Water Canyon

Eric and I hiked Squirrel Canyon in May and we had such an excellent time that I wanted to go back just to show Jacqueline that country. So we made arrangements and met Eric early in the morning to hike Water Canyon which is the next door neighbor to Squirrel Canyon. Eric drove up there because Jacqueline's van was in the shop and we did not want to all have to squeeze into the Ranger. We parked at the same spot on the dirt road that we did for Squirrel Canyon. This left us with a little extra road to walk. Immediately, there was another car and it was the folks from Zion Adventure Company. There are two routes through Water Canyon. One is just a trail which you walk up, which everyone would do. The other is a technical canyon which you rappel down. It was the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so there was no way I would think that canyoneering could be fun. We were just hiking and having a good time with it. The trail was very reminiscent of the Squirrel Canyon trail. It was blown out and cut out of the rock on the left side of the creek. At one point, we went right through the creek and had to walk up what looked like it would be a slippery rocky spot, but it was not bad and we were able to do it without getting our feet wet. The trail continued to gain elevation and at places it got steep, but there was nothing too incredibly difficult. It was between an hour and an hour and a half, before we popped out onto the plateau that I knew we would reach. This left us puzzled because once we reached the plateau, the trail disappeared. With Squirrel Canyon, we had an ATV track/hiking trail to follow which led us through some great scenery. Accessing that seemed to be a tough feat as we could look across a canyon and see the beautiful white frozen dunes that we could not get enough of on our last trip. We decided to take a different direction and head up as high as possible. This led us through a lot of sand and a little bit of rock. Soon we had amazing views of Zion and even further out to Brian Head. We continued our way up until it seemed like we could go no farther. There we found some slick rock and rambled on out until we realized we were near the head of an amazing canyon. It was very narrow and untouched. I made sure of this claim by scrambling down to the first rappel. There was a big ol' pondo that would be used as a bomber anchor, yet no signs of webbing and there would be no need for any bolts with this beast of a tree. We ate some lunch there and decided to make our way back after lunch. We picked a different route to return and Jacqueline got a bit worked up, probably recalling the last trip with Eric and I through the Barracks. We both reassured her that this was not going to be a repeat and it was not. We had to do a bit of downclimbing to get by a few obstacles and avoid a big dead cow, but eventually we found where the steep trail hit the plateau. Usually when you go for a trip like this and have to return the same way that you came, the results are not exactly spectacular on the return trip. Somehow when we were hoofing it uphill, we must have been keeping our eyes to the ground and missed a very key landmark. A very large arch stuck prominently out from the big wall above us. How we missed it, I am still unsure, but we managed to do so. This hike turned out to be perfect. It was about five hours in length which seemed to be about what all of us were in the mood for. I seem to always have a good time hiking with Eric and I really appreciate all the trips we get to take together. He puts up with Jacqueline and I, because I would not want her to miss out on any of these great places together. It is too bad that it will have to be until February until Eric and the Drakes can continue the rambles and scrambles through Southern Utah as we are heading out on our honeymoon and Eric will be out on furlough for adventures of his own.

Main Canyon Explorers

Jacqueline and I did not want to spend too much time hiking on this day, so we went out our front door and took the five minute drive to the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive. The road had opened up to personal vehicles just recently, so we wanted to take advantage of that. We mainly were out for a drive but decided to come up with a few short walks. The first of which was the steps that we always noticed between Weeping Rock and the Grotto. It was tough locating them even after we saw them driving by because they just seem to appear out of the rocks. They were fairly overgrown and not long at all. They led to a nice viewpoint that used to serve as the location for Easter service back in the 20s and 30s. I don't know much more about it than that and we stayed around long enough just to notice all of the leftover remnants of those bygone days. The other place we checked out was the waterfall behind the lodge. I figured there would be a good swimming hole, but there was not. It was pretty much how I expected a waterfall to be in November in Zion, a nice little trickle. We thought about continuing up to the exit of lodge canyon, but our ambition for hiking on this day was rather meager. We left that for another time. We spent only less than an hour out of the car, but still got to some place we had never been before.

Shortest Route to Parunaweep Overlook

I was expecting another brutally long and dangerous East side hike when I decided to do a hike leaving from an area referred to as Cockeye Falls. Instead, I found an easy day hike with some amazing views. The steepest part of the whole trip was the climb right near the road to gain the top of Cockeye Falls. From there, I followed a fairly well used track as this is a popular hike in a lot of local guides.
I varied between drainage and the area above the drainage until I ran into a rock wall. Looking at the map, I decided to go right as it looked to shoot me out to a flat area over the saddle. Was I right or what? I could not believe it as I never thought of the east side as having a flat area, but there was a big sandy plateau with animal tracks everywhere. There is a big allure to dropping into one of these canyons as soon as you see it, but after consulting my map, I realized that this trip would send me into Crawford Wash, where I have been before, if I took the canyon route.
Instead I stayed high on the plateau until I could not be on a sandy slope anymore. Then I looked to my right and saw an area with lots of hoodoos in it, so I went down there.
The sandstone structures were awesome and I even came across this incredibly narrow little slot which not even my slender wife could have fit into. Around the corner from the slot was a little downhill until Parunaweep looked right up at me and said hello. I was astounded as the trip out to this point had not taken me more than a couple of hours and I definitely was not in a hurry. I sat down to enjoy lunch as this was a money spot. When hiking back, I tried to hike at a comfortable pace and getting back to the car only took a little bit over an hour. This has got to be the shortest route and easiest to navigate for a view of Parunaweep on the entire East side of Zion.

The Island

I took a break from studying and Jacqueline finally got two full days off. We used them to travel to Canyonlands National Park and go to the Island in the Sky District. The purpose was to visit our friends, Brian and Angela Hays. Unfortunately, Jacqueline’s days off switched, such that we did not have a day off with them to be able to do anything. We drove through the night anyway and had a full day to go for a good hike. Brian recommended the Murphy Trail along with a couple others so that is where we went. 

It had everything that Canyonlands has to offer. There was a spectacular view before we dropped in. Then we had some good long miles with nothing but open expanses after that. Then we hit the White Rim Road which we walked on for some time. We returned by a different route through a canyon, then back up a steep section of trail. We seemed to move rather slowly on this day, as I did not quite have the energy that I would have hoped for. The hill seemed brutal and I guess that bout of the stomach flu which I battled earlier in the week had not left me entirely yet. When we got back to the truck, we made sure to check out the Green River Overlook and Upheaval Dome. The next day Brian took us out. We did not seem to get very far as we went down the Alcove Spring Trail and ran into a bighorn sheep just sitting right on the trail. It was a very odd sight and we all sat there thinking that we were watching the thing die. We left it in peace, but we heard later that it got up and moved after we were gone.

Strange that it would let us get so close and not leave when we were right there. Then Brian took us on a super secret trail to False Kiva. It was a good short hike, but nothing too exciting. Jacqueline and I ran up to Whale Rock with the spare time we had while Brian rangered a little bit more. After that we drove back, but I was happy that we got to spend the weekend with the Hays’ family.