Annular Eclipse

This was an event worth mentioning because it only happens every few years and usually it is at a time or place that it is hard to see. For us, though, Zion National Park happened to be one of the top places to see it in the country. It was happening in the evening, so we drove out to the Chinle Trailhead and put up our camping chairs. Jacqueline had the special glasses to see it so we could stare at the sun without it hurting our eyes. Zyla came too, but she was not entirely very interested. Not that I expected her to be since she was not even two yet. There was a large crowd of people down below us, but they did not realize the trailhead was up there, so we had the run of the place. Then we just waited and sure enough at the designated time we got to watch the moon go right across the sun and line up perfectly. It was strange that we could not see it well in the normal light as it just looked slightly more dim. With the special dark glasses, it looked awesome! I was glad to see it and glad that I live at Zion National Park.

Rattlesnake

So, I was out to go hike the Watchman Trail which I have done dozens of times before when I ran into a rattlesnake. This was my third snake citing of the month thus far. This time, though, I had a camera with me and snapped a good picture. I made sure to warn the visitors who were hiking toward the rattlesnake. Hopefully they just left him alone. He's a beaut!

Back to Progeny Peak

 Kelsey was supposed to have the hiking day today and I was supposed to spend my day at the Wilderness Desk. She came in with a sore foot, so she offered to switch with me. I was 100% for that because it meant that I got to get out in the field rather than the desk. She was assigned to go up Progeny Peak to check on the graffiti that I removed in the fall. So instead, I did it. I was happy to do it because it was such an excellent hike.
I had to go in my desk clothes which meant the ugly cargo shorts and the thicker shirt. Since it was already hot outside, there was going to be some sweating going on. This time I decided to go past the Two Pines Arch. I am surprised that this is not a more visited spot because it can be seen from the road, but I guess not everyone had their eyes open. After that I found a much easier way to get up to Progeny Peak from there. It seemed so much easier than the last time as there was never a point that was exposed, slick, or dangerous in any way.
 Up on top, the graffiti was all gone and the view was spectacular. I made sure to make a reply to Greg in the log book up top. I got a few pictures of the view and then went back down. I saw one group of people hiking randomly around on my way down, but no one else. I was surprised to see them out there honestly. I had no issues coming down, so I made it back in time to get back to the desk and return some phone calls. Still a good surprise for a day out in the park. 

Pile of Snow in Echo

 We got a ton of questions at the Wilderness Desk about why Echo Canyon is closed. The reason is the large piles of snow that choke the canyon and make it impassible in the winter time. But when it is reaching the 90's each day, the Narrows is now open because of low flow, and all the other canyons seem to be in summer conditions, one would assume that Echo Canyon would also be in that kind of shape.
 Derrick and I assumed that when heading up to Echo on May 10th. We actually didn't even think that their would be a reason to check the snow level and decided to just drop the canyon. We went to the entrance of Echo Canyon of the East Rim trail. As soon as we dropped in, we knew something was amiss. We were wading in water that was over our head before even encountering the first rappel.
We both talked about it for a bit and decided that this wasn't worth it and we might get ourselves into some trouble if we continued. So we turned around and decided to give Echo a try from the bottom. Sure enough when we hit the snowy sections the snow was still there. We were able to get farther than I got in the early Spring, but still ran into an enormous pile of snow at the choke point. We estimated that it was at least 15-20 feet high in sections.
 It did not matter if we could get around it, though, so we tried going over it and that did not work. We tried going around it and that did not work. We determined that while faced with a life or death situation, a determined person may be able to find a way around the massive pile of snow, there was no reason to put someone in that situation knowing what the conditions actually were in the canyon. So we determined that the canyon should stay closed. We hiked back down to let Ray know. He could not believe it, but sure enough, Echo sure can hold its snow late into the Spring.

Getting Their Monies' Worth

I was out for a hike up the Narrows to see what the conditions were since it was early in the Spring and no one had been up yet.  I hiked up the Riverside Walk and was one of the first people in the river. As soon as I was in the river, though, someone came back to tell me that someone was calling for help. I thought okay, maybe someone is hurt or stuck somewhere, probably Mystery Canyon. Then another person told me the same thing. I was sure now that something was going on and this was now going to be the focus of my day. I got to the waterfall below Mystery and someone yelled down to see if I could get a Ranger. When I told them that I was a Ranger, they let me know their situation. They got a rope stuck on the second to last rappel in Mystery. They had been there all night. I told them that I would be back and to just hang tight. Luckily, I knew how to handle this situation. My radio would not get out, so I hiked all the way back to the Temple of Sinawava, where my radio still would not work. I talked to one of the shuttle bus drivers and he was able to forward my request for the line gun, a three hundred foot rope, and two people. I waited for some time and then Ray and Kelsey showed up with my requests. We hiked back up to Mystery Canyon and Ray gave me the joy of shooting the line gun. I shot a piece of twine connected to a projectile and the people up there were able to tie it to a tree. This caused a bit of a commotion because every person coming by now informed us of the loud bang in the Narrows. We let them know that it was us and they were reassured, but it was actually a lot of fun to shoot the thing. Then we attached a 300 foot rope to this line. We had some radios and luckily the people up top had radios also and were able to get on the same frequency as us. We talked them through the whole scenario and really all they were going to do was rappel down. The only way that they knew how to rappel was with a beaner block. So I had to explain to them how to rappel off two strands. We did not have to do anything more for them because they were not hurt and they were already canyoneering to get to this point, so Ray made the call that they could just finish rappelling. I was nervous about them coming down and it did not look too pretty. But they both made it and when they got to the bottom, I realized that I was the one who had issued them the permit. We joked about getting a full service canyoneering experience from me of issuing the permit, locating them stuck, and then getting the necessary equipment to rescue them. I did not make it up the Narrows on this day as most of my day was now shot, but I was happy to be able to find a way to help some people out. 

