It was Spring Recess and it was time to get out. My dad was up visiting, so I decided to drag him with me through miles of bushwhacking to attempt to get to the spot where I took a picture of years ago. It was now hanging in our living room and I couldn't handle a picture of somewhere in Zion that I had never been to. The problem was that there was no trail and no known route to this spot. So I planned out an attack and with 4 days off this was the best time. It started out sort of ominous though because as soon as we were headed up to the trailhead, my dad's truck died. We pulled over and it was leaking something really fast. Luckily, we were right by Roadrunner and it turned out to not be a big deal. We still had Jacqueline meet us with the Xterra and we left Dad's truck in La Verkin to pick up later.
I drove the Xterra to the trailhead and the first five miles were just on the mostly flat Wildcat Canyon trail. Then it was down the lava field and into the woods. The first mile was the worst. Thick brush and not much of a path made the hiking tough. The creek had water in it and given that it was the end of March, we didn't want to use that as a path. Eventually it opened up and we were traveling down Wildcat Canyon with Blue Creek right next to us. We did mostly a good job of picking the right route, but at one point we did find ourselves on the wrong side of the creek. We had to do some expert route finding to get down to the creek and back up the side where we were supposed to be. The rest of the travel was fairly smooth sailing to the Left Fork.
We crossed the Left Fork and camped near the seeps. There was a fairly flat spot and I set up the tent under a big dead tree that I hoped would not fall on me during the night. Dad decided that he wanted to sleep out under the stars for some reason, but it was going to be a cold night. It was not nearly as warm as I hoped it would be out there, but it was definitely comfortable during the day. Our start was rather late, so it was already evening. We ate our dinner, played some cribbage, read our books, then went to sleep.
The next morning Dad was up for a hike to try to find our way in. Our first choice was to go by the typical Right Fork approach route.
I had forgotten how flat this area was after not being here for a few years. It slowly sloped upwards to a pass. Along the way, we fought Manzanita and found many tracks from a herd of elk that was obviously out here somewhere. We went to the right off the pass like we were going through the Right Fork. Instead we found ourselves at a base of a large cliff that was not going to give us access to the area that I wanted to get to. We turned around and headed back to camp. Given that my dad is 68 years old, this was enough for him on this day. I continued on because I was not going to be deterred.
My first thought was to get around a place on the slopes above the Left Fork. So I climbed up the ridge, dropped down into the basin below and followed that around until I came to impassable slick rock. This was a lot of work to get out here going up and down some sort of steep terrain. I thought about taking a risk, but realized that it definitely was not worth it. Instead I went back to the canyon that I had been in previously when coming down from the ridge. I decided my last hope was to try to ascend this canyon. I could see that it went to a pass far above, but I figured that this pass was inaccessible. Still, it was worth trying as it was only 2:00pm by this point.
The going was easy for the first part and at times I was definitely following a trail. This was a game trail and I wondered if I was going to stumble across the elk at some point. Then the canyon started to get steeper. I figured I should get as high as I could as quickly as possible. I found myself too close to the canyon wall and on some tricky terrain. I eventually traversed over and found an animal trail again. This one climbed steeply and I could tell it was not used much or else this entire hillside would be eroded. Still I climbed and climbed and eventually came to the top of the pass.
I had to duck to get under a low hanging branch and as I stood up, I banged my head good and actually punched a whole in my skull from a branch. That hurt, but it could not dim my excitement. I had found the route in! Given that I had been hiking for most of the day already and there was a large area to explore, I decided to call it a day and head back to camp. I was able to share the information with my dad and he seemed excited for me that I had found the route. We hung out at camp the rest of the evening and decided that we would hike out the following day after I had gone back to my picture perfect place.
The next morning I was up early and I began the hike again. Given that I knew the route this time, it was a lot easier. As I was approaching the pass, I ran into the herd of elk. There were at least 7 of them that I could see and it was cool to see them out here. There are only one known herd in Zion, so this one could easily be a second. They were afraid of me, so they charge up the hill and off the route that I was taking. With some effort, I made it to the top of the pass again. As I dropped down, to my surprise, it was smooth sailing. This new area was opened up for me.
The first place I wanted to check out was this large canyon. Who knows if anyone had ever been through it before? It seemed to be rather flat once you were in it with most likely a big wall approach. I could not see much. The cliffs were awesome above me and I decided to climb to the top of this little roundish slick rock dome. Along the way, I saw another set of footprints and I realized that I was not the first person to see this area. When I got to the top of the dome, I looked over and I saw this sort of alcove in the big peak in front of me. I decided to go investigate.
This was all new to me which is awesome and the views were amazing. I seemed to not be able to stop taking pictures. I went a ways out on the slick rock trying to find an edge. There was not anything really stopping me except time as I had to pick what I really wanted to explore. I made my way to the alcove eventually where I found a bunch of fallen rock. It seemed like a fairly untouched landscape and a nice spot to hang out. I looked up to see a drawing on the walls. My first thought was, well that is too bad that someone came out here and faked a pictograph.
