The (Re-)Discovery

I was determined to find "The Skull" on this weekend, but that hadn't help me find it yet. I knew if I had to search every square foot of the east side of the park, I was going to find it. So I picked out a route that I had done before, but not looking for "The Skull". I did not know if there were any hoodoos on this route, but I thought I would give it a thorough look regardless. It ended up being an excellent hike on the east side of the park, but did not yield any skull like formations. This was getting frustrating. I finally resorted to looking at Google Earth.

There were still some areas left that I had not thoroughly explored, but I was not sure if there were any hoodoos with iron concretions at these spots. Google Earth has vastly improved from when I started to use it years ago. I could see for sure, there were some iron concretions in these exact spots. The next day, I was back at it and this time I could smell victory. I did not have to go far, only about 15 minutes from the car before I could look up to see some iron concreted hoodoos rising above me. I went up a steep slope that took a slight bit of route finding to find the safest route.

When I looked at the picture in my hand and looked across from where I was standing, I let out a shout of joy. The peak in the background matched up with the peak in the background in my picture. There were a group of lodge employees hiking below me and I wonder if they heard my exclamations of joy. I continued up a little further and went into a little nook, turned around and there it was "The Skull". It was awesome! This was like finding buried treasure or about as close to it as I think I will ever come.

I took a ridiculous amount of pictures from different angles trying to recreate the photo that was in the picture. The nice part about it also is that it is in a hard enough to reach place that I don't think that people visiting it could destroy the actual skull formation. They could trample down vegetation that looked in pristine condition as I don't think anyone had visited this spot in many years. Feeling overjoyed, I left and went back to the car. I saw the lodge employees but I never told them of my success. You may notice how vague my description is. This is on purpose. I want everyone to experience the joy of finding "The Skull" for themselves. There are few that would put the time and energy necessary, but I will tell you in the end it was very rewarding and worthwhile to discover it for myself. 

The Continued Search for "The Skull"

Well, I had eliminated some areas of the park where "The Skull" could be, so I decided to spend the day on the East side getting a few things done. I started off in Many Pools area where I quickly jumped off the traditional route to go look for "The Skull". This was a really good area with lots of hoodoos. I found some bighorn sheep up there and a ton of hoodoos, but there was no "Skull".I was happy to see the area, though because it was one of the best collections of iron concretions in the park.

I could see down into petroglyph canyon below and see people hiking in there. I turned around and went back into Many Pools. This place was definitely impacted from the amount of people that had been hiking there recently. But there were no major problems, so I moved on to the next spot. On this day, that spot was Canyon Overlook. I knew there was graffiti down near the end of the trail.

So I brought out the hammer and the brush. I had to completely remove the top of the rock. This is common procedure. I educated the visitors out there and heard the usual from them that it is such a shame. Yet, people continue to do it. I made sure to get a before and after to give to our facebook team.

They ended up putting it on the website and it made it all the way to KSL Salt Lake evening news. The guy pushing over the rock in Goblin Valley was still so fresh that this was something that people were interested in for a short time. Yet we do this so frequently it is ridiculous. The finish of the day was a trip up Shelf Canyon. This produced some garbage to pick up, but mostly just an enjoyable hike. 

Nippletop and the Search for "The Skull"

In the Zion Canyon Visitor Center, there is a picture of a rock formation referred to as "The Skull". Many visitors would come in and ask about the location of that formation. No one knows where it is and for many years I did not consider trying to find it.When Derrick and Seth told me about their search, I got inspired. I knew that once I put my mind to it, I would exhaust every possibility until I tracked it down. Some days during work we would quickly go explore some rock formations near the road that could contain "The Skull".

So far we had been shut out. I had a picture of "The Skull" that I printed out. There was only one out there meaning whomever had found it first had not shared information with anybody else. I had determined that forget work time, I was going to go find this on my own time. I started in the location where near the road it seemed to have the most hoodoo formations with iron concretions on the top.
This naturally led me on the path toward Nippletop, a peak that Paul Holthouse and I had attempted to climb the previous December. We did not like the appearance of the steepness of the climb and had instead climbed a lesser peak. This time though, I found a different way to approach the peak, the same way that Paul and I had bailed the previous time.

This kept us from the exposure of coming up and approaching the peak from the ridge route that was very exposed. It still put me on the ridge, but later on the ridge route. It was still exposed, but I just took it slowly and eventually I got to the steep section. From below, it looked nearly vertical. Once I was there, though, it wasn't too bad. It was semi exposed, but picking my way up, I followed a faint trail that led me to the only class 3 move I had to make the whole time. Then it flattened out once I was above the thick Navajo layer. I followed the shallow incline until getting to the summit block. I maneuvered around that until I figured out the right approach and was soon standing on top.

Of course, the view was awesome as it usually is with most east side summits. I enjoyed the top for a time, happy with my accomplishment. I started down and this time I stayed on the ridge to look for "The Skull". My route took me over exposed slickrock, through canyons, and down steep drop-offs with some excellent looking hoodoo formations, but never was I able to track down the infamous "Skull". I put in a full day out there and felt good about the exercise and the peak that I had climbed in the process. I was not done and "The Skull" would have to be found on another day.