Lick Wash

Jacqueline and Zyla were away, out in Michigan and Illinois to see her close friends from growing up. This left me without the parenting responsibilities to do for the weekend. I still had my mom and Carl in town to hang out with. My mom really wanted to make the blog, so we decided to go for a hike somewhere I had never been before.
 We took a shot at making that place the Wave out in the Coyote Buttes area. We went through the lottery process and unfortunately lost. So instead we decided to head up a road I had never driven before. It went up behind Kanab on a road called the Johnson Lake Road that eventually met up with the Glendale Bench. From the visitor center in Kanab, they gave us information on how to find the trailhead for a hike through Lick Wash. It took about an hour to drive out from Kanab to the trailhead. When we pulled in there was one other car there. We started the hike and could tell we were on the right track because the trail led right into what looked like a substantial canyon.
There was one other couple coming out of the canyon who remarkably were also waiting for Wave permits that morning. They were in a better mood, because they had actually won. The woman asked us about a flower that she had seen. We talked to them a bit and then were on our way. This was a good choice of hike because it got us into a canyon type environment without having to do much scrambling around. There was one spot that was somewhat challenging, but mom and Carl were able to get around it. Then it was walking in the shady bottom of this canyon. It would go for a long way if we were to let it. We did go for a couple of miles before it started to open up more. We kind of got the point that most of the interesting stuff was now behind us.
 It reminded me of the beginning of the Zion Narrows without any of the water. It was a hot day, so we found a place under a tree to enjoy some lunch. We had a low 80's day out here, but it just reminded me that the hot summer sun was soon going to be beating down on us each and every day. We turned around after lunch and really did enjoy this wash/canyon in Southern Utah. This was one of many, but still unique and interesting with big trees and interesting rock formations.
 We were back to the car by mid-afternoon, but were still able to enjoy the drive which popped us out just outside of Glendale. Not a place I would probably come back to, but still an enjoyable day out for a hike.

Getting my Jolleys

Anyone who has ever hiked the East Rim trail from the East Entrance has looked down on Jolley Gulch and thought, that is a long way down. (Here is a picture from January 2009)
 The truth is, they are right, but it doesn't mean that it can't or shouldn't be done. In fact, that was kind of the opinion about around Zion for years, that it just wasn't done. That is until late November of 2011 when we got a call for a SAR, then were called off of the SAR, then called back on due to a party that was going through Jolley Gulch from the Zion Ponderosa without a permit. When they were climbing out, one of the party slipped and bounced their way down the canyon. They were avoiding a rescue because they did not want to get cited for not having a permit and they were associated with a commercial business. But extremely bad injuries call for better decisions and we went out and pulled the woman out of the canyon. One hangup of the rescue was that nobody had ever been down the canyon before.
 We decided that this needed to be remedied. So Seth, Ian, and I decided on this fine May day, that Jolley Gulch was one more canyon that we needed to check off the list. The hike started from the East Entrance that was mostly nondescript except we did get to see a rattlesnake along the way. We got to the canyon and unfortunately there was a huge crowd waiting there having lunch. This seemed like the prime spot for lunch on this trail, so it was understandable. But they had to see us fumble around with our anchor placement decisions and then cheer us on as we began our descent.
 Ian went over first and the drop was about 180 feet, so it took some time. Seth and I followed and it was one of the neatest rappels in the park. Fluted sandstone with a nearly sheer vertical drop. It was slightly nerve racking doing a rappel I had not done before, but once I was over the lip, it was smooth sailing from there. I really enjoyed that rappel which brought us down to a slot canyon. There was an old tire in there, probably from the Zion Ponderosa. There was a bit of other trash to that we picked up. We had to slight mishaps as we had a tough pull with the rope, but finally were able to get it free with all three of us pulling on it. Also, I put my prussik down somewhere and then it took like 15 minutes to finally find it again.
 Then we did the next rappel and it got us to a little bit more slot canyon, then suddenly everything opened up and we were walking in what could be any canyon on the east side.
 It was a walkout from there, but still an enjoyable canyon. We even found a campfire, most likely from our group of hurt people in November. We dispersed it and made our way back to the East Rim trail. I was glad to cross Jolley Gulch off the list, though I am not sure if unless it was entirely necessary, I would go back. 

