Family Backpack in the Southwest Desert

Fall Break! So I talked the family into going backpacking for a night with me as long as it was warm and dry. We delayed one day to go on Friday to let the wet weather clear. It turned out to be a good plan as we had perfect weather with highs in the mid 70s. The Southwest Desert with its sweeping views and petrified forest was our choice. We stopped by the Wilderness Permit desk where I got to catch up with Derrick a bit before securing campsite #2. We decided to leave from the Chinle Trailhead. I dropped Jacqueline and the kids off at the bridge and I ran back to the actual trailhead and took off from there. It actually took a good chunk of time before I caught up with Jacqueline and the kids as they were moving pretty well.

As soon as I caught up to them, they wanted a snack, of course, and thus began the back and forth on the snack attacks. We got them going, though, and Conrad had to lead the group the whole way. He did a pretty good job of keeping a good pace for the rest of us.
October is so great in the desert because the flowers and cacti are coming back alive. We were both surprised at home many flowers that we saw blooming. It didn't feel as empty and vacant as the Southwest Desert can feel.
The kids were doing fairly well, but there were always goals put in place and questions about how far away we were. The first goal was to make it to campsite #1. It took a couple of snack and water breaks to make it there, but eventually we did make it. That is where everyone seemed to hit a wall. Conrad had a couple of trips to the woods to dig some holes. Zyla's belly hurt and Jacqueline thought the trail was too steep. I kept everyone on an even keel by taking care of Conrad, pleading with Zyla to drink more than a sip of water, and to let Jacqueline know how hard a child would have to work to fall off the trail. We continued past campsite 1 and into Scoggins Wash before we were climbing up to campsite 2. Everyone was happy to see it as it took us a good 4 hours to make it to the campsite. When we got to it, Jacqueline was immediately freaked out because campsite 2 has this incredible view because there is a large drop off down into Scoggins Wash right after it.

We set up some ground rules for the kids and it was definitely enjoyable to get this huge sweeping view of the backside of the Towers and Temples of the Virgin. I guess here they would be the Towers and Temples of Scoggins Wash. Does not quite have the same ring to it. The other awesome thing about this site is the amount of agates and petrified would around. It seemed that every rock was this pretty colorful agate or a large piece of a very, very old tree. The kids got right to work on creating little play areas for the ants and they seemed to really enjoy their time in camp. We still had to plead with Zyla to drink some water and eat some food, but eventually the energy and joy returned.

We really enjoyed the pretty sunset as this may be the best spot in the entire park to appreciate the sunset. It is the same view that we get to see of the park from our house in Washington, Utah, but so very much more in your face. We stayed outside until the sun finally set about 7:30 pm and then it was time to read books in the tent. Everyone had a different book to enjoy. We were all asleep before 9 and it was a very quiet night. It was almost like sleeping in a cave it was so quiet. At about 6:30 AM, I began stirring to get everyone going when the sun was up. It was still pretty cold out, but not too bad. I quickly got some breakfast going and by the time the water boiled and the meal was made, all were up and shivering away.

It wasn't actually that cold out being somewhere in the low 50s, but it was moister than usual. The tent when I packed it up was just covered with moisture so that it necessitated a drying process once we made it home. Strangely enough, though, the water hole that we had used the previous night to get 3 quarts of water, had dried up overnight so that I was glad I had acted on the filtering of water early. It took Jacqueline some time to get going, but by 9 AM, we were hitting the trail. I decided that walking back to the Chinle Trailhead was just too uninteresting, so instead we continued on to Scoggins Wash. This was going to be better on the kids as it was mostly downhill and fairly easy going. Zyla seemed the least motivated to move quickly of all of us as Conrad was leading the way again and moving good. We left the plateau above Scoggins and started to lose elevation until we finally got to drop into the Wash. Jacqueline was not a fan of the trail down into Scoggins from the Chinle, but everyone made it fine. We continued down Scoggins appreciating just how lush this usually dry canyon appeared.

Eventually we hit Coalpits Wash where we had our last of many snack breaks. I walked with the family for about half a mile after that and then took off ahead. This change in our itinerary was putting us out on a trailhead quite a ways away from where our car was parked. I hustled to the Coalpits Wash trailhead, dropped my pack and started my run up the road. Luckily, I had been running a lot lately so I was able to move rather well. I stopped once along the way when I found a wallet by the side of the road and once again when I saw a police officer in Rockville who I handed the wallet off to. All in all, it was a 4 mile run back to the other trailhead where I grabbed the car and picked up the rest of the family. I was proud of everyone on our second family backpack. Mileage was only about 8 miles total, but it was through some rough terrain carrying some heavy packs. It was a great way to spend a couple of days of fall break. 

