Checkerboard Mesa

My first memory of Zion National Park is going there as a kid of about 11 years old during a spring trip. When you drive in from the east side, first major landmark that you get to is Checkerboard Mesa. I snapped a photograph there with my dad and mom with a camera I had just recently obtained for Christmas. Because of that, Checkerboard Mesa stuck in my mind as the most prominent of all the landmarks in Zion that I could remember from my visit there as a kid. I thought it suiting to give the ol' boy a visit and actually scramble to the top of the mesa. I had known for years that this route existed, but had not taken the effort to actually undertake it. 
So I got a fairly leisurely start on this fair November day. The park was just swamped since it was the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. Luckily, this trailhead was nice and quiet given that all the people here were doing what I set out to do as a kid and take that picture of Checkerboard Mesa. The route up is to the east of the peak through a very forested area. I was surprised to see a fairly well defined use trail with much erosion taking place. It was easy to follow and with just hard work and effort, I was able to make the saddle between Checkerboard and the hidden east side slickrock beyond it. From there, the trail sort of disappeared making me think that this route was being used as an entrance into Fat Man's misery instead of the route to the west of Checkerboard Mesa. 
A quick scamper got me on top of Checkerboard Mesa. Technically at this point, I had reached my goal and could turn around if I so chose. But, I had to get some kind of view so I braved the thick scrub oak that surrounded the top of the mesa. It wasn't too long before I got myself in a thick bunch of scrub oak, eventually having to turn around and backtrack because the way was blocked so severely. It was on my way out to find a new option around, that I managed to whack myself directly in the open eye with a branch. It was so painful and I thought after a minute it might get better, but my eye just continued to throb and to water. I could barely keep it open and found it much easier to move if I didn't, though I needed some depth perception to make sure I didn't make an error in judgment on where I put my feet. 

Eventually I found my way out to the edge and an excellent viewpoint of Clear Creek canyon and down into Zion. It would have been a great view to sit and enjoy, but sun made my eye ache more and more. So I took some snapshots of the views and of my squinty self, then started back. This time I found an easier way through the oak, but the eye was hurting more and more, so much that I found myself having to stop just to close my eyes for a few minutes to keep the pain away. I was lucky there was a strong social trail in that area or else I would have had a hard time route finding through that forested area.
When I got back to the car, it was getting bad. I was excited because my sunglasses were there and I could use them to keep the light from really hurting my eye. When I opened, the case, I saw that they were broken. Oh no! I put them on anyway and tried to tough my way through the drive that was a half an hour through windy roads. I would scream out in pain to keep my eye open. The most difficult section was through the tunnel. I literally hyperventilated to keep my eyes open because the pain was so severe. I luckily made it home without injuring myself, my car, or anyone else with my car. I spent the rest of that day and the next dealing with extreme pain in my eye. I guess this should be a lesson to wear sunglasses, but I truly enjoyed that summit and the short hike it took to gain it. I hope to go back again and maybe enjoy the view the next time around. 

Progeny Peak

   

 Furlough! It is not always the best thing to not get paid anymore, but a little time off is not always a bad thing. People look forward to their first day of retirement, but I had been looking forward to the first day of furlough. What was I going to do? Well, the same thing I get to do for work, go for a hike in the park. Jacqueline and Zyla were in Arizona for Thanksgiving visiting family, so I took the opportunity to have the day to myself. We had just had Greg and Annette over for dinner.  Greg had suggested a hike called Progeny Peak on the east side. This was a route popularized by Bo Beck and Tanya on their website zionnational-park.com.
For a long time I had been resisting these routes since the east side was so easy to explore on its own. With Greg's advice, I finally decided to give it a try. The funny thing is that I had actually done a lot of the hike before. (see East Side Arch ) I had just never had the urge to try to get to the top of the peak. So this time I had a destination instead of just randomly wandering the east side.
 I parked by the beginning to Spry and then just started up the slickrock. The beginning of this hike takes you to the Two Pines Arch, but I had already been there before, so I just went up a different route. It proved not too difficult. I followed the contours of the slickrock until finding a pretty easy slope to the top.
 This was such a great route because it was almost entirely slickrock. When I topped out, I found a gigantic cairn and a lot of amazing views. This is really a spectacular spot because you could see many of Zion's most famous peaks. I sat down for a while and went through the summit register where I found Greg's entry and added something to it.
I snapped many photos, but was disappointed to see that there was graffiti carved on the rock. Why does anyone feel the need to leave a scar in the rock with their initials on them. There turned out to be a half dozen different names carved in the rock. Luckily, I was the leading expert on graffiti removal, so I searched the summit for some hardened rock. I found some and bashed it in getting rid of a horrible idea by a not so smart person. I enjoyed the views for a few minutes more, but I eventually all good things have to come to an end.
 So, I went back down. I had a bit of trouble finding the way that I came up and got myself into some trickier downclimbing, but it wasn't anything to get too nervous about.
I could look back up and see the arch on my way down, but still didn't feel the need to hike up to it on this day. I did see a couple of other people out there wandering amongst the slickrock. They did not seem to have a purpose, but that is okay. It is funny how when I go on a hike to a place that I think no one else goes, there is always someone there. People are pushing farther out into the fringes of Zion National Park. I am okay with that, because the more people see how beautiful these places are, the more they should want to protect it.
 Except for maybe those few people who put the awful graffiti in the rock. I was plenty pleased by Greg's recommendation and Bo and Tanya's route description. I figured the next day, I would give another one of these east side routes a try.

