Sand Bench with the Hays Family

Hiking in Zion with a new infant during winter can be challenging, but the Hays' family was up from Moab, so we had to give it a try. They were seeking something adventurous, but we just wanted something that would be enjoyable. So we suggested the Sand Bench trail because it has good views, few people, and no steep drop offs in winter. I think everyone else would have been happier with Angel's Landing or something more exciting, but Jacqueline wasn't having it. When they showed up it was Brian, Angela, their daughers Liesel and Hannah, Brian's bro Matt, and Angela's sisters. We were 11 people total which was quite a few people to go hiking with. Zyla and Liesel were around the same age, so it was fun for them to get together. The Sand Bench trail actually turned out to be a great hike. It was frozen rather solid in many spots. Jacqueline brought up the rear while the rest of us chatted away. Jacqueline was concerned about Conrad and the cold, but he mainly just slept. We were happy to use the kids down suits to keep them warm.
I think it was boring for everyone without kids, but the rest of us enjoyed the loop. Zion in the winter is an impressive site and it is nice to look down from above on the scenic areas where the cars do not constantly pass by. We got family pictures and when it was all said and done the kids were tired, wet, and hungry which means that we had to go home to fix that problem. The Hays' family left to go back down to St. George and Brian's family, but it was fun to see them even if it was only for a short time.

Conrad's First Hike

Conrad was almost a month old, so we figured it was high time for him to hit the trail. This was a big undertaking to just get out the door trying to fit a short hike into a newborn's schedule. We chose something simple to make sure that it would happen. We drove up the scenic drive and parked across from the lodge. Our goal, the Lower Emerald Pools. We loaded Conrad into the Baby Bjorn, since he was a bit bigger than Zyla was at this time in her life. She was too small for it until after two months whereas Conrad already fit in there at less than a month.
Hiking up there, we still saw some people even though it was the tail end of fall. There was a bit of ice and running water at the pool. With all of Jacqueline's constant checking to see if Conrad was okay, the whole hike took a bit over a half an hour to do about a mile roundtrip. I carried Zyla and she did manage to fall asleep in this short time. I was hoping that we could do more, but having such a small baby out in the crisp cool air of the late fall, it was tough to push him to do more.
Besides, after an hour, mother and son would need to have a feeding session anyway. I would go back to being Zyla's main parent while Jacqueline tended to the new baby. I would get the tired kid with only a half hour nap, but worth it to get the kids out and about in the park.

Wandering around the East Side

One of my favorite things to do in the winter time is to wander around the East Side. I parked at one of the familiar pull offs and headed into Clear Creek, then up a small drainage. I found a drainage that I thought I had never explored and decided to go explore it. When I started hiking, though, I realized that it just led to another drainage that I had previously explored. This was my quick way into a viewpoint of Parunaweap. It was one of the least exposed section of rock, but with great views along the way.
There were moqui marbles and rocks with circular patterns built in.

This place is still relatively unexplored by the 3 million visitors that tromp the trails of Zion yearly, so they have not stolen all of the interesting parts of this
I could see my route through the Root Canals that Seth and I had taken. We went up the canyon on the left and down the one on the right through Many Pools. A pretty fun trip, but super challenging and brushy.
After climbing up some steep slick rock, it eventually dumped me out on a flat vegetated plateau. From here, many different expeditions to various places could be undertaken.
 I initially started out on a small trip after finding a path that had been made in the sand. It had been made by a snake. I followed it over to a pile of dirt and realized that if I decided to dig that pile of dirt up, I might find myself a large rattlesnake inside. So I decided to leave it alone. Instead, I headed east and stayed near the protruding peaks. I decided that maybe it would be fun to try to climb one of the Triplets that were right there. I was not overly ambitious about it since I was just kind of in a wandering kind of mood. As I climbed up there were interesting slick rock formations and great views of Zion Canyon below.

I got to a saddle between the two peaks and tried to find a safe way to the top. None of it seemed like I would die if I fell, but all of it seemed like there was high potential for injury. Out here, by myself, I could not take any risks. So only a few feet from the top, I decided to turn around.
I had amazing views in every direction of the Parunaweap area and the east side also. I took lots of pictures and got distracted for a bit then continued on down.

