Let me begin by saying that I have no authority to name this canyon and in no way is this official. I just figured since it was the canyon directly below the South Guardian Angel that drains into Right Fork, it just made sense. With that said, Jacqueline and I had a very unique experience this weekend as we saw a real wild spot in Zion. There was no discernible path or any sign that other humans had been there....
It started with the idea that we needed to go backpacking. It had been since I proposed to Jacqueline since I took my beautiful lady into the wild to sleep out for the night. We headed up one of my favorites, Right Fork. I could not believe the devastation from last year's flood. 
The picture of me looking like I am drowning is last June at the swimming hole. The other picture is after the flood. 
Talking to one of our friends, he said they estimated last September's flood to be at 13000 cfs. That is intense and I could see it throughout Right Fork, but more so in the lower reaches. We ran into another guy coming back. He said that this was the first time he had seen anyone else hiking in Right Fork. That was how we wanted it. We were going a bit slower than usual, but we found the spot by South Guardian Angel Canyon that I wanted to camp at. Then we put up the tent, dropped off all the overnight stuff, and headed up the canyon. The upper parts were not too impacted. After boulder hopping and some creek wading, we ended up at Double Falls. 
We spent a little bit too much time playing around there to go any farther. I went for a dip and Jacqueline took about fifteen pics. I scrambled up to see how close we were to Barrier Falls. After going for a few minutes, I determined that we were not close enough to convince Jacqueline to try to get up around a fairly difficult obstacle. So we headed back down to our camp, where we enjoyed an excellent evening chilling out. The temperature dipped down to near freezing, because that was how my shoes were in the morning. It took the sunshine around nine o'clock to get Jacqueline moving. As soon as we left camp to head up South Guardian Angel Canyon, we hit a waterfall.
Very easy to get around, we scrambled around it. The canyon had no visible signs of anyone being there before except ringtails and turkeys. We did not do too much bushwacking and boulder hopping before we hit the next waterfall.
This one was impressive with quite a vertical drop and hanging gardens all around. We thought this was likely the end of the road for us. But we looked to our right and there seemed to be a way around. I scouted it out and figured that Jacqueline could do it. She came on up and while it was not incredibly difficult, it was still rather steep, but Jacqueline handled it well. I am here to tell the world that my 95 pound sweetheart is a pretty tough character when she wants to be. Not too much farther after making it up and into the drainage, we came to the next waterfall. 
I grabbed the camera out and Jacqueline was already trying the only possible way to get around it. It was a nearly vertical chute, but she pulled it off. What she did not like was that the only way around the waterfall was to cross right under it. She thought it would be slippery, but I did not think it was too bad. I got up above her and tried to throw a rope down to her. Unfortunately, right where she could have climbed up, there was a whole bunch of poison ivy. Oh well. I did not want her to do anything she was uncomfortable with, so I got her permission to keep going up canyon. Thinking I would run into a waterfall before too long, I was hauling. It turned out to be rather boring country, reminiscent of Upper Coalpits. I made it all the way back to where the drainage splits and both of them are just boulder chutes. I could have gone all the way to the wall to check that out, but it had been twenty minutes and I knew my sweetheart would be worried. 
When I got back, Jacqueline was upset with me for being gone so long. I calmed her down and we made a smooth descent of the canyon. We got to the tent and packed are stuff, both agreeing that it must be a lot hotter than yesterday. We made good time getting out of Right Fork, leaving time for a dip in the new swimming hole formed after the flood. A difficult scramble out with full packs on, we did it just fine and got back to the car so Jacqueline could spend the rest of the evening doing homework. I was pleased with the trip and happy that I got to spend the weekend doing something that I consider very unique and pristine.
The picture of me looking like I am drowning is last June at the swimming hole. The other picture is after the flood. 
Talking to one of our friends, he said they estimated last September's flood to be at 13000 cfs. That is intense and I could see it throughout Right Fork, but more so in the lower reaches. We ran into another guy coming back. He said that this was the first time he had seen anyone else hiking in Right Fork. That was how we wanted it. We were going a bit slower than usual, but we found the spot by South Guardian Angel Canyon that I wanted to camp at. Then we put up the tent, dropped off all the overnight stuff, and headed up the canyon. The upper parts were not too impacted. After boulder hopping and some creek wading, we ended up at Double Falls. 
We spent a little bit too much time playing around there to go any farther. I went for a dip and Jacqueline took about fifteen pics. I scrambled up to see how close we were to Barrier Falls. After going for a few minutes, I determined that we were not close enough to convince Jacqueline to try to get up around a fairly difficult obstacle. So we headed back down to our camp, where we enjoyed an excellent evening chilling out. The temperature dipped down to near freezing, because that was how my shoes were in the morning. It took the sunshine around nine o'clock to get Jacqueline moving. As soon as we left camp to head up South Guardian Angel Canyon, we hit a waterfall.
Very easy to get around, we scrambled around it. The canyon had no visible signs of anyone being there before except ringtails and turkeys. We did not do too much bushwacking and boulder hopping before we hit the next waterfall.
This one was impressive with quite a vertical drop and hanging gardens all around. We thought this was likely the end of the road for us. But we looked to our right and there seemed to be a way around. I scouted it out and figured that Jacqueline could do it. She came on up and while it was not incredibly difficult, it was still rather steep, but Jacqueline handled it well. I am here to tell the world that my 95 pound sweetheart is a pretty tough character when she wants to be. Not too much farther after making it up and into the drainage, we came to the next waterfall. 
I grabbed the camera out and Jacqueline was already trying the only possible way to get around it. It was a nearly vertical chute, but she pulled it off. What she did not like was that the only way around the waterfall was to cross right under it. She thought it would be slippery, but I did not think it was too bad. I got up above her and tried to throw a rope down to her. Unfortunately, right where she could have climbed up, there was a whole bunch of poison ivy. Oh well. I did not want her to do anything she was uncomfortable with, so I got her permission to keep going up canyon. Thinking I would run into a waterfall before too long, I was hauling. It turned out to be rather boring country, reminiscent of Upper Coalpits. I made it all the way back to where the drainage splits and both of them are just boulder chutes. I could have gone all the way to the wall to check that out, but it had been twenty minutes and I knew my sweetheart would be worried. 
When I got back, Jacqueline was upset with me for being gone so long. I calmed her down and we made a smooth descent of the canyon. We got to the tent and packed are stuff, both agreeing that it must be a lot hotter than yesterday. We made good time getting out of Right Fork, leaving time for a dip in the new swimming hole formed after the flood. A difficult scramble out with full packs on, we did it just fine and got back to the car so Jacqueline could spend the rest of the evening doing homework. I was pleased with the trip and happy that I got to spend the weekend doing something that I consider very unique and pristine. 
1 comment:
This is great info to know.
Post a Comment