Coyote Gulch / Zebra Canyon

 Brad was in town, down from Alaska to attend Eric and Izzy's wedding. He was out a little bit early to enjoy the Southwest. He organized some people for a hike which ended up just being myself and Ryan McDonald O'Lear. I hadn't hung out with Ryan much outside of work, but he was really a good guy, so I through this would be a pretty fun trip. Brad's choice was to go to Escalante National Monument. We drove to the visitor center in Escalante with a few ideas in mind and after talking to the person at the desk, we went with our first choice which was Coyote Gulch. It was a long drive down the Hole in the Rock Road. Brad had a rental car, though, so we could beat up someone else's car. We got to the trailhead at Hurricane Wash. It just happened to be an excessively hot April day. All Spring long the temperatures  had been fantastic including a snowy weekend just one week before.
 Hurricane Wash was nothing exciting at first, but began to get higher and higher cliffs as we trudged through the deep sand. Eventually, Hurricane Wash met up with Coyote Gulch where we walked for a short period of time before finding a nice bench to pitch a tent. We got our stuff put up then wandered down canyon to see as far as we could go. There were supposed to be some awesome arches and bridges down canyon. We were happy to enjoy the shady canyon rather than the hot sun. Eventually we came upon a large arch right in the side of the cliff. I couldn't believe just how massive this arch was as pictures just do not give you a good scale to go off of. I was disappointed to find a group camping right below the arch known as the Jacob Hamblin Arch. If you want to camp below an arch, at least give us some space.
Instead we had to go around the corner to enjoy it on our own. It was sure a long trip around and on the other side of it was actually a bathroom, like both a bunch of toilet paper strung along the canyon walls and an actual physical outhouse. I was not a big fan of the placement of this toilet, but I was even less of a fan of the fact that people could not make it to this toilet and were still pooping next to the stream. We continued down canyon and it was just kind of the same, a very gradual downhill walk as the stream puttered along through the sand.
In a few places we had some nice rock formations, but for the most part it was just a meandering stream through high rock walls. We were making good time, but did not have a ton of daylight left. We were hoping to make it all the way to the Coyote Natural Bridge. It was supposed to be one of the highlights of this whole area. It was getting to the turn around point and we were wondering if we were going to find it, when suddenly up above us in the stream course, there it was.
Once again, I was impressed by the scale of it and the formation itself. We enjoyed it and took some pictures before finally turning around and heading back up canyon. We made it to our campsite as dark was approaching. We each had our fairly unappetizing versions of backpacking meals and were happy to eat them quickly. Brad, unfortunately, did not get much hammock time on this trip, as we hung out for a bit, but we were ready for some shut eye.
In the morning, it was time to pack up and hike out. We got a leisurely start, but wanted to hit the trail before the sun's rays beat down on us too strongly. It didn't work too well because as we were walking up the hot, dry wash to get out, it sure felt later in the day than we wanted. After getting to the car, it was not done, though, because Brad had more on his agenda. A trip out to Zebra Canyon which was up the road a way. There was no sign at the trailhead, but the other cars and the established social trail out there were a good sign that Zebra Canyon would be at the end of this trail.
It was once again a sand fest. Ryan and I complained jokingly to Brad, but everyone was still in pretty good humor about the heat. The trail led us out to  another dry, sandy wash. We slowly plugged along through this wash looking for whatever hardened surface we could get to rather than walk in the sand. We were surprised by following the GPS to see that our canyon was coming rather quickly, but it sure did not look that way. This little, tiny, unassuming canyon eventually led to a beautiful formation with walls that really were similar to a Zebra. Not really white and black, but pink and brown. We did not go far back in the canyon before we ran into a wall that would not allow us to continue any farther.
 Actually, Brad went a little bit farther, but we let him check it out and he found out that we could not go much higher than he already made it. Plus if he did, it would have just led to another flat sandy wash, which in this heat was not a place that anyone wanted to go. Ryan especially did not want to be out in the heat, as he forgot his had and was stuck wearing a beanie in the hot sun. Considering he burned easy, this was the best option to avoid a painful sunburn. We enjoyed the canyon for as long as we could handle just hanging there to avoid the hike out, but eventually we had to turn around.
We did the hot hike out again and it was back to the car. We were thrilled to get to the gas station where we could enjoy a cold beverage. From there it was a couple hours drive home. We were happy to get so much good stuff in with only a few days off to do it. I always enjoy a visit from Brad because he comes with so much energy to get out and explore. We were looking forward to the following weekend when we got to see our friends get married and once again hang out with some good friends that had moved away. 

