The Scogway

Well, my back to work in February days typically resumes with a trip out to the Southwest Desert. I had this idea for a project that would identify all the old campsites to find out in what shape they were currently in. So I followed my GPS and located all these places to discover that, well, they looked completely pristine. Being rather not interesting and probably rather inaccurate considering that the maps I was going off of were before the days of GPS, this little project really led basically nowhere. Kind of nice to know that though. But I did spice things up a bit with a trip up Scoggins Wash. Right where the Chinle trail crossed Scoggins Wash, I went up.
 Knowing that it looked rather interesting up there, but never having attempted to find out what was there, I was glad that I took the time on this day for a little exploring. It was pretty, but for the first part, it was much like any other open wash in Zion. Then it narrowed down and some obstacles presented themselves. I found some ways around them, some requiring a little bit of maneuvering within the wash up some rocks, some requiring some brush fighting through the trees. I was surprised to see water flowing in this usually dry canyon. There were even some icicles remaining in the cool February sun. Through my scrambling, I eventually made it to the top of the canyon where there was a pour-off that would have been an incredible waterfall had there been more water. Every time that one goes up these remarkable canyons, one hopes to find some formation that is unique. This one did not quite have it, but if it did, I was prepared to rename it the Scogway. I am not sure it would have caught on. Instead, I tried to get up above the waterfall by climbing up the side of the cliff. It was going fine until a few minutes in when I thought that this seemed rather pointless and unnecessarily difficult for something that probably isn't that interesting and I was on work time, so the relevance of this trip was slowly waning away. So I turned around and came back out the way I came. Not a gem, but everything is worth doing once.

Archfest 2013

It had been a long winter of taking care of children. And while I love my children very much, it sure takes away from opportunities to get out away from the roads. I took advantage of Dad being around to use it as an opportunity to actually take a trip. We decided to spend some time in Escalante-Vermillion Cliffs area. We thought once again about getting in on the Wave, but when we arrived in Kanab, the office was closed. We already had an alternative thought out, so we proceeded in that direction. Our goal for the day was to hike out to Cobra Arch.

Quite an impressive name, so we hoped the arch could live up to it. Getting there required a drive on a sandy dirt road. We got to the trailhead at about 10 AM, so that gave us plenty of time to complete this hike as it was only about 6 miles round trip. We headed off on the route to what we thought was the arch. We found it interesting that the Middle Route into Buckskin Gulch was the same route as the trip out to Cobra Arch. We found out the hard way that we were wrong. We had route descriptions for both and I made the mistake of reading the wrong route description. After a little while, we realized our mistake, but since we had plenty of time, we continued to check out the Middle Route.

It lead right to Buckskin Gulch. We did a bit of downclimbing through some tricky terrain. It still put us about fifty feet above the canyon. We could see the route in which was kind of an exposed downclimb. We decided to not try it since we were not planning to travel through Buckskin Gulch anyway and we did not think that we would be able to make it up. So we had to head back most of the way that we had come. Then we headed a different direction entirely to make it out to Cobra Arch. We did some rim walking for the first mile or so.
Then we found our way down a slickrock slope to where we were walking on some slickrock, some sand. I had my GPS which helped us to find the arch. I could see something in the distance and thought it was the arch, but when we got to it, it turned out to just be an interesting rock that was not an arch. We walked around the slickrock wilderness and it was very beautiful.

 We saw no one else out in this area, but it was fantastic. We wandered around for quite some time completely missing the arch even though we had a map. We had to backtrack until we were able to track it down. It was quite unusual with the shape of a cobra with striations along its top to make it look like the segments of a cobra's back. I don't think there could be any other name for this arch other than Cobra Arch. We hung out for a bit and ate some food. Then it was time to turn around and head back. We found a bit of a quicker way to get back by staying on the rim and cutting across the sandy woods to the car.

Then it was down the dirt road again to head over toward the Paria Movie Set. We were planning to camp near this spot to hike the very next day. There was no camping at the Movie Set, so we went up the road a small ways and each set up a tent. We had some dinner and hung out before retiring for the evening. It turned out to be an incredibly cold night. I used my new sleeping bag that was only rated to 40 degrees.

