Fairyland Loop

We wanted to see how much patience Zyla had and get in a longer hike in the cooler weather. So we drove out to Bryce Canyon and I chose the Fairyland Loop Trail. Jacqueline was very hesitant about it since the trail was 8 miles, but I had faith that Zyla could do it. Frankly, since I would be carrying her, I actually had faith that I could do it. The trail started from the rim near the entrance to the park. We dropped off the rim at a fairly steady elevation drop. We kept the clouds in mind as a thunderstorm did not seem out of the realm of possibilities. We hiked for an hour or so through the cliffs and spires, before stopping for a lunch break. We found a nice spot above a wash with some trees and shade. We had to eat early on in the hike so Zyla’s milk did not get to warm. It was a much longer lunch break than I would take on a typical hiking trip, but it is hard to rush the little one along. I went up the wash to try to get some better pictures of the cliffs. This took some time, but I was still waiting when I got back. You have to be patient with a 16 month old kid. We took off after a while and the trail began to climb and traverse through what I guess you could call Fairyland Canyon, though it was too open to be called a canyon. I got to carry Zyla the whole way, but this time Jacqueline had a pack with our other stuff in it which was helpful. Zyla was doing great with the hike and was staying awake. She seemed to be enjoying herself, though I am sure she would have been happier walking. It was nice for Jacqueline and I to get in some good time in the outdoors as lately she had not had those opportunities. The trail was in good shape also, so we did not have to worry about any steep drop offs. We traversed through the canyon lands which took us a ways away from our car until it was time to climb again. The clouds looked like they were not going to cause thunderstorms on this day, but they did provide a little shade making the hike out easier. It was still challenging with Z on my back. But we soon topped out on the rim. Zyla still had not slept, which made her both grumpy and goofy nearly simultaneously. She was giggling up a storm and then the next second she was crying. It wasn’t shocking when she finally fell asleep nice and comfy in the backpack. We hiked the rest of the hike along the rim with her asleep. It turned out to be longer than we expected on the rim, so we were happy when we finally could see the sign for the trailhead. It turned out to be a pretty nice Sunday as the foot traffic was rather minimal on the trail, especially in the middle. Zyla did great, though we felt this was a good amount of hiking for everyone involved. It gave us confidence to take her on longer hikes in the future, though we had to admit that conditions were rather perfect on this late September day.

Angel's Landing Graffiti

You wouldn't usually think of Angel's Landing as a pristine place in Zion. Though amazing, it sees hundreds to thousands of people a day during the spring, summer, and fall. But for one day, for a couple of hours,the wilderness permits staff would have the place all to ourselves. There are toilets up at Scout's Lookout, which is the spot many people think is close enough to the top, that need to have the waste removed each year. The way the Park Service does that is by helicopter. Because of the danger to thehelicopter operation of having people up there, the trail crew keeps the trail up from the Grotto and down from the West Rim closed.

The wilderness permits staff took that closure opportunity as a chance to attack something that is an eyesore for both the park service and visitor's alike on Angel's Landing: GRAFFITI!

And we are not talking about a little bit of graffiti. These are not hand prints that people stick on the walls in the Narrows. Though frustrating, that graffiti can be taken off with a little bit of water and a scrub brush. No, this is carved into the soft sandstone, sometimes with meticulous effort, where it stays for decades.

In fact, there is a rumor that a person died on Angel's Landing because they were looking for a free space on the rock to carve their name and fell off the edge. So after years of

neglect there are literally hundreds of graffiti panels on top of Angel's Landing. So the job of removing it fell on the shoulders of the wilderness permits crew. Angel's Landing is technically not part of our district, though, it seems if we did not do it, no one else would. It had been a project for people for many years. In fact, it was one of my projects 4 years earlier. The problem was that we had not found anything effective in removing it. We had tried all our usual techniques and failed. The conclusion we finally came to was that we were going to have to deface the rock to get the job done.

A drill with a chisel bit was the decision after seeing its effectiveness on the Emerald Pools trail. But as the day came closer, I started to have doubts. We went through a whole process of getting this approved by the major heads of every department. While this worked out fine, I thought that there may be other less abusive ways of getting the job done. So days before, I took out various different hammers to try to get the job done. Success!

Frankly, the best of the hammers that worked was the smallest of them. I just pounded on the carved in section and then used a grill brush to scrape it off. On the scratched in graffiti, using only the top of the hammer was even more effective, not even leaving a mark. We had found a tool that was easy to use and could be used at all times of the year.The day before the scheduled helicopter flights, I took the other leads in wilderness permits up to the top of Angel's Landing.

What we discovered was the same thing that we knew previously, that the rock on top behaves differently than anywhere else. Maybe it is

from the constant impact of other people, but it just takes more beating, more scrubbing with the grill brush, and just generally more effort. Also, getting the job done with visitors up there is very difficult. So Derrick Fassbender and I were happy to have the place to ourselves when September 22nd finally rolled along. We hiked up with a member of the trail crew and then were left to have at it. We found pounded, scrubbed, rubbed, and eliminated hundreds of panels on that day. We got rid of eyesores like the giant BYU that my buddy Brian Hays had asked us personally to get rid of since he was a graduate and offended that his university would be represented in that way. We got rid of names and hearts with dates from 10 to 20 years previously.