Hepworth Canyon

Suri and I had the day to hike on the east side for work. These days do not come up very often, so we were excited to actually get out and hike for a long distance. We chose to go behind Bridge Mountain through the route from Gifford Canyon to Hepworth Canyon. This is a route that I have done many times, but Suri had never been out there before. This was the first trip that I ever took with someone else. Having company made it more enjoyable and a little bit less scary. We went most of the way up Gifford Canyon until we climbed up the steep slickrock and traversed over to the steep entrance through a side canyon to Hepworth Canyon. This is the most sketchy spot of the entire hike, but we did it without issues.
 We went down the canyon until it popped us out in Hepworth. I was hoping that we would be able to get over to Stevens Canyon which was on the other side of Hepworth. The easy way to get into Stevens is to go up to Bridge Mountain and then go back down Stevens. I was hoping we would be able to find a shortcut.
 We took it and it put us right above Stevens Canyon but with no easy way down. I was excited to see if this worked, but found out that it did not. So we decided instead to take Hepworth all the way to its end. It put us above the tunnel looking down on the switchbacks. It made me want to come back and descend the canyon all the way to the floor. But on this day, we had not enough rope with us to get the job done. Still it was an excellent view. By that point, it was getting late enough in the day that we had to turn around.
We took the same route back enjoying the snow in the side canyon along the way. That was not going to last long as it was already getting rather warm. We made it back with time to spare, but had another great day on the east side of Zion Canyon. 

The Full Hole

I have always wanted to see what was above the middle portion of Keyhole Canyon. Seth and I had a day to work on Keyhole Canyon, so we decided to do the Full Hole. We entered in the traditional entrance where we spent a good portion of the morning working on the slope. It had become so badly eroded from people using it to get into the canyon. We tried to block off as much of the sandy slope as possible so that we could keep whatever soil was still left. After this was done, if we were doing the traditional route, we would have just dropped into the canyon from here. Instead, we hiked back out onto a slickrock bench to the west of Upper Keyhole and then around to where the canyon really opened up. We dropped in here and put on our thick wetsuits.
 It was kind of a funny canyon because all the obstacles were easily passed by just downclimbing, but it was still a canyon you had to commit to. The top of the walls were only 15 feet over our head, so the sun shined in during much of the canyon, but it still would not have been a very good place in a flash flood.
There was a lot of water and a bunch of narrows. The downclimbs were at least interesting and we had to use a rope in one place just for a little handline because a rappel would have been too awkward. A long stretch of narrows brought us to the opening before middle Keyhole. We continued down that canyon, while much more deep, dark, and narrow then the upper stretches, they were all the same obstacles that we had done many times before. I was happy that we solved another one of Zion's many, many mysteries by completing the Full Hole.

Easter Crags

I usually do not post pictures of hikes that I have done before, but this hike was different because Zyla and her Grandpa Tom were along for the hike. We needed somewhere to hike for the afternoon on a gorgeous Saturday of Easter Weekend.
 I suggested the Eagle's Crags and we all agreed. We were going to have to keep in toned down considering that we had the little one and Jacqueline was now growing a new little one inside of her.
Considering we had been there before, we had no trouble finding the trailhead. I got the joy of carrying Zyla, which was becoming much harder considering just how hot the weather was starting to become and how big of a girl she was becoming.
We ran into a few other groups out hiking. This was a popular trail to take a dog on considering that it was close to Zion, but not actually in the park. Everyone moved along fine, but as we got most of the way up to the Crags, we decided to turn around before we reached them.
It was an enjoyable day out with the family as it is always a joy to spend the day hiking with my family.