Five Canyons in a Day
Yes, I was able to go into five canyons in one day in Zion. Here is how I did it: First, I picked non-technical routes, so all you canyoneering folks can stop reading now. Then I went up from the bottom rather than going down from the top. I also decided to try not to put myself in a position of possible death. I also decided to stay away from all possible scenarios to get out of the canyons including crazy slickrock scrambles and just let myself end up either getting cliffed out or running out of canyon. The first canyon I picked was upper Clear Creek. This one was as basic as possible.
I did the lower part of Clear Creek, which is actually rather neat even though it hangs near the road, last summer. This was finishing it out and there was absolutely nothing to it except for a drainage.I took the East Rim trail and jumped off where I felt like to just follow the drainage up. I turned around when I started running into the housing area. Upon turning around, I ran into Cave Canyon. This one was at least a bit more entertaining with some narrows and features to it that I had to scramble around. 
There was one cave that I found which was within the canyon created by some flash flood debris that went back only about five feet. There is probably some better cave in there than that. I also found the hide of a dead deer. I originally thought possibly a mountain lion, but after checking it out, it definitely looked like a human kill, outside the park of course. Reading Ron Kay's book, I knew that there were some ruins of a sawmill up at the head of the canyon. I had to do a really loose dirt scramble to get to it, but it was neat to check out.
After that there was not much to see as just around the corner, a house appeared. So I wandered back down the canyon to the East Rim Trail and then to my truck. Still with much time left before Jacqueline got off work, for which I was needed to pick her up, I headed down the road to Petroglyph Canyon. I ran into the only people that I saw on the day. They were entering Petroglyph Canyon when I was. I helped them find the petroglyphs after they wandered up canyon running into me. In not too much time, the route cliffed out. There was a nice slickrock slope up to the upper part that I was able to take though, which went for a ways until it cliffed out again. Finding an easy way to the right around that, I was able to access the narrowest part of the canyon.
It was very neat, but did not last for long. I had to scramble up some slightly tricky stuff until I came to a spot that I did not like doing by myself, so I forced myself to turn around from there. I looked at the thing at least five times and each time I thought, I should just go for it, but I wanted to make it back safely. If anyone has been farther, let me know what I missed by wussing out. I headed back down with still plenty of time. I took a short break to check out the petroglyphs.
My definite feeling on why these things ended up here is the boredom of waiting out a storm. If you saw where the petroglyphs are with snow coming down or rain, you would realize that it is the only dry place around. Prehistoric vandalism. Well, next stop was going to be at the tunnel to check out the canyon that Jacqueline, David, and I were above last east side hike. The only problem was that SAR training was going on which kept me from parking there. Feeling a little bit shunned because the SAR team did not think of me, I had to turn around and park a ways up the road. I walked down Clear Creek until it met up with my fourth canyon. I call this canyon Small Tunnel Canyon. It was really neat. It started out narrow and stayed that way. I also saw this enormous nest in there,
which if anyone could tell me what it is, I would be glad to know. The narrowness was cut short by a rockfall that jammed up the canyon. There looked to be a good scrambling route to the right, but not having a companion, I decided against trying it. I was also getting hungry, so I sat down and had some lunch and enjoyed my book.
I am reading On the Wild Edge by David Petersen. It is a very good book about breaking away from civilization and living a natural life. He lives in a cabin in the woods outside of Durango, Colorado and all his stories are about the things he does in the backcountry. His writing style is very entertaining. Well, I did that for a while and I reckoned that I still had a couple hours before it was time to pick Jacqueline up from work, so I tried the canyon across from Small Tunnel Canyon. It was great in an entirely different way. It was nearly all slickrock. There were numerous potholes filled with water.
The slickrock was all easy walking too, not any death defying scrambles. I went back a good half hour in the canyon until I ended up somehow on this rock island. The canyon split into two and I was in between the two canyons high above. That is why I am naming this canyon Rock Island Canyon. I got bushed out by some class five bushwhacking, so I turned around. By the time I got back off the rock island, it was time to go pick my honey up, so I never got to explore the two side canyons. I thought on the way down about what I had accomplished. The east side of Zion is so unique because there is no real wrong way you can go. Around you on every side would be that finishing point for a hike, that so called destination of lake, river, arch, waterfall, etc... with the slickrock that abounds on every side. There is so much joy to be found by taking even an hour stroll on some slickrock. I felt good about my day not knowing how many miles I had tread or not establishing some new crazy route. Sometimes it is just good to be wandering amongst the slickrock.