 I had to figure out where to go next. I wandered around on the flat plateau until I got on the other side of the Triplets. I found myself separated from continuing east by a large canyon. Instead, I found a nice spot to sit down and have lunch. I looked up and could see Nippletop and the Triplets separated by this canyon.

 In fact, Nippletop actually had people on top. I decided that I would come back. (I actually tried a week later to climb Nippletop with a friend, but we did not make it as he was uncomfortable with the exposure. No blog because my camera ran out of battery.) I decided to go check out this canyon. I stayed close to the high point I was at and traversed over. I found an unused route into the canyon and was nearly immediately turned back by a drop-off. I am sure that this is an unexplored Zion slot canyon, but I don't think that I have a strong desire to make a first descent.

 It looked rather brushy, though there are probably a large supply of good anchors. I ended up popping out of the canyon back onto a flat plateau behind the Triplets once again. Picking a different way to explore and being intentionally vague so that no one can follow my route, I found myself once again in a place that I had been. I looked around and found a panel of pictographs along a wall.
 This was an excellent spot as it provided shade during the summer and full sun during the winter.

I even found a bit of pottery on the ground near the pictographs. I left here returning by my original route to get back to the car having had a day without too many new discoveries, but nonetheless, enjoyable on the east side of Zion National Park

Observation Peak

This was like any other day hiking in the canyon for work. I chose Observation Point because it is probably my favorite of the main canyon day hikes. It is long, 8 miles round-trip and extremely scenic with great views throughout of Zion Canyon. I decided to add a bit extra to this hike since it was nearly my last day of work. I hiked over to the normal point but then behind me looked to see that the actual summit of the mountain I had been hiking up was there. Since there was no trail, on one typically went there. I was interested to see that on top there was a survey marker with the words Observation on it. Thus, this must be Observation Peak.

The views down canyon were not quite as good, but up canyon you could get a good look at the layer of Navajo Sandstone that was carved nearly vertically providing the home of the Narrows. Zion was such an amazing place of slickrock beauty. I had some lunch up on top and then went down. I was surprised to find on my way down that there was a campfire that had been left there.
I could only imagine how old this was because no one has been able to camp near Observation Point for a while. Either that or they were camping out of bounds. Either way I cleaned it up and moved on. Unfortunately it was not far until I ran into another obstacle to my hiking progress. Someone had written with white-out on the signs. I ran into two signs just like this. One near Observation Point and one at the junction with the East Rim trail.

This was strange for Zion. We often get scratched in or carved in stuff, but no white-out. I did my best to get it off with available tools which turned out to be water and concrete that was nearby. It took about ten minutes apiece, but I believe that at the end of it all, it looked back to 95% of what the sign once was. I continued on down and let law enforcement know about the graffiti. Turns out it was all over the park and the inscription had some tie to a gang in North Carolina. Somehow they made their way to Southern Utah. It was a good day to enjoy the park a bit before going into full time Dad mode. 