We did get to see the helicopter

flights and realized that they were not anywhere dangerous to us. All and all we got 4 hours of time to ourselves up there and that was enough to see much of the graffiti go. Though not all, which is disappointing because we know it will reproduce when someone sees it and gets the idea to write their own name, especially in a spot where it is so easy to do now that it is clear. So please, do not put graffiti on Angel's Landing.

The whole world does not care that you were there. Take a picture, tell a story, but don't leave your mark. On a personal note, this was a very rewarding experience. To know that you could come up with a way to make an actual difference on a place everyone knows about in Zion made me feel great. Though the rock does not look perfect, I would compare it to tattoo removal. After removing a tattoo, the skin does not look new, but at least it isn't showing the horrible idea that someone had when they got the tattoo. The great part about the removal is also that we can eliminate the graffiti faster than it can reproduce. In future years, I think we can have Angel's Landing graffiti free. I think this would serve everybody well both the Park Service and the visitor's who get to experience it for the first time.

Flash Flood Week

We had been having such a mild summer when it came to the afternoon thunderstorms that the week we had in the middle of September came as a shock. It started on the weekend while we were home and just happened to peak out. See it wasn’t raining in Springdale, but up canyon in Zion, it definitely was. We just happened to look up canyon to see that between the Twin Brothers and Mountain of the Sun, there was an enormous waterfall pouring out. Obviously, that was not the place to be during a thunderstorm. This was just the start of a week of flash flooding. My work week took me out to the Wildcat Trail, which I had only hiked this year when doing the Subway. This time, though, I was hiking the entire trail. I was amazed when I did it that it was in such bad shape. It was super wide with new social trails being created. I spent the morning hiking the trail to see conditions, check the spring, etc… but the afternoon was spent just finding logs to pile all over the social trails. I was doing so well because the fire crew luckily had made some big pile of logs for burning. I figured I could put them to some better use. I pulled one dead log up and was surprised to see a scorpion. I had heard of scorpions being in Zion, but this was my first one that I saw. I, of course, poked it with a stick to see it strike the stick, but kept my distance to make sure it did not strike me. Then I continued with my work, staying rather close to the trailhead as the clouds that had been building all day, began looking more and more ominous. Eventually, the thunder began and that was enough for me to high tail it out of there leaving my work for another day. I got to the trailhead literally minutes before the rain began. I drove down the KT road waiting for another day. That other day never came that week as every afternoon the rain came. Finally, near the end of the week, I said screw it, I am going out anyway. I chose the Chinle trail thinking that was the most flash flood resistant area I could possibly get to. So I started my hike late in the day after busily returning some phone calls after opening the desk. This was a bad idea. I saw some other hikers smartly retreating. I thought, I just don’t care if I get wet. The clouds were very dark to the south where all the weather comes from, but I was determined for some strange reason to hike the Chinle. Before the rain even began, I was hiking along hearing the thunder and seeing the lightning in the distance, thinking it was comfortably far away from me. Then BAM! A lightning strike hits within fifteen feet of me. Luckily, I am standing in dirt because if I was on rock, I might be unconscious. I throw my pack into the mud, as the rain has come with the lightning, and curl up in a ball. The lightning does not strike again near me, but it was enough to freak me out. Not enough to stop me from continuing my hike (why?) as I went to Huber Wash to see the flash flood pouring really strongly through there. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera. With the clouds looking terrible again, I finally bailed. I was getting poured on with lightning and thunder all around this wide open plateau. I tried to hurry, but the trail gets so nasty in the rain. It was super muddy and I just had to hike quickly and hope the weather did not get worse. Luckily, it did not and I made it back safe and sound. I was off work, so I changed my clothes and went to the weight room. The rain continued. I kept my radio with me and heard that there was a rockslide up canyon covering the road. Also, I heard Oak Creek was flashing, so I went to check that out. It was going good carrying big logs downstream. It makes you realize the power of a flash flood when you see it. I was hoping that everyone was okay in the canyons. They were, which was good, though there were some concerns for some time. Finally as the weekend came and I was working overtime, we got away from the bad weather. Zyla and Jacqueline were able to come for an afternoon hike with me on the Northgate Peaks Trail. It was fun because since I was at work, I had to carry my work gear with me, so Jacqueline got to carry Z. Jacqueline was not too thrilled about it and neither was Zyla. Z was a bit whiny and so was Jacqueline, but they settled into it as the hike went on. We first hiked to the end of the trail to see. the incredible view. On the way back, I spent most of it working on the trail because once again there were a sufficient number of social trails. Jacqueline and Zyla did not help me, but were patient enough to wait for me. On this day, finally, there was no fleeing from the rain as Zion was back to being 100 plus degrees as is typical for the summer time, though, summer was now coming to a close.

Just Me and My Dad

I went hiking just me and my Dad. I wore a hat because it was too sunny.I let Daddy carry me in the backpack so that he could keep up with me. We went to a place called the Toadstools. The rocks were very weird there. Daddy let me run around near the Toadstools for a while. My favorite thing was the dirt and rocks.Some people took a picture of just me and my Dad. Aren't we a good looking pair?Later we hiked up a canyon. I think Dad got lost.

Me and my dad stopped in a shady place and had lunch. I liked the milk the best.On the way back to the car, I fell asleep from having too much fun hiking with just me and my Dad.