Lick Wash

Jacqueline and Zyla were away, out in Michigan and Illinois to see her close friends from growing up. This left me without the parenting responsibilities to do for the weekend. I still had my mom and Carl in town to hang out with. My mom really wanted to make the blog, so we decided to go for a hike somewhere I had never been before.
 We took a shot at making that place the Wave out in the Coyote Buttes area. We went through the lottery process and unfortunately lost. So instead we decided to head up a road I had never driven before. It went up behind Kanab on a road called the Johnson Lake Road that eventually met up with the Glendale Bench. From the visitor center in Kanab, they gave us information on how to find the trailhead for a hike through Lick Wash. It took about an hour to drive out from Kanab to the trailhead. When we pulled in there was one other car there. We started the hike and could tell we were on the right track because the trail led right into what looked like a substantial canyon.
There was one other couple coming out of the canyon who remarkably were also waiting for Wave permits that morning. They were in a better mood, because they had actually won. The woman asked us about a flower that she had seen. We talked to them a bit and then were on our way. This was a good choice of hike because it got us into a canyon type environment without having to do much scrambling around. There was one spot that was somewhat challenging, but mom and Carl were able to get around it. Then it was walking in the shady bottom of this canyon. It would go for a long way if we were to let it. We did go for a couple of miles before it started to open up more. We kind of got the point that most of the interesting stuff was now behind us.
 It reminded me of the beginning of the Zion Narrows without any of the water. It was a hot day, so we found a place under a tree to enjoy some lunch. We had a low 80's day out here, but it just reminded me that the hot summer sun was soon going to be beating down on us each and every day. We turned around after lunch and really did enjoy this wash/canyon in Southern Utah. This was one of many, but still unique and interesting with big trees and interesting rock formations.
 We were back to the car by mid-afternoon, but were still able to enjoy the drive which popped us out just outside of Glendale. Not a place I would probably come back to, but still an enjoyable day out for a hike.

Getting my Jolleys

Anyone who has ever hiked the East Rim trail from the East Entrance has looked down on Jolley Gulch and thought, that is a long way down. (Here is a picture from January 2009)
 The truth is, they are right, but it doesn't mean that it can't or shouldn't be done. In fact, that was kind of the opinion about around Zion for years, that it just wasn't done. That is until late November of 2011 when we got a call for a SAR, then were called off of the SAR, then called back on due to a party that was going through Jolley Gulch from the Zion Ponderosa without a permit. When they were climbing out, one of the party slipped and bounced their way down the canyon. They were avoiding a rescue because they did not want to get cited for not having a permit and they were associated with a commercial business. But extremely bad injuries call for better decisions and we went out and pulled the woman out of the canyon. One hangup of the rescue was that nobody had ever been down the canyon before.
 We decided that this needed to be remedied. So Seth, Ian, and I decided on this fine May day, that Jolley Gulch was one more canyon that we needed to check off the list. The hike started from the East Entrance that was mostly nondescript except we did get to see a rattlesnake along the way. We got to the canyon and unfortunately there was a huge crowd waiting there having lunch. This seemed like the prime spot for lunch on this trail, so it was understandable. But they had to see us fumble around with our anchor placement decisions and then cheer us on as we began our descent.
 Ian went over first and the drop was about 180 feet, so it took some time. Seth and I followed and it was one of the neatest rappels in the park. Fluted sandstone with a nearly sheer vertical drop. It was slightly nerve racking doing a rappel I had not done before, but once I was over the lip, it was smooth sailing from there. I really enjoyed that rappel which brought us down to a slot canyon. There was an old tire in there, probably from the Zion Ponderosa. There was a bit of other trash to that we picked up. We had to slight mishaps as we had a tough pull with the rope, but finally were able to get it free with all three of us pulling on it. Also, I put my prussik down somewhere and then it took like 15 minutes to finally find it again.
 Then we did the next rappel and it got us to a little bit more slot canyon, then suddenly everything opened up and we were walking in what could be any canyon on the east side.
 It was a walkout from there, but still an enjoyable canyon. We even found a campfire, most likely from our group of hurt people in November. We dispersed it and made our way back to the East Rim trail. I was glad to cross Jolley Gulch off the list, though I am not sure if unless it was entirely necessary, I would go back.