The Conrad

Well, I would like to have a great intrepid story to tell about the birth of Conrad. Unlike Zyla we didn't drive through a forest fire in the pouring rain in the middle of the night and run into a snowstorm before finally making it to the hospital. No, this birth was much simpler than that. It started with a wife ready to pop this child out. Zyla was born a few weeks early, but those few weeks early came and passed for Conrad. He was enjoying the comfort of his mother's womb.
 At this point the doctor's appointments became weekly. Then, they told us to come back after the weekend. So it was now Tuesday. I went to the first half of my work day, then loaded all our overnight gear into the car for Jacqueline's doctor appointment. He took one look at the nether regions and said, "Do you want to have a baby today?" We said yes, and it was across the street to the baby hospital. St. George has such a ridiculous amount of babies that they actually have two hospitals. One for all the sick people and one mostly for babies. We had a feeling that things would be different having a baby in Utah and we were right. From the very beginning, things were very business like. They got Jacqueline to her birthing room and immediately filled her with all sorts of tubes and monitoring devices. We could see from the monitor that she actually was already in labor.
 She just didn't know it yet. They asked her if she wanted the epidural. This time there was no doubt. Then they gave her the pitosin and a few minutes later she was in for the most intense pain of her life. The epidural couldn't come soon enough. Then it was off to a blissful world of a drugged up body where Jacqueline's main concern was the fact that she could not feel anything. Unlike the last experience where the anesthesiologist gave her a weak dose so she could still feel some things, this guy gave her no such hope. In fact, she kind of was on the verge of falling asleep, while I sat reassuringly by her side playing Angry Birds. Then a nurse came and to say, oh my you are ready to push. All of this transpired in 4 hours. Amazing. The same doctor who had seen her in his office 5 hours earlier came in to have her push. One, two good pushes and out came Conrad Tenzin Drake to the world.
 His first scream sounded like a mountain lion. As the excited father, I dutifully took lots of pictures most of which turned out blurry at best. They passed him over to Jacqueline and Conrad immediately decided to pee on his mother. I cut the umbilical cord then it was all the important weights and measures. 7 pounds 4 oz., 21 inches long. The rest of the night was a blur of baby movement. Grandma and Papa were out in the waiting with Zyla. They were able to come by once Jacqueline transferred to another room.

 I stayed in the room while Zyla went back with Grandma and Papa to spend the night at their trailer in Hurricane. The night was a mess of medical issues with Jacqueline and trying to get the baby to feed. I successfully got a few hours of rest and so did Jacqueline. By eight, they made sure Jacqueline got a good feeding in for Conrad and everything seemed good by 11 am. Zyla and Grandma were back.  A woman came by who took some professional pictures since Dad probably was not the best at it.

 Then it was the quick departure preparation. Jacqueline, Conrad, and I were out the door by 7 pm off to spend the night trying to get some rest in our own beds. We picked Zyla up on the way and for the first time we were a complete family of four. 

Fat Man's Misery

Every year in the fall, we have to do some access route monitoring to keep track of the deterioration that goes on due to overuse. One area that we monitor is the route between Checkerboard Mesa and Crazy Quilt that is used to access the Barracks and Fat Man's Misery. Derrick and I were assigned to this task, so we figured to go ahead and do Fat Man's Misery while we were at it. It is not in the park, but close enough that we should have a good knowledge of the route. We measured the access route on the way up which looked like it was in bad shape. Then we cut east to drop into Misery Canyon. Not quite sure where it got its name from because none of the canyon is too super narrow. And I can't even tell you how many rappels they are because most of them are unnecessary. The canyon would be rather open, then narrow down, then open up again throughout the entire length of it.

Sometimes there was a downclimb or a rappel, but often there was an easy way around it up high on some slickrock. I personally am of the mindset that if I can find a non-destructive way to get around a rappel, I am not going to waste my time sport rappelling. It really wasn't until the end of the canyon where Derrick and I were forced to rappel. We got some cold water also, but by the time we were getting cold, the water was over and soon we were walking out into the amazing oasis that is the Barracks of Parunaweap Canyon.

The Barracks is just a fantastic place. We wandered down to the Labyrinth Falls area then hiked back up to the plaque. From there, we exited the canyon. We were disappointed to run into an extremely large campfire ring that we had to take care of. It is sad to see such a pristine area on the east side with such a damaged spot. We continued on up the "trail", which the exit route from the Barracks had become. It led us easily back to the route near Checkerboard Mesa where we were able to take further measurements and sure enough it turned out to be out of standard. We were out in plenty of time to have a full workday finished, but it was an enjoyable day in rarely visited canyon for a work trip.

Mt. Charleston

We drove down to Las Vegas the night before, but had a bit of a tough time finding the campsite that we wanted. They had one campground completely closed, so we ended up having to go up the hill a little bit out of our way. It turned out fine though, just adding a few extra minutes to the drive in the morning. We awoke really early at first light. We had a short drive to the trailhead through all the developments right next to the trailhead. In fact, there was one development area that was right at the trailhead forcing us to park somewhere that we did not want to.