It did not keep me warm enough and in the middle of the night, I had to throw on my dirty underwear over my long underwear and short to give my butt a bit more warmth. I tossed and turned for most of the night getting some sleep. Dad kind of said he had the same experience. We were up and moving early, though the temperatures were in the teens so it wasn't entirely enjoyable to be up that early. We had ourselves some breakfast which it was hard to get enough heat out of the stove with those temps, but eventually we were ready to go. Our goal for the day was to get up to Starlight Arch.

This was going to be more challenging than the hike out to Cobra Arch. We first started down a wash that took off from the Paria Movie Set. This was an old dirt road that we couldn't have driven. Eventually the road was washed out and we took a right turn up a random wash.

We had to make sure to follow the route description pretty close on this one as we didn't want to hit the wrong wash. So far, so good. Eventually the wash led us to a more open area with some steep, crumbly forested cliffs. It was now time to go uphill.

 For some reason, Dad and I chose different paths at this point. He was much further to the right then me and I just went up the steep slope. I managed to make it up onto the plateau with just some effort and not an incredible amount of difficult scrambling. Once I was there, I wandered around trying for some time to find Dad. I saw him still making his way up the cliff after wandering around the whole plateau. He seemed like he would not have any problem getting up from where he was, so I took his picture and then wandered on over to where Starlight Arch was. We could see it a bit from below, but it just looked like a small window. I decided to visit the other side that we could not see from below.

This turned out to be the right choice. Eventually Dad found his way over and he climbed up to meet me on top of a rock where we had some lunch and snapped some photos. We also had a good view of Mollie's Nipple and Castle Rock. We wandered over to the front side of Starlight Arch, which was not as good of a view, but the one that was put in the guide book. Not an inspiring picture for a decent arch. Then we picked our way down the cliff side and returned by our same route to the car. We were back to the car by 3 and were off to home in Springdale. The kids were happy to see Popo as he stayed with us for the evening. This was definitely the most adventurous trip I took during the winter, but still a bit tame as far as trips go. I still enjoyed it and felt both of these hikes well worth the effort.

Fortification Hill

We were having quite the busy February. Before I had to go back to work, we had to fit a few things in. Grandpa Tom had visited and then we had traveled up to Salt Lake City. We didn't get out for a hike but did visit with family. We also got to drive back through a snowstorm. Then we were home for a week and then we went down to Boulder City. My dad and Laura, better known to the kids as Popo and Momo, rented a house down in Boulder City, Nevada to enjoy the desert sun. They were spending over a month out in the Southwest.

They had come up to visit for a day, but we were finally making our way down to visit them. We bundled the visit together with a chance to go see Jackson Browne at the Rio in Las Vegas which was only a 20 minute drive away. We really enjoyed the concert. We also were able to get out for a day during the trip. Jacqueline, Laura, and the kids stayed back at the house while Dad and I went to go hike Fortification Hill. The only issue for the blog is that both of us forgot a camera which leads to a blog full of words without pictures. The hike was out near Hoover Dam. It was up to the top of a butte that stood like a fortress overlooking Lake Mead. We had to travel on some dirt roads to get to the trailhead. We had an excellent route description that Dad had pulled up on his brand new iPad. It took us to the bottom of the mountain where there was a trail that we were able to follow.

There was one difficult spot on the entire hike where we had to do a bit of third class scrambling. Other than that it was just hiking with 1500 feet in elevation gain over 2 miles. We did not see other people hiking, but did see many helicopters flying over. See, this was Valentine's Day and what better way to spend Valentine's Day then taking a helicopter ride. There were literally 15 helicopters all in a line flying the same route over us while we were hiking up. They didn't bother us much, though. When we reached the summit, I had cellphone service, so I took a picture with my phone and sent it to Jacqueline. Maybe not the best picture, but at least I can prove I was there. Then it was turn around and come down. The hike was a mere four miles, but it occupied our morning and we were able to get out in the area. A nice hike that I would definitely recommend and would do again. 

