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.