We got going on the trail with a route description to follow, but still managed to get off on the wrong trail and climbed uphill for a while. We got back on the right track, but Dad thought it was unfortunate that we threw in some extra work considering we had quite a bit of elevation to gain and many miles to do it in. After not too long, the trail got super steep with switchback after switchback. We were moving along quite well, though as the cool weather and quiet morning conditions helped to make the elevation gain enjoyable.

Dad was moving at a great pace and it seemed this peak would be a piece of cake. This was a really scenic area even being so close to Las Vegas. There were trees changing colors already as the bright yellows were starting to show up in the aspens. As the light hit the surrounding peaks, it felt as if we were in the mountains. The climbing sure felt like it, too. When we finally hit the ridge after about 3 hours of switchbacks, the peak still looked a long ways away horizontally but not too far vertically. We had a good traverse through the pine forest that gave way to the bristlecones.

Soon enough the bristlecones would die away so that we were just walking up a rocky trail above treeline. When we finally made it over to the last section of trail before reaching the summit, we were dismayed to see a helicopter landing on top. Well that slightly spoils the experience of getting up early and having the entire mountain to ourselves. We were surprised to not see any other people, but now we were seeing a helicopter. We made the final push to the summit and had accomplished another goal.

Dad had knocked out another peak with prominence and I had made it to the top of a peak that I had wanted to climb for some time. It was just after noon when we made it on top of Mt. Charleston. That put us at about 5 hours for eight miles of climbing with 4300 feet of elevation gain, most of that being done in the first 4 miles. This would give us plenty of time to get back down and relax for the evening. I am not sure if anyone else made the summit on this day, because most people that we saw hiking up on  the way down either looked like they were trying to kill themselves with a large load of gear or looked as if they were unprepared for what would be a long hike.

Preparation really does go a long way. We took our time coming down and were at the trailhead by 4 pm. We did a quick run over to the restaurant to have a beer and then back down to the campground for the night. It was an enjoyable hike that could be called Class 1 as never once was there exposure or any difficult sections of trail. Still it took a bit of effort to come out on top. We were happy to expend that effort for the trip was definitely worth it.

Thunder River - Deer Creek

Well, this trip started as an overnight into Kanab Creek. Dad and I had been talking about it for a few months and had come up with a good plan. The problem with our good plan was that it did not account for the current condition of roads. After a summer with quite a bit of afternoon showers, roads were not quite in great shape. We drove out into the western portion of the Kaibab National Forest which was supposed to be our access point for Kanab Creek. We drove down a dirt road for a while before it got super rutty and then we ran into a spot where the creek had decided the road was the best place to flow.
We took one look at the road and said, no thanks. We thought about walking the road to access Kanab Creek, but it turned out to be something that wasn't going to work. So we drove back to Fredonia to think of a new plan. This new plan would be to hike Thunder River - Deer Creek trail on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. This required us to drive all the way out to the North Rim to get a permit. Luckily we were able to get a permit.
We ran into Steve Bridgehouse there who had worked at Grand Canyon many years ago. He hooked us up with a permit, but unfortunately made us pay even though we were fellow park rangers. We then had to drive a bunch more forest service roads until finally getting to the trailhead around 4:30 p.m. This would still give us the time to do some hiking. We were not the only ones starting out this late. There was a guided group that we were just flying by. They warned us of a difficult spot near the top but we were able to downclimb it with ease. We were only going halfway down and would camp on the Esplanade. We found an excellent spot near a side canyon with some water access and a good flat spot for a tent. We set up camp with the fantastic views that are a constant feature of Grand Canyon trips to enjoy. We woke early the next day to get a full hike in.
We learned from Steve Bridgehouse that there was a trail of use between Thunder River and Deer Creek down near the river giving us the chance to connect the two together. We talked about it and since Dad had been to both spots, he was not ambitious enough to do that big of a hike to see something that he had already seen. So he planned to just hike with me down to Thunder River and then he would go back up to the campsite.
 The beginning of the hike started with some flat along the Esplanade and then dropping down onto another flat plain below. We saw a group of hikers coming up out of there that looked just like a classic Grand Canyon couple completely unprepared. We cut to the west once down onto the next plateau. We followed that plateau to the edge until it dropped down below into Thunder River. The spring coming out of the wall was quite impressive with green cottonwoods below it.
 We made it down to the water and then Dad and I parted ways. I was really moving after this. I don't know if it is the pace of a 62 year old that gets me ready to move or if I just was in good shape and feeling good, but I was flying. This was an excellent part of this hike as I ran into a group of campers staying in one of the camping areas. I talked to them for a bit. They were a retired couple from Connecticut. They were slightly concerned about the river crossings down below. I did not have any trouble with them, though. The canyon was nice with big walls and lots of vegetation common of wet Grand Canyon side canyons. I ran into a river trip group hiking up. They were semi friendly in a way but they reminded me of other river trips where they felt superior to mere hikers.

