Climbing the Highest Thing Around

Well we had definitely settled into the new house. It had been a trying process of moving back to St. George with trying to buy a new house while we still owned another house back in Oregon, but we did it and now we had two houses to pay for instead of one. This meant that we were just going to be in the house with what we currently owned and were not buying any additional furniture. This kept us pretty tight with money and trips in general, so I figured why not give it a shot to go visit someplace very nearby.
So I gave it a shot since we were living in Coral Canyon and set out directly from our house. We had a paved bike trail that went up the hill and followed around until it went back down the hill. The point where it was going back down the hill I cut off into a wash. The scrambling was rather difficult at times, but after a while I found my way up this wash to a culvert where I could see there was a much easier path to get here. This culvert was huge, so I followed it and it led me directly into Red Cliffs Desert Reserve after crossing right under the freeway.

From here I had a choice after I followed this tricky wash upwards. I could follow the trail it ran into or I could continue up the wash. I chose to continue up the wash. There was no trail, but the going was rather easy with a few obstacles that I could choose to go around. The rocks were pretty neat and the views were great also. It took me through a slick rock wilderness until I popped out with a view of the peaks. There were definitely two prominent sandstone mountains and I decided to head toward them to try my hand at climbing one of them. The terrain led me past large deposits of Moqui marbles and a large amount of well preserved desert country.

When I got to the base of the biggest peak around, I realized it was just a big crumbly mess of rocks. I decided to try climbing it anyway and even though it was not incredibly steep, the looseness of the rocks made the climbing somewhat risky and difficult. There were a couple of places where I thought this might be a bad idea, but instead I continued upward until I reached the summit. The view was spectacular and you could see red rocks for miles. I decided going back down the way I came may not be the best decision, so I traversed the peak to see if I could find a better way down.

This took me across the entire ridge of the peak which wasn't actually too bad. I finally found a way down that looked a bit less sketchy because there was more vegetation, but there were quite a few spots that I had to pick my way down to find something that would not endanger my life. Eventually though, the going became a lot easier and the only thing I had to fear was the occasional stabbing from a poky desert plant. Back on solid ground I found a trail to follow which actually led back around to the base of the peak that I had just climbed. It was super sandy, so staying on it wasn't a great option, so it was back to cross country hiking.

I decided to go back down pretty close to the way that I had come up. This led me back to the house and while the hike had only taken a few hours, I had been able to see amazing red rocks and climb a mountain peak right from my front door. I would say that living here was going to suit me just fine.

Proxy Falls in Winter

Every year, the road up to McKenzie Pass is closed down for the winter. Instead of waiting for the snow to melt in the spring time, I thought I would take a chance to throw on my snowshoes and make the trek up to Proxy Falls to see it in the winter time. This had been a pretty moist winter, so there was lots of snow around, yet I still had to walk the first part without snowshoes before it became consistent on the road. Once it did, it was pretty easy walking, just uphill getting to where the parking would be packed full in the summer.

It was a beautiful day out yet the canopy of trees did not give much sunshine until I reached this spot. From here, I tried my best to find the trail. I followed it for a bit, but gave up after not too long. Instead I just went cross country across the snowfield. Well, in summer, the snowfield is actually a bunch of basalt deposited by the volcano. This meant that there were frequently places I put my foot that were false floors. I punched through banging my shins in many places. I was happy to make it out of there without hurting myself.

I made it to the junction and went to the highest falls first. The scene was pretty amazing with the water coming down through the frozen white scene. There was not nearly as much water coming down as the summer time, but still an awesome sight. I took some pictures and went over to the other falls. This one was less high but still dramatic. The trail to it was a lot easier to find, so it did not take me much time. Once again, not nearly as much water, but still fantastic. I was able to find the trail out a bit easier by taking the other fork, since it was a loop trail.

I made it back to the road. I considered hiking up farther, but decided against it today with other things to get accomplished. Still, it was not too difficult or too long getting here. I knew that if I came back on another day, it would be possible for me to make it up to a higher place on the road. Downhill was much easier and I was back to the Xterra in not much time. The next day, we added another 8 inches of snow to the pile that we had already accumulated this year. It had been quite the snowy year, but it helped to make the beautiful places more amazing.