An Old Favorite

Keyhole Canyon is an old favorite of mine and it is quick to figure out why. An incredibly deep slot canyon filled with water, a few short rappels, deep dark narrows, and incredible light shows. A shorter day on the schedule lead to Seth Walker and I tackling Keyhole. We did a bit of work on some access issues as the trail to avoid the middle slot lost its sign. The rest of the day was just fun, though with three small rappels. It is good for us to go in these canyons to get reports on water conditions and it was still cold in there. We had wetsuits so that made the canyon much more fun. I think I could do Keyhole every single day and never get sick of it. It was my first Zion canyon and I would not mind doing it again and again.

Yovimpa Pass

Jacqueline, Zyla, and I wanted to take a trip so we chose Bryce Canyon for the day. It was only a couple hours drive and I chance to hike during the day with some cool weather. Jacqueline wanted to drive to the end of the road because she figured there would be less people. It doesn’t actually ever work that way in National Parks as most people decide to drive and then only get out of their cars when there is nowhere else to go. I was happy to hike from there though, as there are still quite a few trails in Bryce that I am yet to do. The two points of Rainbow and Yovimpa are grouped together. We found the Riggs Spring trail and headed out from there. I had never been on this trail and it immediately left the road and started dropping downhill. It would have been hard to go uphill as we were at the highest point in Bryce. The trail took us through the trees, where we had to deal with lots of downed lumber. With Zyla on my back, it was tricky. I decided that Jacqueline could not get away with not carrying a pack next time as Zyla and all our stuff was quite a load. Eventually the trail popped out of the trees where we were hiking on some ridges with views of the cliffs of Bryce. We gave Zyla a break for some time out of the backpack, but she was still enjoying herself. We were concerned that she was not going to be able to sleep, though, as this smaller pack gave her no neck support. After our break, Jacqueline took over for a little bit carrying the pack. It was nice to share the load, but I didn’t want to make Jacqueline carry it for too long. Luckily, our hike would not end up being very long. We only hiked what I would estimate to be around a mile and a half to Yovimpa Pass. From there, we turned around as it was already afternoon and Zyla would most likely miss that afternoon nap.I took over the duties again and almost immediately Zyla started to get slap happy. She thought her mom was just about the funniest comedian ever. Zyla’s laugh is contagious and soon she had all three of us rolling with laughter hiking along on the trail. We were going for a good 10-15 minutes and frankly if you want to be in good mood, just laugh for a while cause we were all having a good old time. Once that stopped, it wasn’t long before we had a sleeping child. I had a lot of dead weight on my right side. This could not be very comfortable for little Z, but she was resilient. We made it back to the trailhead with her still sleeping. We decided we would have ourselves a little dinner at Ruby’s Inn, then had back to ZIon. All in all, a great day out with the family on a quiet trail in Bryce Canyon.

First Canyon in a Couple of Years

Only a week into my term position, I was getting into a canyon. The trip of the day was Spry. It had been a few years since I had been in Spry, but I realized that this was probably my fifth trip through Spry. The weather was in the 90s, but with the heavy snow year and the Narrows still being closed, we had little options for canyons. Spry starts with a hike up upper Pine Creek and then a thousand feet of slickrock climbing. Seth and I got off route at a difficult spot and ended up doing some fifth class scrambling instead. It worked out fine and after a while, we had done the most difficult part of the trip. It is crazy looking up at Deertrap Mountain on the approach looking so high, then looking at it again when you have hit your high point and it is only a few hundred feet to the top. The canyoneering portion of the day went well. The first drop was the biggest, but least scary. When we got to the second drop that somehow disappeared. Not the drop, of course, but all of the anchors. So after investigating for a little while, we realized that it would be easy to climb around. My leg took a beating through the scrub oak, but it was easy scrambling back to the drainage again. Then there were a series of multiple drops including the difficult anchor that overhangs the drop. Seth helped me out with that one, but the main concern in Spry is not getting your rope stuck. There was one big drop where we were having a challenging time getting our rope out. Luckily, there was a group behind us that helped untwist for us. There was a group of six behind us that was a friendly group. We never know if people are going to hate us just because we are Park Service, but this group seemed to not have a bunch of hate for the government. That’s always nice. I was a little more nervous, not with the rappelling, but with my footwear. This was the first time I wore these shoes in a long time, so I had a tough time trusting them. We were done by 4:30 taking it at a rather normal leisurely pace. Happy to get back into a canyon and it was fun to do it with Seth. It is good to know the person you are doing a canyon with is very knowledgeable. It makes the day seem easy when you just have to worry about yourself. Spry is definitely a favorite of mine and would love to do it again sometime soon.

