryfall and I picked my way to the right up some slickrock and I was above it. Then there was a big wall of dirt and I found my way up that. Eventually, though, I came to a spot where the cliffs narrowed up and there was a huge chockstone that looked a bit too difficult for me to get around. So I retreated back down canyon until I saw that there seemed to be a way up the cliffs to the right. I chose to give it a try. In places there were cairns and others I had to figure it out for myself. The hardest move I had to make was to use a fallen tree to climb up a steep section. Amazingly, though, it plopped me out on a plateau. Still not having any clue of my whereabouts other than the map I possessed, I took a left. This lead me to a big slickrock bowl that was so neat. I had no place that I was truly heading, so I took a look at the peak that rose above me. On the map, it was not even mentioned, just that it was close to a summit of elevation 6260, but it looked like it would have an amazing view on top and be interesting enough to summit. It is always less fun climbing a peak without a name, but the slickrock steps led me to a crumbly summit with an awesome view. It is one of those spots where you wish that you had a 360 camera that you could mount to your head and get a picture of everything around you. So instead, I just took images of everything around me. You could see toward the West Temple and Kinesava with the Towers of the Virgin standing right next to them. You could see the interesting slickrock wilderness that is the rest of Zion's East side. At this point, I was already starting to fall in love with that slickrock wilderness. Keep looking and you could see the East Temple

and all of those canyons that drain into the Narrows. If you looked hard enough, you could see the backside of the Watchman and the end of Parunaweep Canyon. I could not believe my luck in finding such an amazing view as I ate my lunch and soaked it all in. From there, I had nowhere to go, but I thought I might see what could happen if I went over that slickrock bowl. What I found was an impossibly difficult drop into Hepworth Canyon that would most certainly cause my untimely death if I attempted it. I played around going out to the edge of a fin that allowed me to look over to Stevens Wash. Wisely, I decided to turn around and call this a good hike. I wanted to do some research and come back. I had a little difficulty finding my way down into Gifford Canyon again, having at one point to throw my pack down and scramble down a steep section, but I found it easy enough. I was back to my truck at the tunnel with time to spare to go find out where I went. I was pretty excited with my choice of trips. There were still a lot of trails I had not hiked in Zion, but this slickrock wilderness was something so much better that did not need a trail to provide a great hike.

The Watchman

It was the end of my shift on my last day of work for the week, so Annette let me get off a little early and hike the Watchman trail. I was hoping that this trail would take me to the top of the actual Watchman that overlooked Zion Canyon, but instead it went to the top of a little bluff. The trail only took about half an hour to hike which included a little loop on top. The views were great from the edge of the loop, especially Zion Canyon. I could even see my house from the edge, rather clearly. I guess that is why they call it Watchman Housing. I noticed that the trail actually continued past this section that was open. I followed it for some time until it got really steep. There was excellent trail construction and I could see that it headed right to the cliff. I wondered if the Watchman trail ever used to be the actual Watchman trail going to the top of the Watchman. Talking to Julie Hancock and Ray O'neil later, I learned that it was another one of the crazy trails they built in the 20s, though on this one someone died who reportedly was the Superintendent's son, so they shut it down. Ray had actually climbed up where the old ladder rungs used to be back in his younger, more brazen days, but supposedly those had been washed out by a large flash flood later on. It made me curious and eventually I went back, but never found where this actually was. You know that you are in a good place when one short hike turns your interest to wonder what else is out there.