The Toadstools

This was now my third time visiting the Toadstools, Zyla's second, but Jacqueline and Grandpa Tom's first time. It was a very nice day for February, so I am glad that we used it to get out. We were thinking about getting in on the Wave the next day, but we lost the lottery at the visitor center in Kanab. So instead we found a nice place to have breakfast and had a nice family breakfast. We tried to think of other options, but with a two year old and a two month old, there were not an incredible amount of short hikes near Kanab available in the winter.

 So we choose the Toadstools and it turned out to be a great choice. This time we let Zyla walk for some time. She was happy to do so and even made it over some of the more difficult stuff with her hand held. We made it out to the original spot where all the Toadstools were easily found. This was only about half a mile from the trailhead. This time I wanted to go left instead of right as Zyla and I wandered around to the right of the first Toadstools last time. It got a bit steeper, so I loaded Zyla into the backpack as she had already hiked quite a ways. Jacqueline was carrying Conrad, so Grandpa Tom and I went first and convinced Jacqueline that the route was okay. She was concerned, but she pulled it off okay.

I was pleased that we went left because there were a bunch more toadstools. These were such unique formations with crumbly sandstone underneath a big boulder of harder, denser sandstone. Just different types of deposition on top of each other. We followed the little canyon back until we hit a wall. Then we turned around and came back. We made a couple of hours out of it with Jacqueline constantly checking Conrad and with the feedings at the trailhead both before and after the hike. It is challenging to get out and about with children, but not impossible. Still with only a few hours of hiking under our belt, it still made for what seemed like a tiring full day being out and about. 

Oak Creek Exploring

I was hankering for a little bit of exploring. I had spent a lot of my furlough inside taking care of the kids and the day to day things. It was time to get out. It was easy to get restless when the days all run together and you need something fresh. I always wanted to try to get up Oak Creek behind the maintenance yard to see what was up there.

In the past, I had explored up there but it was so hot, I just ran into the Altar of Sacrifice and was forced to turn around due to being tired of dealing with the heat. This time it \was February, Groundhog Day to be exact. So I would not have to worry about the heat at all. I drove up to the maintenance yard where I parked and started my hike. The beginning part was on a dirt road and the funniest thing is I actually saw another person up there. That was strange because this is not a place people usually go. I never saw them turn around, though. I hit the watercourse which had a small flow of water in it and followed that up. I was met with a few obstacles that were easily surmounted. I had been all the way up to the Altar of Sacrifice before, so this was nothing new, just some uphill hiking and some bushwhacking.

This time I went farther up the canyon. I had to get up on to the plateau to get by some obstacles. This was intense bushwhacking and eventually I got back into the canyon. I was met with obstacle after obstacle that I was forced to get around. Eventually I made it up to a point where the obstacle was too difficult for me to get up. I contemplated ways to get around, but figured I would just run into another one around the corner. The canyon looked interesting behind it, but still it wasn't worth it. Instead, I picked a new goal. I found a big rock leaning against the cliffs and noticed an opening behind it.

I maneuvered my way up to this rock having to do a bit of difficult climbing in order to make it up the rock. It was really neat behind it. There was like this entire room that I had to myself. I wondered if this could be a place to find Indian ruins, though I attempted to think things could be that, I don't think that in the end it would have been. In fact, I may have been the first person to set my foot in this area. I stayed there for a bit of time, peaking around the corner to see if there was anything else to explore. Eventually I left and went back the way I came to my vehicle. I was glad that I found something unique, but was disappointed in the exploring that produced nothing entirely unique. Still it was worth seeing once and good for my well being to get out for a bit. 

Parowan Gap Petroglyphs

We had driven by the turnoff for the Parowan Gap Petroglyphs many times on our way to and back from Great Basin National Park. Every time on the way there, we say we are going to stop on the way back, and then by the time that we came back, we would be too much in the mood to go home to stop. So we decided to make a day of it and drove up for that specific purpose. The road went right through the gap and the petroglyphs were on both sides of the road.
 It was a chilly day, but we got the kids out to go see all of them. They were quite impressive and in good shape considering they were right next to the road. They had a large fence around them so you could not just walk up and see them without going over the fence. That is one way to keep them protected. We walked the whole length of the fence to see all of them. We stayed for as long as it takes to just look at things then went down to Cedar to have lunch and grocery shop.