 Eventually I made it to where I had a viewpoint of the river. Unfortunately, I had forgot to take the route description with me that told me how to get to the trail across to Deer Creek. I figured it had to be rather self explanatory. I was dismayed to find the route to be really steep and exposed to start out. I was questioning my decision making being out at this place by myself. There were quite a few spots where one misstep could mean a 500 to 1000 foot drop into the river below. I eventually made it around the corner to find a steep hill. There was no discernible trail, but I figured that going down to the river could really only be the logical choice at this stage. So I picked my way down sometimes stirring up some loose rock. I could tell that this was not a common route.

 I ran into a few dead ends and had to make some different decisions on the hot, dark rock to finally get my way into the side canyon that led right down to the Colorado. I enjoyed a quick dip in the cold river to cool myself after the hot hike at the bottom of the canyon. After this point, the trail was rather easy to find and I could tell to my relief that I was in the right spot. It still was not easy as I climbed up and over a hill that dropped me into Deer Creek. Once I hit Deer Creek, I knew that there was a large waterfall, but I was at a very small waterfall. So I continued downstream. I knew that the canyon itself would not be my trail because it was a deep slot canyon with cold water flowing through it.

 I walked the rim of this deep canyon on the right side. There were a few points where I could have taken a tumble into the canyon but nothing too super sketchy. I came out around the corner and had to take a hot steep trail back down to the Colorado River, then walk back up to Deer Creek Falls. It was huge and definitely worth the hike. I am glad I got to see it. At first, I had it to  myself, then 3 river runners showed up for a swim.I took the opportunity to sit down, have some lunch, and fill my water bottles back up. Then it was back up the hot hill. I made it back to where the trail from Thunder River hit Deer Creek. I jumped in under the waterfall here to cool myself off for the hot hike. I followed Deer Creek for some time before ending up climbing out of the creek and up the hill. I ran into a couple of clueless guided groups which made me happy we did not have commercial guiding in the wilderness at Zion.

I went past one more small waterfall before just going uphill through the more flat, plateau country. I ran into the junction with the Thunder Creek trail after hiking up and talking to a few more groups. Then it was back up the steep hill and what seemed like a much longer hike on the flats of the Esplanade above before getting back to the campsite. It was definitely dinner time by this point. Dad had told me that he had barely got in only a short time before I showed up. He said he just did not have much energy going up the hill. So it was probably a good thing that he didn't try to put in a bunch of miles like I put in. We enjoyed dinner and an excellent sunset before getting some rest to wake in the morning and hike out.

We got ourselves moving before the sun hit us and it stayed off of us for most of the morning until we were nearly out of the Canyon. It was a couple hour drive back where we would take one rest day before driving out to Las Vegas to go hike to the top of Mt. Charleston.

The Lake is Full

Seth and I have done Mystery Canyon at least a couple of times, so typically I would not blog about it because I have been there often enough. But this trip was a little different. The point of the trip was to do some monitoring on the slope into Mystery. After we got the measuring done, it was time to go through the canyon. We did the first few series of rappels without any issues moving through rappel after rappel in the narrowest of sections. Then we got to a rappel that was usually a short drop, but strange enough it had completely washed out. Now the anchor was well above our heads, but the rappel was not a rather simple down climb. We got to the nice open dry lake bed, well usually dry lake bed only to find this dry lake bed filled with murky water.