Then it occurred to me that people don't come out here that often and this looked rather authentic. There was weathering that had occurred, but it seemed rather well preserved. You could ever see the fingerprints that someone long ago had used to symbolize either something coming from the head or something fall on it. I looked around and there were two more glyphs. One was another person and then a squiggly looking snake thing. I looked around for a marker to indicate that this was a known archaeological site, but realized that there was none. I may have discovered a previously unknown site. I was so stoked! This was awesome. Three pictographs that were probably hundreds or thousands of years old. I took a bunch of pictures and had a hard time leaving, but the first thought that entered my mind was, what if there were more. I looked very closely here and actually found 3 more faded glyphs for a total of 6! I had to move on though, so I looked around and across the open plain was a cliff with red streaking coming down the sides. Having seen most of the sites within Zion, I knew that this was likely to be the spot that I could find more, if there were more.
So I fought my way across the open plain. I always looks so easy from a far, but there were lots of road blocks of brush in my way. I eventually fought my way to the base of the cliff and could not believe what I saw. The first thing I saw was a triangle guy with a hand print and some other smaller guys around him. There was a spiral also. These were real petroglyphs! They were definitely unknown but quite remarkable. I continued along the base of the cliff and saw much, much more. I couldn't help but to let out a yell of excitement even though I knew the only one that could hear me was me. I could not even count the number of glyphs and decided that this could be the largest site in Zion National Park. There were so many interesting petroglyphs. There was something that looked exactly like what a small child would draw the sun to look like with a large circle with lines coming from it. The spiral had a squiggle coming from it representing something that I am not even sure. There were small figures with horns and there was even a rounded shape that looked like it could be a large beetle of some kind.
Going around the tree, there was so much more! There was an obvious hunting scene with men and sticks hunting what obviously looked like an elk. There were more spirals and more horned men and what looked like Roman numerals. There was a scene that looked like a figure holding another upside down by the leg. There were many squiggles and lots of people. There were footprints which looked like the feet of a bear. There was even a headless guy that showed that they probably made the bodies first and then the heads. There was a hunting scene with a bow and arrow going after a bighorn.
There was even a Kokopelli like figure playing a flute. This site was amazing and it was impossible to look at it for the first time and not wonder why these were here and how important this area was to the people who were here. It would just be interesting to wonder how people thousands of years ago viewed this area. To say I was excited was an understatement. How many hikes I had been on and thought maybe there were some petroglyphs. I had now found not one, but two new sites and who knew what this area could hold. I decided to call it a day, though and reluctantly left. Still I could not hold back my excitement and I flew back to our base camp.
I shared it with my dad and he was pretty excited for me. He checked out the pictures while I packed up. We headed back to the trailhead through the rough country. It was a tough hike out and we were pretty beat by the time that we got back. Still, it was so worth it to see something that had never been seen in so long. It just reminded me that there are still quiet places out there worth exploring. In the days of crazy busy times in Zion, this site reminds me that the park is still doing its job of protecting the resource. I ask that if you are reading this and you ever go visit it, please leave it protected! Do not damage or selfishly take a part of it for yourself. Enjoy the pictures. Enjoy the journey to the past, but leave it as it is found. I will be going back many times to this site!
It was Spring Recess and it was time to get out. My dad was up visiting, so I decided to drag him with me through miles of bushwhacking to attempt to get to the spot where I took a picture of years ago. It was now hanging in our living room and I couldn't handle a picture of somewhere in Zion that I had never been to. The problem was that there was no trail and no known route to this spot. So I planned out an attack and with 4 days off this was the best time. It started out sort of ominous though because as soon as we were headed up to the trailhead, my dad's truck died. We pulled over and it was leaking something really fast. Luckily, we were right by Roadrunner and it turned out to not be a big deal. We still had Jacqueline meet us with the Xterra and we left Dad's truck in La Verkin to pick up later.
I drove the Xterra to the trailhead and the first five miles were just on the mostly flat Wildcat Canyon trail. Then it was down the lava field and into the woods. The first mile was the worst. Thick brush and not much of a path made the hiking tough. The creek had water in it and given that it was the end of March, we didn't want to use that as a path. Eventually it opened up and we were traveling down Wildcat Canyon with Blue Creek right next to us. We did mostly a good job of picking the right route, but at one point we did find ourselves on the wrong side of the creek. We had to do some expert route finding to get down to the creek and back up the side where we were supposed to be. The rest of the travel was fairly smooth sailing to the Left Fork.
My first thought was to get around a place on the slopes above the Left Fork. So I climbed up the ridge, dropped down into the basin below and followed that around until I came to impassable slick rock. This was a lot of work to get out here going up and down some sort of steep terrain. I thought about taking a risk, but realized that it definitely was not worth it. Instead I went back to the canyon that I had been in previously when coming down from the ridge. I decided my last hope was to try to ascend this canyon. I could see that it went to a pass far above, but I figured that this pass was inaccessible. Still, it was worth trying as it was only 2:00pm by this point.
So I fought my way across the open plain. I always looks so easy from a far, but there were lots of road blocks of brush in my way. I eventually fought my way to the base of the cliff and could not believe what I saw. The first thing I saw was a triangle guy with a hand print and some other smaller guys around him. There was a spiral also. These were real petroglyphs! They were definitely unknown but quite remarkable. I continued along the base of the cliff and saw much, much more. I couldn't help but to let out a yell of excitement even though I knew the only one that could hear me was me. I could not even count the number of glyphs and decided that this could be the largest site in Zion National Park. There were so many interesting petroglyphs. There was something that looked exactly like what a small child would draw the sun to look like with a large circle with lines coming from it. The spiral had a squiggle coming from it representing something that I am not even sure. There were small figures with horns and there was even a rounded shape that looked like it could be a large beetle of some kind.
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