Whoever you are, I bet you have never done this hike that I just went on. True, many people have probably done bits and pieces of it. Starting out with Gifford Canyon. I have personally been in Gifford Canyon on three prior occasions. My first trip was in only a few weeks of having been in Zion in 2006 where I found some rather great slickrock scrambling. Later, I went with my dad and then the other time I went behind Bridge Mountain. So this was more along the lines of that Bridge Mountain trip. This time though, I found the correct way of getting out of Gifford Canyon rather than climbing the face of a cliff. This lead me to a very flat plane above Gifford Canyon, where I headed north to find the drop in canyon for Hepworth.
After picking the wrong one and backtracking, I found the correct route. I remembered how difficult it was after I got there. It was a trip back in time as 2.5 years earlier I learned that going straight down this canyon would not work. You have to do a short section of scrambling which was rather perilous and this was just to get up on to the high point where you drop down. It was not too difficult to get down from there, but there was a little bit of route finding where I had to drop into a little slot on the left side of a large slab to gain the canyon floor. From there it was really neat with some narrow sections and some short scrambling to get around areas of difficulty.
The one and only problem I was having with this route was my new shoes. I bought Chaco Canyonland shoes and most of the time they had a lot of grip. But with moss, they are particularly poor as twice I completely lost my feet and ended up on my butt in sections that were for the most part not difficult at all.
This left me a little weary of doing anything particularly difficult. Eventually I popped out to Hepworth. This left me with multiple choices. I could head toward Bridge Mountain again, but I needed something new. My debate was whether I wanted to hike over to Stevens Wash or stay in Hepworth. I chose to hike Hepworth and rather than take the normal route down toward bridge mountain, I decided to go up. This is where my hike started to get more rare. I had to bushwhack a bit, but for the most part the canyon held no obstacles. It was like a typical east side canyon, where I initially had to climb up.
The only problem with this being that now it was starting to get warm and I forgot the sunscreen so I was trying to keep my microfleece on. Once I gained the saddle, I looked down and of course it did not look possible to get down. But after picking my way down each obstacle, the sandstone illusion allowed another possible few feet until I reached the canyon floor. As soon as I hit the canyon floor, I found a big pile of crap. This would not even be notable if I was not in such a strange place to see that. Was it cow? Horse? A wild animal? Usually visitors' questions about feces really don't interest me, but this was bizarre.
I continued down following my map which showed me that I should get to a point where I could see Parunaweep. Sure enough, I walked into a huge amphitheater with large cliffs all around and I followed this until it ended at a sheer drop-off and I look into Parunaweep. If you look at my blog about Eagle's Crags, there is a picture in there overlooking the Shunesburg area. Well, this view was the reverse angle and another great view this time of the lower stretches of Parunaweep. Every other individual probably would have just returned back the way they came knowing that there is a way out. Given that I had been hiking for three and a half hours by this point, that may have been wise.
But looking at my route description (otherwise known as a map), I found a couple of blue lines on the map that suggested the terrain was a drainage. There were two very close together that shot right off the same area as the Hepworth drainage hit the edge.
So I took that canyon back up and after looking at the first choice and deciding it was impossible, I took my chances with the second. It was a slickrock wonderland. I followed this depression in the slickrock up until it turned me around. Fortunately it never did. Along the way I saw a desert tortoise home and did some friction climbing up until I gained the top of the saddle with a view back into Gifford Canyon. This was an interesting spot and I figured that I could drop back into Gifford and continue back out to my truck. I know that some people hike from Gifford to a viewpoint of Parunaweep. Problem was, I could not locate the route in.
I started out on the west side of Gifford and traversed over to the east side as it looked like I could pick out a route from the top. Once I got there, though, a series of obstacles left me not wanting to overcommit myself. So I had to come up with another option. After soaking in the beauty of the whole of Gifford Canyon, I began my traverse over to Crawford Wash. I was happy I did that because I got a great view of the whole east side area from Parunaweep to Checkerboard Mesa, all the way out to Mt. Carmel. It took me a series of trials and errors to get into Crawford Wash, keeping in mind the fact that some of that are is a Wilderness Study Area. I finally crossed over to where I could see that if I dropped down I could get to the saddle between the two sides of Crawford Wash. This was very reassuring as this was the last choice I had left. It worked and soon I was dropping into Crawford feeling happy and confident, since Jacqueline, David, and I hiked that part of the canyon before.
I remembered that there was one point we had some trouble with in Crawford and eventually I got there. After checking out the route around a dropoff, I decided that going down it would be a better prospect. It was just a short section as I was able to take a crack next to short jutting out section most of the way down. From there, I threw my pack to the ledge below where it stayed just barely as one little umph more would have pushed it into the pool that lay below. I was able to downclimb without the pack on my back rather easily as the first step was the hardest and from there I was good. It was just a long slog out from there. I took Crawford the rest of the way down until it ran me into Clear Creek/Pine Creek. I forget how beautiful Clear Creek is until I am there. The narrows are just as good as the Narrows. There was snow in parts, which was funny after a day of wondering how badly I was going to be sunburned the next. I got to the arch in Clear Creek and I saw that I was going to have to get wet, so I climbed out from there and hiked the rest of the way back on the road. It was an eight hour day of purely hiking and I was spent. I always love when I get back to my truck and I have just been somewhere completely new and different opening up the puzzle that is the east side wilderness in Zion NP.