Long Day in the Barracks

 Tim is a good friend of mine who shows up at our house often before he flies off to one of his amazing trips around the world. This past year, it was Peru, Taiwan, and India. Soon he will be off to Bali. In the meantime, he works at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. My summer time fun was coming to an end, but on the last day before Jacqueline had to go back to work, I got one last chance to go for a long hike. I took advantage given that Tim is a stronger hiker than me and in better shape. So I picked something that would challenge our endurance a little bit. We were going to start out in Meadow Creek connecting to Mineral Gulch which would put us in the Barracks before an ascent out through Checkerboard Mesa. Given that this hike was nearly a halfway meeting point for the two of us, we both left our houses early in the morning. I left about 6:30 a.m. after a rough night's sleep. I met up with Tim at about 7:40. We left one car at the takeout across from Checkerboard Mesa and the other we drove about 10 miles away to the head of Meadow Creek.

The descent into Meadow Creek is interesting. It is really chunky mud stone that when it rains turns into just mud. It had rained recently so we spent the beginning of the hike trying to avoid the quicksand, but soon gave up and just tried to avoid the really soupy stuff. There is a rappel not too far down into Meadow Creek, but I had been there once before, so I thought there was a way to get around. I was right. There was one more pour off, but this one was easy to get around also. The rest of Meadow Creek was a rather open, uninteresting canyon that seems to just get deeper and deeper. It is amazing to view from above, but from below it is wide open. We saw some sort of hawk, but other than that we just waited for the beautiful narrows of Mineral Gulch. They were worth waiting for. Mineral Gulch has exactly what the non-technical canyoneer is looking for with great narrows with no obstacles.
Time was beginning to be an issue. I assumed the entire hike was about 15 miles from my mapping software, but the twists and turns of the canyons were looking like my estimate was way short. When we found the pictographs of Mineral Gulch, it was already pushing noon as we had been in that canyon for 4 hours. It was looking like this was going to be a 20+ mile day. 
We finally popped out into the narrows of Parunuweap known locally as the Barracks. I had been here a couple of times before, but only in this section once on another long day with Jacqueline and Eric. There were a couple of things that we noticed. One was that the canyon didn't smell so good. There were definitely some cows around. Another was that the water was really muddy, like chocolate milk muddy. This was going to slow us down considerably as each step we took into the creek was like a guessing game. Am I going to sink to my ankle or am I going to sink to my waist? We found a spot for lunch and knew that we had our work cut out for us. After eating it was following the river course, sometimes in the water, sometimes along the banks. We found the debris from a recent flash flood, but the water did not get any clearer after that. 
Tim and I were both really interested in all of the side canyons coming in. Once again, every hike leads to newer more interesting hikes off that hike and we both thought it would be a good idea to backpack in here someday and just take lots of time to explore side canyons. We went into a few without finding any turn around points, but we just knew as the time ticked off, that we were going to have to just commit to the canyon on this day. There was also a small threat of thunderstorms and as we got later into the afternoon, we knew our chances of getting into a flash flood increased exponentially. Looking at the amount of sky that we could see, though, we tell that we were probably clear of any storms at this point. 
The canyon seemed long and endless until we finally reached the narrowest section. I could tell we were near the waterfall when we had to wade above our waist for the first time. 

