The Other Side of Cave Valley

Didn't feel much like getting up early and going for a long hike, but my wife and I wanted to get out together. So we took a drive up into Cave Valley. We did not want to see the petroglyphs, just wanted to check the place out. It has so many neat rock formations and little caves in it, that we wanted to see as much as we could. So honestly, we just wandered around going into cracks and crevices to see what we could see. It was really a fun day with the thunderstorm clouds building right behind us. It was such a strange time to be getting clouds like that in May. We went into this really large ampitheater at one point and Jacqueline blurts out that she has been there before. Wow, that sure ruined the excitement and discovery. It was really cool and there and I am sure that if you were running from the law that would be the place that you would hide out. At one point we got to climbing around on the rocks to see if we could make it over at a certain spot. I bet we could have, but the fuels of intensity were not burning in us on this day. Sometimes you look at a rocky cliff and say, "Let's do it". Other times you say, "well maybe". I was on a well maybe day and Jacqueline was on a whatever day, so we just sat on a big rock and enjoy the scenery for a while. I love to get out and do something fun with my wife and on this day just chilling and poking around in Cave Valley got the job done.

My Favorite Canyon in Zion

Working at the desk everyone always asks me what my favorite slot canyon in Zion is. My answer is always Right Fork without hesitation. I had only been in it once, though, and now three years later it was time to go again. I was scheduled to go through Parunaweap Canyon with veg, but it did not work out. So I counted my losses and went a different direction. Tim Hopp was coming into town for a few days, so I got him on board. Matt was yet to start work, so he was just hanging out. There was teammate number 2. Tim Lutterman and I wanted to do a canyon together for a while, so this just happened to work out well. 

So we were a team of four, the only one of which who knew what they were doing was me. I remembered the route like it was yesterday, though because it is so damn cool. 17 miles of no trail, just straight backcountry in Zion. The sweet thing was that I was going to get paid for this trip and I was stoked for that. We got a late start because we had to wait for Hopp to get in from Texas. We all met at the EOC at 11am and drove up to the trailheads. We left my truck at the Right Fork Trailhead, while we drove Tim's Explorer up to Lava Point. A short jaunt from there on the Wildcat Trail and then we dropped into Wildcat Canyon. This is one route that has no sign of human impact, especially in Wildcat Canyon. We hacked through the brush for some time until we finally found some much needed slickrock next to a blood red stream. We kept ourselves in and out of Wildcat Canyon as there seemed to be some much better routes out of it sometimes. Eventually it plopped us in the upper part of the Left Fork drainage. Oh the curiosity bug bites when I am at a point where I want to see the rest of something and I can not. That is how it was in the Left Fork. Up or down, both seemed like they would be fun to explore. It would be easy for me to come back, but we did not have time on this trip. So after finding a sketchy way out ( I am sure there must have been an easier way) we were now climbing uphill for the first time on this trip. The terrain was more friendly though with less brush to hack through for a while. We followed the wide open area to the top of a pass where we got a great view down into the Right Fork. This was not where we dropped in, though, and I remembered this from last trip. We had to stay far to the right and up on this nasty, brushy slope. 

I kept telling the guys that even though it did not look right, it was. I think they believed me and they really did when we finally got a view into the Right Fork from a very high viewpoint. From this spot, we made our way toward the wall to some slickrock relief. Matt got the worst of the brush as he had several very large gashes in his legs that would take a weeks to heal. We made our way down the slickrock where we ran into some water. We knew that this would probably be a good place to call home for the night. We found a spot and threw our stuff down. I looked around the corner and we were right above the first rappel. Perfect! We all staked out our bivy spot and made our dinner. 

The smell of everyones dinner made my bagel sandwich seem so pathetic. We played some cards later and Tim Hopp ran the table. I had a rough time getting to sleep, but once I did, I felt a lot better. We awoke at sun up and got ourselves going. Not very far at all to where we had to rappel. Tim L and I looked at it and thought that it looked downclimbable, so we did it. It was sketchy, but there was only one really bad spot. Matt and Tim Hopp rappelled it. Then it was some route finding and downclimbs until we came to the first rappel, a short 30 footer. I actually had to ascend the first rap because Hopp underestimated and did not throw enough rope out. 

It went fine and was an easy rappel. I wandered up the Right Fork a little ways with that hunger of curiosity growing in my stomach, but on this trip it was down the rest of the ways. We had a couple more short, awkward raps before we found ourselves staring face to face with my favorite Zion landmark, the Black Pool. We had been hyping up for this. Most of us even brought wetsuit tops. It was a good thing because it was a chilly morning. I got to take the initial plunge. I threw my pack in and started swimming. I thought I would be swimming for quite some time, but it was more like 100 feet instead of 100 yards. I walked out the rest of the way, then got out the camera to catch everyone else emerging. It was chilly and I kept my wetsuit top on for most of the rest of the morning. We got to do a really sweet rap after that off the side of a cliff into some shallow water. 

Now we were in the good stuff as the canyon became super deep and narrow. We ran into a rock slide that we had to get past and had some difficulties finding one of the rappels, but after a while of canyon hiking we were soon rappelling into the Grand Alcove. It took a couple of rappels, one of which that was very short and very awkward, but we all survived to take in the beauty. It is too bad that we could not see more of the Alcove, but by the time we were standing below it, the thought of swimming through some cold water to climb back into it was not enticing to anyone in the group. 