Whoever you are, I bet you have never done this hike that I just went on. True, many people have probably done bits and pieces of it. Starting out with Gifford Canyon. I have personally been in Gifford Canyon on three prior occasions. My first trip was in only a few weeks of having been in Zion in 2006 where I found some rather great slickrock scrambling. Later, I went with my dad and then the other time I went behind Bridge Mountain. So this was more along the lines of that Bridge Mountain trip. This time though, I found the correct way of getting out of Gifford Canyon rather than climbing the face of a cliff. This lead me to a very flat plane above Gifford Canyon, where I headed north to find the drop in canyon for Hepworth.
After picking the wrong one and backtracking, I found the correct route. I remembered how difficult it was after I got there. It was a trip back in time as 2.5 years earlier I learned that going straight down this canyon would not work. You have to do a short section of scrambling which was rather perilous and this was just to get up on to the high point where you drop down. It was not too difficult to get down from there, but there was a little bit of route finding where I had to drop into a little slot on the left side of a large slab to gain the canyon floor. From there it was really neat with some narrow sections and some short scrambling to get around areas of difficulty.
The one and only problem I was having with this route was my new shoes. I bought Chaco Canyonland shoes and most of the time they had a lot of grip. But with moss, they are particularly poor as twice I completely lost my feet and ended up on my butt in sections that were for the most part not difficult at all. 
This left me a little weary of doing anything particularly difficult. Eventually I popped out to Hepworth. This left me with multiple choices. I could head toward Bridge Mountain again, but I needed something new. My debate was whether I wanted to hike over to Stevens Wash or stay in Hepworth. I chose to hike Hepworth and rather than take the normal route down toward bridge mountain, I decided to go up. This is where my hike started to get more rare. I had to bushwhack a bit, but for the most part the canyon held no obstacles. It was like a typical east side canyon, where I initially had to climb up. 
The only problem with this being that now it was starting to get warm and I forgot the sunscreen so I was trying to keep my microfleece on. Once I gained the saddle, I looked down and of course it did not look possible to get down. But after picking my way down each obstacle, the sandstone illusion allowed another possible few feet until I reached the canyon floor. As soon as I hit the canyon floor, I found a big pile of crap. This would not even be notable if I was not in such a strange place to see that. Was it cow? Horse? A wild animal? Usually visitors' questions about feces really don't interest me, but this was bizarre. 
I continued down following my map which showed me that I should get to a point where I could see Parunaweep. Sure enough, I walked into a huge amphitheater with large cliffs all around and I followed this until it ended at a sheer drop-off and I look into Parunaweep. If you look at my blog about Eagle's Crags, there is a picture in there overlooking the Shunesburg area. Well, this view was the reverse angle and another great view this time of the lower stretches of Parunaweep. Every other individual probably would have just returned back the way they came knowing that there is a way out. Given that I had been hiking for three and a half hours by this point, that may have been wise. 
But looking at my route description (otherwise known as a map), I found a couple of blue lines on the map that suggested the terrain was a drainage. There were two very close together that shot right off the same area as the Hepworth drainage hit the edge. 
So I took that canyon back up and after looking at the first choice and deciding it was impossible, I took my chances with the second. It was a slickrock wonderland. I followed this depression in the slickrock up until it turned me around. Fortunately it never did. Along the way I saw a desert tortoise home and did some friction climbing up until I gained the top of the saddle with a view back into Gifford Canyon. This was an interesting spot and I figured that I could drop back into Gifford and continue back out to my truck. I know that some people hike from Gifford to a viewpoint of Parunaweep. Problem was, I could not locate the route in. 
I started out on the west side of Gifford and traversed over to the east side as it looked like I could pick out a route from the top. Once I got there, though, a series of obstacles left me not wanting to overcommit myself. So I had to come up with another option. After soaking in the beauty of the whole of Gifford Canyon, I began my traverse over to Crawford Wash. I was happy I did that because I got a great view of the whole east side area from Parunaweep to Checkerboard Mesa, all the way out to Mt. Carmel. It took me a series of trials and errors to get into Crawford Wash, keeping in mind the fact that some of that are is a Wilderness Study Area. I finally crossed over to where I could see that if I dropped down I could get to the saddle between the two sides of Crawford Wash. This was very reassuring as this was the last choice I had left. It worked and soon I was dropping into Crawford feeling happy and confident, since Jacqueline, David, and I hiked that part of the canyon before. 
I remembered that there was one point we had some trouble with in Crawford and eventually I got there. After checking out the route around a dropoff, I decided that going down it would be a better prospect. It was just a short section as I was able to take a crack next to short jutting out section most of the way down. From there, I threw my pack to the ledge below where it stayed just barely as one little umph more would have pushed it into the pool that lay below. I was able to downclimb without the pack on my back rather easily as the first step was the hardest and from there I was good. It was just a long slog out from there. I took Crawford the rest of the way down until it ran me into Clear Creek/Pine Creek. I forget how beautiful Clear Creek is until I am there. The narrows are just as good as the Narrows. There was snow in parts, which was funny after a day of wondering how badly I was going to be sunburned the next. I got to the arch in Clear Creek and I saw that I was going to have to get wet, so I climbed out from there and hiked the rest of the way back on the road. It was an eight hour day of purely hiking and I was spent. I always love when I get back to my truck and I have just been somewhere completely new and different opening up the puzzle that is the east side wilderness in Zion NP. 
1 comment:
Actually I did that a couple years ago.
Just kidding. Dang, quite the hike. Manly men only. Adult hiking skills required.
Post a Comment