I did the lower part of Clear Creek, which is actually rather neat even though it hangs near the road, last summer. This was finishing it out and there was absolutely nothing to it except for a drainage.I took the East Rim trail and jumped off where I felt like to just follow the drainage up. I turned around when I started running into the housing area. Upon turning around, I ran into Cave Canyon. This one was at least a bit more entertaining with some narrows and features to it that I had to scramble around. 
There was one cave that I found which was within the canyon created by some flash flood debris that went back only about five feet. There is probably some better cave in there than that. I also found the hide of a dead deer. I originally thought possibly a mountain lion, but after checking it out, it definitely looked like a human kill, outside the park of course. Reading Ron Kay's book, I knew that there were some ruins of a sawmill up at the head of the canyon. I had to do a really loose dirt scramble to get to it, but it was neat to check out.
After that there was not much to see as just around the corner, a house appeared. So I wandered back down the canyon to the East Rim Trail and then to my truck. Still with much time left before Jacqueline got off work, for which I was needed to pick her up, I headed down the road to Petroglyph Canyon. I ran into the only people that I saw on the day. They were entering Petroglyph Canyon when I was. I helped them find the petroglyphs after they wandered up canyon running into me. In not too much time, the route cliffed out. There was a nice slickrock slope up to the upper part that I was able to take though, which went for a ways until it cliffed out again. Finding an easy way to the right around that, I was able to access the narrowest part of the canyon.
It was very neat, but did not last for long. I had to scramble up some slightly tricky stuff until I came to a spot that I did not like doing by myself, so I forced myself to turn around from there. I looked at the thing at least five times and each time I thought, I should just go for it, but I wanted to make it back safely. If anyone has been farther, let me know what I missed by wussing out. I headed back down with still plenty of time. I took a short break to check out the petroglyphs.
My definite feeling on why these things ended up here is the boredom of waiting out a storm. If you saw where the petroglyphs are with snow coming down or rain, you would realize that it is the only dry place around. Prehistoric vandalism. Well, next stop was going to be at the tunnel to check out the canyon that Jacqueline, David, and I were above last east side hike. The only problem was that SAR training was going on which kept me from parking there. Feeling a little bit shunned because the SAR team did not think of me, I had to turn around and park a ways up the road. I walked down Clear Creek until it met up with my fourth canyon. I call this canyon Small Tunnel Canyon. It was really neat. It started out narrow and stayed that way. I also saw this enormous nest in there,
which if anyone could tell me what it is, I would be glad to know. The narrowness was cut short by a rockfall that jammed up the canyon. There looked to be a good scrambling route to the right, but not having a companion, I decided against trying it. I was also getting hungry, so I sat down and had some lunch and enjoyed my book.
I am reading On the Wild Edge by David Petersen. It is a very good book about breaking away from civilization and living a natural life. He lives in a cabin in the woods outside of Durango, Colorado and all his stories are about the things he does in the backcountry. His writing style is very entertaining. Well, I did that for a while and I reckoned that I still had a couple hours before it was time to pick Jacqueline up from work, so I tried the canyon across from Small Tunnel Canyon. It was great in an entirely different way. It was nearly all slickrock. There were numerous potholes filled with water.
The slickrock was all easy walking too, not any death defying scrambles. I went back a good half hour in the canyon until I ended up somehow on this rock island. The canyon split into two and I was in between the two canyons high above. That is why I am naming this canyon Rock Island Canyon. I got bushed out by some class five bushwhacking, so I turned around. By the time I got back off the rock island, it was time to go pick my honey up, so I never got to explore the two side canyons. I thought on the way down about what I had accomplished. The east side of Zion is so unique because there is no real wrong way you can go. Around you on every side would be that finishing point for a hike, that so called destination of lake, river, arch, waterfall, etc... with the slickrock that abounds on every side. There is so much joy to be found by taking even an hour stroll on some slickrock. I felt good about my day not knowing how many miles I had tread or not establishing some new crazy route. Sometimes it is just good to be wandering amongst the slickrock.
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