Jennings Wash

I know after ignoring my blog for months on end, this is not the most interesting way to begin, but it is the next trip I took. I started work again for Zion backcountry and Scott, our volunteer, had a day in Coalpits. I decided to go with him after he invited me. I wanted to make the trip a little bit different, because I have hiked Chinle, Huber, Coalpits, Scoggins, so many times that it does not seem new and different anymore. So I told him I wanted to go up Jennings Wash, which is a side tributary to Coalpits. I was happy to get a backcountry day hiking with someone else. Scott was from California and looked just like a young Robert Redford. 

He was a surfer and was very near to the end of his season. I am not sure if he was quite as excited for the side trip as I was, but it is always fun to find something new to discover in Zion. After 2-3 hours of hiking, we went past the Oil Well Ruins and up the side drainage with a small trickle of water. After a bit, we made the choice to take the side drainage up Jennings rather than continuing up to Terry Wash. The terrain was somewhat challenging with places we had to figure out solutions to interesting problems, but for the most part we were dealing with a little bit of water, quite a few boulders, and a whole bunch of poison ivy. Eventually we hit the somewhat consistent end of the side canyon drainage in Zion. We were stuck with the decision once the water ended to head up a large boulder field to the canyon wall that seemed to be high above. Getting close on time and noticing that Scott was not exactly thrilled about going up that, we decided to turn around. 

Did we miss something that could be interesting? Possibly, but most likely no. Jennings turned out to be just filled with poison ivy, a few short waterfalls, some pools, but not much of a trip I was dying to go back to enjoy. Still, it beats most other days of work and I was glad that I took a look to see Zion from a different perspective.

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