February Sun

I went out to visit my folks for a few days, which meant that my dad and I were going to go for a backpack on the ocean. I could not believe it when he told me that the weather was supposed to be good. I have been to the ocean a few times in the winter and each of those times we have had some very interesting weather. This time, though, it was honestly sunny for three full days. We had a modest backpack planned with a trip from Third Beach to Mosquito Creek and back. We did not get to early of a start because we did not want to have to mess with the tides. The trail started out in the trees, which took us down to the ocean. We sat there and had lunch. Then we took off down the beach. It was a very nice spot with lots of stacks coming out of the water to break up the ocean view. After not too long, we hit a headland, which we had to climb up to go around. We spent a little over a mile in the trees before hitting the beach again. We stuck to the beach and passed Strawberry Point and stayed at Toleak Point. We thought about staying up in the trees because the campsites looked meager, but we finally found one to our liking up in the trees. With time to kill, we filled it with games of cribbage and golf. Also we spent some time down at the tide pools enjoying what was left of the low tide. We saw some anemones, but no starfish. Back for some games of cribbage and reading while we waited for Dad's stove to cook dinner. It was having some issues that I felt was due to the cold. Dad was a bit upset because he has had that stove for decades and never had such an issue. The only thing we could think of is that maybe the consistency of the fuel has been changed such that it creates a worse mix for the cold. Mine has seemed to always have those issues, so I was not too surprised. In the morning, we took the day hike out to Mosquito Creek. We had to climb up a very steep headland to get there and it was nearly like climbing a ladder. We made it fine and eventually it took us to Falls Creek with an impressive waterfall. After crossing Falls Creek, we had to cross Goodman Creek and were able to make it past both without getting our feet wet. Eventually we were lead back to the beach where we enjoyed walking near the logs to see if we could find anything interesting that had washed ashore. We crossed Mosquito Creek when getting there to chat with the two people down fishing the surf. The guy was trying to fly fish the surf and it did not seem that he knew what he was doing. We ran into some interesting folks on this trip. The first couple we saw leaving the first day was normal, but the other three groups were interesting. The other two groups were two guys with an ice axe and a single guy who did not seem to actually know where he was and where he was coming from. He struck us as the most odd and we ran into him again near Falls Creek. We were wondering where he would end up and hoping it was nowhere near our campsite. After a couple creek crossings and a climb down the rope ladder, we were back at our campsite. This time we were there for low tide and we got to go out to the tide pools. We saw multitudes of starfish and anemones, but unfortunately I forgot to bring the camera. We played some more games of golf and cribbage. I was doing much better at golf then cribbage on this trip. Dad got the stove to work in the evening, but the next morning it was nearly impossible. We got going a bit earlier in the morning than we were planning, but we figured that we could work with the tide. It actually made it a much more interesting hike on the way out because quite frequently a rogue wave would sneak up on us and we would have to perch ourselves on top of logs. There were places that would be easy to cross on low tide, but we had to plan carefully to cross them during high tide. Dad tended to use his timing and stay on the beach, whereas I went over the headlands more often. We spent a lot of time combing the beach, but the most interesting thing we saw on the beach was on this day when we saw a giant fish head and part of a dead octopus. We were able to make it out a bit after noon, but it was an unbelievable three days strictly because we popped out of the trail with dry socks and dry packs. It is still hard to believe we were that lucky in February.

Crater Hill

Driving on State Route 9 from Springdale down to the tri-cities (Toquerville, La Verkin, Hurricane), I have looked up to see Crater Hill rising above. I looked at the steep volcanic slope right near Coalpits Wash and thought that it would go. Since it was now the dead of winter, I figured there would be no better time to get into the Southwest Desert. I parked my car along the road right next to the big bend right past Coalpits Wash. I hopped the fence that put me in BLM land. I looked up the slope to see a herd of deer that looked fit and more scared of humans than the deer that wander around the south campground. 

I picked my way up the slope they came from and with not much work I was able to reach the high plateau that I would follow out to Crater Hill. I could not believe just how flat and barren the landscape was out there. The Kolob fire ripped through the area in 2006 and it is still struggling to get life back. The views were incredible as it is rare to have a 360 degree view with the Eagle's Crags, West Temple, Bishopric, Cougar Mountain, etc... After about an hour and a half, I found myself at the base of Crater Hill. There seemed to be an easy way around to the right, but I wanted to make it more challenging, so I went straight up Crater Hill.

 It was rather steep, but not anything to worry about as it was all soft volcanic scree. About halfway up, I looked up to see two condors fly right over my head. They literally looked like a plane taking off from such a close distance. I watched them fly away into the blue sky. Eventually, I topped out on the scree field to a short ridge walk to the summit. A cairn was put there to let me know that I was not the first. The views were great as volcanoes have that unique ability to shoot up in the middle of something so that there is a lot to see around you. I wandered on down the mountain to return after enjoying the top. 

I headed for the sandstone outcrops to the southwest of Crater Hill. I passed these on the hike up and thought I should check them out. They were so neat as they were a little miniature mudstone environment in the middle of a volcanic wasteland. There were little mazes and canyons within the sandstone. There were also lots of nests, holes, and animal bones showing that quite a few animals called this area home. I also saw plenty of petrified wood and chert. I was thinking that I may find some artifacts, but there did not seem to be signs left. I wandered through the area for a good forty-five minutes, looking closely but trying to avoid getting my face to close to all the animal feces that filled the nooks. Getting back to the car was a breeze as I was able to find a use trail that lead me right down all the steep volcanic boulders. I went back a week and a half later to check out the sedimentary rock I saw from the top of Crater Hill. This was to southeast of the peak. It was much of the same with lots of little canyons and so much petrified wood. The cool part was all of the petrified wood in the rock itself as whole trees were in there. This is definitely the place to go to get your fill of petrified wood. On the way up and on the way back, I saw the same herd of deer as this must be their territory. I could see how it would be nice in the winter season, but this part of the desert reaches the hundreds daily in the summer time.