Back to Zion!

Well, my time in Norwood was now over and almost immediately, I was back to work in Zion. After a couple of days of office/desk time, I finally had my first field day. Will, the new Lava Point ranger, wanted to do a canyon. I was not up for it on my first day in the backcountry. Instead, I wanted to go to my favorite day hiking area, Right Fork. We had Andie with us who was our volunteer in backcountry for the year. I was intrigued by Seth’s description of a rock slide creating a large lake with a new dam. He said it was waist deep water when he went there early in the season. We got to the trailhead where the cheatgrass was thicker than I ever saw it. We had a tough time finding the way down, but I was lucky enough to see a chuckwalla dive under one of the hot lava rocks. It was brutally hot on the approach down. It was crazy going two weeks earlier from Norwood where it was snowing on me to the 100 degree summer June days of Zion. Luckily it was not as hot as usual, but with the black rock, it made it a bit hotter. The nice part was that we would be hiking in the creek the rest of the day. We were quick to find our way to the rock slide that was about a mile up the creek. It was rather massive with some big boulders to climb up around. Looking up from where we were we could see that the main culprit in all this erosion was water. I think people that doubt that water can erode in the desert just don’t know how it works. It slowly eats away until boom it all comes crashing down. We could look up and see this tiny little spring doing all this major damage. Past it though, was something more interesting. A big lake. Zion seems to have a lot of impermanent lakes that eventually fill with sediment. (Bad news Glen Canyon) This was another one causing us to get very wet. Without thinking twice about it, I plunged in at where I thought was the most shallow section. It ended up being neck deep on me requiring me to almost have to swim. Andie and Will were not so lucky. Being less than six feet tall, they were stuck swimming through part of this lake. I always love it when something new appears. This would definitely be one the best swimming holes in the park if it was more accessible. After that the canyon became more predictable. I was excited by the amount of growth that had returned from the fire of 2008. This area is so pristine and I just love the remote feeling of Right Fork, though it was right next to the Left Fork. We only saw two people in the canyon the whole day, which was a full patrol day of hiking. I was determined to make it to Double Falls wondering the whole time if the crew I was hiking with was just as determined. They did not complain, though, Andie was learning the hard way that I like to move on a patrol day to cover the most ground. We ran into some poison ivy and a lot of canyon before finally hitting Double Falls for lunch. With all the talk of high water in the Left Fork with it being closed, you sure could not tell it from Double Falls. It looked pretty much like normal. No raging river here. We ate quickly and began our trip back. It was uneventful until we swam the lake and hit the rockslide. After we crossed the lake, I was just finishing crossing the rock slide when I heard some rumbling and looked up. There were some large rocks coming down. My immediate thought was Andie and I just yelled to get the hell outta there. She moved swiftly and was quickly out of the way of the big rocks. Pretty exciting to learn that the reason it was a lot deeper than when Seth came through was that this slide was still active. Ahhh, the RIght Fork. It was a great day in the wilderness of Zion. I am so happy to be back. When I moved here the first time, one of my favorite songs by Death Cab said, “I want to live where soul meets body. And let the sun wrap its arms around me. Bathe my skin in water cool and cleansing and feel what its like to be real.” Sounds exactly like Zion to me.