 There had been quite a bit of precipitation lately and I guess those afternoon thunderstorms had flooded Mystery Canyon nice and full of rainwater. Now this usually dry sandy spot was now a large lake. We started out just wading and then realized that even that was not going to work. It became deeper and deeper until we were finally swimming. Not expecting that much water, I was dumb enough to leave my dry bag unsealed, so everything in my pack got soaked. Smooth move Drake.
 After the lake, we climbed up the slightly less steep hill and then back down into the canyon. We saw a black widow and a lizard with a bug in it's mouth after that to mix things up a little bit. Just a few rappels later we were exiting into the Narrows. We were very happy to have something new on a canyon that we had done many times before. 

Fish Lake

Jacqueline and I had been planning to go to Fish Lake for about 6 years, so we figured it was finally time. We arranged it so that we could meet up with Jacqueline's brother Paul who could come down from Salt Lake with his dog Flynn. Paul was going to meet us later, so Jacqueline, Zyla, and I made the 3 plus hour drive up to Fish Lake. It was a pretty drive and nice to go to some new country. We arrived at the lake in the early afternoon. We took a look around and saw the facilities before cruising the campground to find our perfect site.

We were surprised at just how many sites were available because the closer you are to Zion, the less likely you are to find a campsite. We picked one near the top of the hill with an excellent view of the lake. We decided to use the afternoon to get a hike in. Our trail of choice was Doctor Creek. It started out fairly flat going through some meadows. The flatness changed to some uphill. Jacqueline did great despite carrying a baby. Zyla was happily tucked away in the backpack. There were a few other people on the hike, but it was relatively quiet. The trail took us up, up, up through the aspens until finally popping out in a nice open meadow. At this point, the trail vanished but this was probably enough for the three of us anyway. We had a relatively easy hike back, so we took our time enjoying a break in the meadow talking to some women that joined us there. We hiked on back to the car and then met up with Paul at the campsite. He was in a great mood as usual. Zyla was both happy and nervous to see Flynn there.
 We had a good spot to have a dog because we were nowhere near any other groups, so Flynn could bark to his heart's content. We put Zyla to bed, which luckily, she never minds going to bed by herself in the tent. We stayed up playing Catan and enjoying each other's company. The next day we were up early in the morning. It was nice and chilly, so we enjoyed some breakfast in our poofy jackets. Our plan for the day was to go for a hike. I had a good map, so we chose a loop that would take us on the Crater-Ivie Trail. It was supposed to be 6 miles roundtrip. Jacqueline said that she was up for a big hike like that, so we went for it.

Flynn was so happy running around off his leash, that I felt so bad to have to ask Paul to put Flynn back on his leash. It is one of my pet peeves to be out hiking and have a dog come running up to me off leash. I could see that Paul did not agree with my personal preferences, but he obliged. We started out charging up a hill once again. When we topped out, we briefly talked about turning around, but Jacqueline said we could keep going. The trail quickly dropped down into a dryish lake bed. We walk around to the inlet of the lake and uphill through a meadow until we were back in the trees. We had a few worries as Flynn was getting a bit worn out while the dark thunderclouds warned of possible rain or lightning.
 We continued moving, though and soon we were coming down a trail with lots of loose rock. Jacqueline was not thrilled about this with a baby in her belly, but we made it down and were soon rewarded with an excellent view of the lake. Fish Lake was massive covering a huge area. We were now in a meadow which we would take back all the way to the car to complete the loop. We let Zyla walk the last fifteen minutes and she was happy to do so. She did so good in the backpack all day, so it was nice to get her out and let her walk. We drove on back to the campsite where we were able to hang out for the evening once again. Paul brought his sailboat to go sailing on the lake, but the winds were too strong in the morning, so we went out to breakfast instead. Then we parted ways having a fun weekend of hiking and hanging out.