Yellow Knolls to Black Gulch

It started out simple enough. It was Jacqueline's birthday and while we had explored other options for family activities, she chose to go on a hike as long as we postponed our Vegas show idea until we were down there a couple of days later. I had just purchased a new map of the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, so I was excited to go check out a few trails that I had never been to off the Cottonwood Road. This road went right from a spot in between Washington and St. George. It started out paved put quickly became a whitish clay. Luckily it had not rained in a few days, so the road was in good condition and we found our way to the Yellow Knolls trailhead.

The hike looked great as we started out in the flat desert scrub, but almost immediately went downhill into a canyon with slick rock to our right. Unfortunately, I had forgot that I left my phone charging in the car, so I had to turn around and run back to the trailhead while Jacqueline hiked with the kids. Luckily, I had been running often at this time, so the jog was not too bad. When I got back to the family, we were well on our way through this canyon that now began to slowly climb uphill. The trail was in good condition and easy to find and it just sort of meandered uphill. Given that it was Jacqueline's birthday, she got to take her sweet time getting ready in the morning, so this hike did not start until 2 pm.

 This would come in to play later, but for now we enjoyed some excellent weather and some amazing views. The highlight of the Yellow Knolls trail is the slick rock that is fractured to create pentagon and hexagons that look like the scales of some giant extinct dinosaur. We had to take a side trip so that we could get some pictures and so the kids could climb up and down on the rock. Zyla gets more and more interested all the time in exploring. After we left that spot, it was just hiking the rest of the trail until we hit a junction above. We had a choice. We could either continue on this current trail up to the high point and turn around coming back the same way that we came or we cut turn it into a loop with Black Gulch.

Everyone seemed up for the loop hike, so we headed toward the road which we crossed before coming to a canyon starting to appear on our left. I suggested we cut down immediately, while Jacqueline said that did not make her feel comfortable. Instead, we continued until we crossed the wash. Then we immediately started down. I should have known that this was going to be a bit more adventurous than I planned when it was slow going from the beginning. There were also no signs and the only way I knew I was in the right place was the map and my watch that was a new toy but also showed me a map right at my wrist.
Soon, we knew we were in for it though, because Black Gulch was just absolutely filled with tumbleweeds. Given that we had our two children with us, this made for some slow going because the tumbleweeds were sometimes over their heads. Looking at the time on my watch, I knew that we were in for an experience because this was the second shortest day of the year and it was now after 4 pm. We had only an hour to make our way through this canyon that we did not know what would be around the next corner. Sometimes it was puddles of icy water. Sometimes it was down climbs through volcanic rock.

No matter what, I knew that the person that would take the blame if anything happened to anyone else on this hike was me. So I went first and I found a way down. I would position myself so that I could hand the kids across drop offs and over tumbleweeds. There were a couple of times that I came around a corner and thought that we had come to a point that we could not get down, but every time, there seemed to be a way. The worst I had it the whole time was once when I had to step into a pool of water and lift everyone else so that they did not have to. Twice I made a bigger step then I planned given the amount of tumbleweeds which could have given me an injury.
Only once did Jacqueline start to panic and say that she wanted to try to hike out up onto the cliffs. I was willing to go, but the best course of action was for us to continue downstream without a headlamp and hope that the approaching darkness would not overtake us. Eventually the canyon started to open up. Just about that time we ran into two slow moving men who were heading up canyon. We did our best to warn them that they should probably turn around.

Tough to listen to a family with two children under the age of 10, but I think our kids are actually pretty tough to move as quickly as we did through that canyon. The biggest complaint was the amount of cheat grass in the shoes that slowed down Conrad. We did not give him much sympathy, though, as we had to keep moving. The GPS on my watch told us the trail was near and soon we found the way out. We hiked up the steep cliff and out onto the plateau and there was our car just as the last hints of daylight were receding. We were all relieved and celebrated with a trip to Benja's for dinner.