Coyote Gulch / Zebra Canyon

 Brad was in town, down from Alaska to attend Eric and Izzy's wedding. He was out a little bit early to enjoy the Southwest. He organized some people for a hike which ended up just being myself and Ryan McDonald O'Lear. I hadn't hung out with Ryan much outside of work, but he was really a good guy, so I through this would be a pretty fun trip. Brad's choice was to go to Escalante National Monument. We drove to the visitor center in Escalante with a few ideas in mind and after talking to the person at the desk, we went with our first choice which was Coyote Gulch. It was a long drive down the Hole in the Rock Road. Brad had a rental car, though, so we could beat up someone else's car. We got to the trailhead at Hurricane Wash. It just happened to be an excessively hot April day. All Spring long the temperatures  had been fantastic including a snowy weekend just one week before.
 Hurricane Wash was nothing exciting at first, but began to get higher and higher cliffs as we trudged through the deep sand. Eventually, Hurricane Wash met up with Coyote Gulch where we walked for a short period of time before finding a nice bench to pitch a tent. We got our stuff put up then wandered down canyon to see as far as we could go. There were supposed to be some awesome arches and bridges down canyon. We were happy to enjoy the shady canyon rather than the hot sun. Eventually we came upon a large arch right in the side of the cliff. I couldn't believe just how massive this arch was as pictures just do not give you a good scale to go off of. I was disappointed to find a group camping right below the arch known as the Jacob Hamblin Arch. If you want to camp below an arch, at least give us some space.
Instead we had to go around the corner to enjoy it on our own. It was sure a long trip around and on the other side of it was actually a bathroom, like both a bunch of toilet paper strung along the canyon walls and an actual physical outhouse. I was not a big fan of the placement of this toilet, but I was even less of a fan of the fact that people could not make it to this toilet and were still pooping next to the stream. We continued down canyon and it was just kind of the same, a very gradual downhill walk as the stream puttered along through the sand.
In a few places we had some nice rock formations, but for the most part it was just a meandering stream through high rock walls. We were making good time, but did not have a ton of daylight left. We were hoping to make it all the way to the Coyote Natural Bridge. It was supposed to be one of the highlights of this whole area. It was getting to the turn around point and we were wondering if we were going to find it, when suddenly up above us in the stream course, there it was.
Once again, I was impressed by the scale of it and the formation itself. We enjoyed it and took some pictures before finally turning around and heading back up canyon. We made it to our campsite as dark was approaching. We each had our fairly unappetizing versions of backpacking meals and were happy to eat them quickly. Brad, unfortunately, did not get much hammock time on this trip, as we hung out for a bit, but we were ready for some shut eye.
In the morning, it was time to pack up and hike out. We got a leisurely start, but wanted to hit the trail before the sun's rays beat down on us too strongly. It didn't work too well because as we were walking up the hot, dry wash to get out, it sure felt later in the day than we wanted. After getting to the car, it was not done, though, because Brad had more on his agenda. A trip out to Zebra Canyon which was up the road a way. There was no sign at the trailhead, but the other cars and the established social trail out there were a good sign that Zebra Canyon would be at the end of this trail.
It was once again a sand fest. Ryan and I complained jokingly to Brad, but everyone was still in pretty good humor about the heat. The trail led us out to  another dry, sandy wash. We slowly plugged along through this wash looking for whatever hardened surface we could get to rather than walk in the sand. We were surprised by following the GPS to see that our canyon was coming rather quickly, but it sure did not look that way. This little, tiny, unassuming canyon eventually led to a beautiful formation with walls that really were similar to a Zebra. Not really white and black, but pink and brown. We did not go far back in the canyon before we ran into a wall that would not allow us to continue any farther.
 Actually, Brad went a little bit farther, but we let him check it out and he found out that we could not go much higher than he already made it. Plus if he did, it would have just led to another flat sandy wash, which in this heat was not a place that anyone wanted to go. Ryan especially did not want to be out in the heat, as he forgot his had and was stuck wearing a beanie in the hot sun. Considering he burned easy, this was the best option to avoid a painful sunburn. We enjoyed the canyon for as long as we could handle just hanging there to avoid the hike out, but eventually we had to turn around.
We did the hot hike out again and it was back to the car. We were thrilled to get to the gas station where we could enjoy a cold beverage. From there it was a couple hours drive home. We were happy to get so much good stuff in with only a few days off to do it. I always enjoy a visit from Brad because he comes with so much energy to get out and explore. We were looking forward to the following weekend when we got to see our friends get married and once again hang out with some good friends that had moved away.