Jug Handle Arch

I decided to take a simple hike out to a well known arch near Keyhole Canyon in Zion National Park. Jug Handle Arch can be seen from the Hoodoo Pass on the approach into Keyhole Canyon. Having never ventured past the canyon itself, I decided that this crisp fall day would be an excellent time to do that. The beginning was simple enough. Do the Keyhole approach and then climb up a ramp onto the slickrock. Take that ramp until the canyon opens up.
 Hike as close to the arch as possible before turning around and leaving. I did all of that except the turning around and leaving part of it. After getting to a good viewpoint of the arch, I continued up the canyon to find a whole slew of interesting slot canyons. They were here, there and everywhere. I could not help myself but to wander up these hidden gems. Some of them had challenging obstacles that I needed to do some climbing to get around. Some had debris and interesting rock formations. All of them ended before I could use any of them to access the East Rim, though I tried especially at the back of the canyon.
 I ran into difficulties when I got to some steeper sections and made the wise decision of not trying anything too sketchy when I was in a canyon that no one wanders into just on a random day hike. Heck, I had never done it before. On the way down, I made sure to check out all of the interesting side slots. My favorite one on the east side of the canyon made me very interested to see if I could get down to it from the top. More than likely I could, but finding it again from the top would prove to be some masterful navigational precision.
The leaves were out too, though I was looking at the end of the season. The greens, yellows, and reds had now turned into the yellows, reds, and browns, but there were still a few hangers on remaining. My next goal was to check out the Upper Keyhole section. I thought a few times about making a solo descent, but I did not know if there was any rappelling to do. Most likely there was something formidable as the canyon narrowed down to a truly tight spot.
Instead I checked it out until it did not look too easy (or too dry for that matter) and scrambled back up to my original plateau. I looked down to see a whole bunch of bighorn sheep just minding their own business. Say what you want about Zion's bighorn sheep population being domesticated, these bighorn sheep wanted nothing to do with me. They saw me, were spooked and in 30 seconds covered the ground that it would take me 10 to 15 minutes to cover. I looked over to the west from my plateau and saw another section of this canyon yet to be explored (by me) and knew that I would have to come back to give it a look. There seemed to be even more canyons and slickrock to wander around upon.
The last thing to do for the day was after I dropped into Keyhole proper, to hike up the upper section to see what it looked like. It wasn't long before I was wading through some cold deep water in a nice tight slot. This upper section needed to be explored eventually, but on today, it was going to be left for when I could convince someone else to give it a try. All that was left to do was to hike back down to the car and smile because I had found myself some interesting slickrock and slot canyon features in Zion that maybe I was the only one to know about.

Kinesava

I can't say that I have wanted to climb Mt. Kinesava for a long time because I wasn't sure it was within my ability. When Annette and I finally got a day to patrol together for work, we wanted to do something a little bigger than our typical hikes. We chose Kinesava and geared up reading some route descriptions to get ourselves pumped up for the climb. It sounded challenging, but possible, so we drove on out to the Chinle Trailhead. From there we followed the trail until just when we crossed into the National Park. Good thing for National Parks because there used to be another way through town that has been closed off due to crossing private property. But in our good ol' National Park, we can walk freely to the summit of Mt. Kinesava. Kinesava is just so impressive the way it starts the entrance into Zion Canyon. Nearby the West Temple dwarfs it, but it seemed like a large enough obstacle anyway. We wound our way around cliffs until we finally found a spot to go up the forested slopes of the Kayenta formation. This was an easy second class walk to face of the cliff.

Our route would be up to the right of the summit where a small break in the cliff allowed for some fourth class climbing action. It turned out to be a fairly straight forward route to find as in many places there were only a few places to choose from. There were only two places of major difficulty that took some thinking. They were just a couple of walls that we had to find out the best way to get up them. It was a bit nerve racking, but eventually we came out to a big flat plateau that was on top of Kinesava just before the final push up the summit. Getting to this place, though, felt good for Annette and I as we knew we had surmounted the most difficult spot. We laid down our heavy packs carrying the rope that we did not use, then high tailed it to the summit. We picked a route to the right once again and though it did not seem like the best route, it worked out just fine. Soon, we were looking down on Zion Canyon with one of the most incredible views.

We could not help but to smile up there. The views were amazing as from one side you could see into Coalpits, to the Left and Right Fork, and over to the Guardian Angels. From the other side, you could see the Watchman, East Temple, Springdale, and many other amazing peaks and sights. If you turned around, there was the huge West Temple. If you looked straight ahead, Eagle's Crags and Canaan Mountain looked inviting. I don't think anyone could be at a place like this and not be happy that this place is protected for all humanity to enjoy. 

We spent a considerable amount of time soaking up the ambiance of the summit, then went back down to our packs. We hiked over to do the work that we had to do while up here and had a bit of lunch before heading back down. This was a spectacular place to be and the only thing left to do was to descend it. To be honest, my mind was imagining all the obstacles that we ran into on the hike up and how much more difficult they would be going down. Turned out, though that they were not. We had more difficulty finding our way through the Kayenta formation than we did the Navajo sandstone. This was mainly because we were no longer concerned about our safety in the Kayenta. 

We did however, run into a couple of giant spiders. One that was bumblebee colored and gigantic. I was glad I saw him before I ran into his web. I don't know if he was poisonous, but we looks scary enough to be poisonous. Then immediately after that, I saw my only tarantula of the season. It was a great way to end the hike as we eventually found the telephone poles that lead back to the Chinle trail and our vehicle waiting on Anasazi Way. A great climb and it was awesome to see such an amazing Zion summit.