It did not take long after this to end up at Barrier Falls and our last rappel. Barrier Falls is so cool and slick. Hopp went first and he ended up rappelling right into the big cold pool and doing a swimming disconnect. The rest of us walked around. Now all that was left to do was a seven mile hike out. Luckily that was through scenary with lots of waterfalls. Double Falls get publicized because it is the first waterfall and the last easy one for someone to get to, but in Right Fork there are lots of waterfalls between Barrier Falls and Double Falls. 

I was in the mood to hike hard and fast, so that is what we did. We made good time to, getting out by 4:30pm. Matt was spent after the trip and I think I even hiked Tim Hopp into hiking like a normal person. It helps when you are a little bit in shape. It was an awesome trip and I was glad I had some good friends to share it with. Knowing that I was leaving Zion, this could have been the last chance for me to go through Right Fork and I was glad I got to share it with the Tims and Matt.

Hiking with Tom

Jacqueline's dad came up to visit. He had been on a bike trip with his buddies going from Durango, CO all the way up to Yellowstone. I was jealous of their adventure. It sounded like it was pretty fun. They rented an RV as a vehicle to follow so any time they became tired they could just jump in the RV. Tom took a break away from the trip to come visit Jacqueline's bro Paul and his girlfriend Addie and also to come down and chill with Jacqueline and I. We decided to take him on some of our favorite short hikes.

 First I took the two of them through Shelf Canyon. It is such a good short hike that gets you some slot canyon action without too many obstacles to overcome. Jacqueline was worried about her dad handling all of the boulders and such but he did fine. I gave Jacqueline the camera so we ended up with lots of pictures. It was a great pick because we were able to escape the heat of Zion as we got into Shelf Canyon the temperature dropped quickly. Everyone enjoyed the narrow section and I even played around stemming from one side to the other. We went until it started getting steep. From there, we headed back out, but we were not done hiking. We walked up the road until we found an easy spot to drop into Pine Creek. 

This is the non-technical section where it is still super narrow and cool, but no big obstacles to get around. Everyone enjoyed that too and connecting the two worked well because eventually it just shot us back out at the tunnel where we were right near the car. That is one of the few loop hikes you can make in Zion. The next day we were back at it with a trip up to the Kolob section of the park. We wanted to take Tom to the South Fork of Taylor Creek. This is my favorite short hike in the park and on this day it did not disappoint. It is so popular that there is a trail through there even though it is not on the map. We saw a few folks coming out as we were going in. 

At first it was hot, but luckily it was not too brushy. We climbed a bit of elevation but not too bad. I was using my new GPS that I figured out how to load map information into, so it kept me occupied. Eventually we ended up in the narrow crack that you can see from the road when you look at the canyon. This was much cooler with lots of shade. We looked up to see a climber high up on the wall that has a slight overhang. It looked like such a neat climb. 

They offered to let us go next, but I didn't think that was a good idea. We headed back into the canyon and eventually ran into mucho nieve. Snow? Is that how you say it in Spanish? We actually probably could have gotten through the canyon a lot further than normal, but it got a little questionable when it is eighty plus degrees outside and you can see the real ground fifteen feet through a crack. So we took a picture of the end and headed back. It was a fun weekend and I am glad that we got to show Tom some good places in Zion he had never been before. He is a pretty lucky guy to have such experienced tour guides every time he comes to Zion. We were happy to do it, though as it gives Jacqueline and I an excuse to get out together.

2009 Backcountry Staff

Here is a picture of most of the 2009 Zion Backcountry staff. We just happened to be on a rescue together. A climber fell on Feast of Snakes or something like that. He went down about twenty feet onto his back. He was pretty messed up with some broken ribs and a ruptured spleen. We could not really tell because he handled it so toughly. I got to help him get packaged and lowered down from the cliff that he was on. I ran the main line lowering him down to the ground. After that the other team took over and lowered him down a steep slope. From there, the military picked him up in a blackhawk helicopter. I was very close to the action as the blackhawk was hovering right next to us. They got him out of there without any issues and safely to the hospital. We hiked out the short distance back to the switchbacks and done with the rescue.

Taking Another Crack at Escaping Spring Creek

Having already been to Spring Creek a couple of times, I suggested it as a hike to Eric who had never been there before. He was up for it and I just wanted to make sure that on this trip we got a bit farther than Jacqueline and I made it in the past. The hike is really neat. At first, we started out in an open area near a creek that quickly narrowed. The creek dried up and we were stuck fighting the brush and occasional obstacle. The worst was usually the brush. A couple of hours in we made it past the area that Jacqueline and I got to a couple years ago. Eric and I contemplated turning back, but I was glad that we didn't. Jacqueline and I only made it to a break where there was a really narrow canyon. I asked Eric which way he wanted to go, but he didn't care. We decided to keep going up the main section of canyon. It soon began to open up. We also got some water back in this section. The walls did not seem very high and eventually we got to some snowy sections. The walls seemed to turn into scree and there were some places that we had to climb around the flowing water. 

I wanted to see if we could make it out of the canyon. We tried one spot, but it got too steep. We found another spot and this worked. Seeing nothing but trees, brush, and very steep hills, we decided to call this the end. I was happy that we had negotiated the obstacles well enough to escape the canyon.

 On the way back down we found a big dead bird and even found the time and energy to check out a side drainage that did not go too far, but became really narrow. It was a good day spent with a good friend and I was glad that Eric and I found time to explore Spring Creek.