Sure enough, we came upon it and it looked so different than what I had seen in the past. We knew that there was one way down this canyon and that this waterfall was the way down, but both of us looked at it and doubted whether we should attempt descending it. There was a lot of water rushing through a very narrow opening and what used to be a logjam was now just a rocky, rough cascading fall. There were three options. The first was going off the rock and that was a long way down. The second was the other wall, but that look very tight. The third, which we knew we were going to have to take was down the fall itself. Tim and I both looked nervous. We tried a few things and I lowered myself down into the waterfall. There was a lot of push from the weight of the water. With the noise and the lack of footholds, I just worried about being taken by the water, hitting my head and ending up in the pool below. I climbed back up. We had to find a better way. Tim suggested grabbing a log upstream. Great idea! We found one not far away, floated it down, and tried to jam it in between the rock and the ground. We failed and lost it downstream. Okay, let's try again. We went back upstream and found another 10 foot log that we floated down until we were at the falls. This time we put it over the falls. It was only halfway down, but we were afraid to lose it. It looked like it would work, but was it stable. Tim sat on one end while I slid down the log. Soon I was right in the waterfall, but as I descended the log began to move. I was essentially riding a log down a waterfall. After it jammed into place, I was able find a good foot hold, get myself off the log and out of the waterfall. I helped Tim find a foot placement as he descended a now stationary log and we were past the waterfall obstacle.
After that it was less than a half an hour before we made it to Misery Canyon. The canyon was so amazing here, but on this day, we were ready to get out. It was already 4pm and we still had a couple thousand feet in elevation to climb on a 100+ degree day with 5-6 miles left to go. We found the John Wesley Powell plaque and then it was up the steep walls. Having done this exit route a few times, it was easy to find, but I can only imagine talking yourself into this if you had never been there before. We got a little off route, but I knew how to find the exit from many times past, so we just trended west until we topped out. It was brutally hot, but at least the sun was not pounding on us given the haze from the fires in California. 
Still there was a lot of sand slogging and with Checkerboard Mesa always in full view, the route seemed to go up and up for an indefinite amount of time. We finally topped out in the canyon next to Checkerboard and it felt good to descend. Along the way, we ran into a group of bighorn sheep who seemed not very concerned by our presence. We finally made it out about 6:30 p.m. which was a bit later than I was anticipating, but still with a significant amount of daylight left. I was pretty spent by the end, I have to admit, but it was well worth it for the scenery and the good company along the way. When I made it home, though, it was unfortunate to find out that our air conditioning had broken and we were now stuck for the evening until morning dealing with the hot Southern Utah heat.

Keyhole with the Meisters

I wanted to show off some of Zion's amazing slot canyons to the Meisters, so we chose to take a run through Keyhole. Given that the weather had been highly unpredictable, it was the right choice given that the canyon was short and thunderstorms were a definite possibility. We got an early start and our first stop was Zion Adventure Company. My old neighbor Jon worked there and he helped us find some gear before we set out. We were able to get a permit from the Wilderness Desk and then it was through the tunnel to the east side of the park. It was already warm out as we packed up our stuff. We had a good crew as Brent, Laurel, and Will were all coming with me.

The hardest part of this whole hike is just getting to the canyon. First, we have to pack up all our gear and haul it up some steep slick rock. Then we had to descend a very steep gully to just get to the canyon. From there, we started putting on some gear. Laurel and Will had decided to rent wetsuits. I was a bit disappointed to see when we got to the canyon that it was basically bone dry. Some of the simpler down climbs were made more challenging by the lack of water to climb down into. It took us a bit of extra time to get everyone down these drops. Luckily, I remembered most of them and led most of the time. I just wanted to make sure everyone was safe. Brent and Laurel figured it out really quickly and if they were nervous about it, I couldn't tell. Will was nervous about some drops, but that made me happy to because it meant that he had a real fear for the danger potential. He had plenty of adults around to help him out and I was really proud of just how well he did on his first time at a young age. We made it through the middle section without any injuries and now it was time to harness up.
I was a bit concerned about how my elbow would do given that it was still coming back to normal from my inflammation, but so far, so good. The first rappel in Keyhole is the most fun. It took Will a bit of time to figure it out as when you are a newcomer, the hardest thing is putting enough weight on the rope. Soon we were all down into the smelliness of the very dry canyon. We did get a bit of a dip after the first downclimb into the pothole, but still no big issues. We continued down the next two rappels trying to show a few techniques about bottom belays and how to descend the rope. Our first set of other people came by. We were going to let them use our rope, but they were having as many issues as us, so we just moved on.
There is always the 100 foot swim to take care of at the end. This became more like the 100 foot wade though. It was so low. I think everyone with wetsuits was happy because they avoided the canyon rash of rubbing against sandstone, but warmth wise it was not entirely necessary. Soon we were popping out of the canyon. I usually sneak out behind people, but now at the sneaking out point, there was a large tree lodged there to make for an easy exit. I think everyone was pleased with the canyoneering trip and they got to have a bit of an adventure. It was fun for me to as it had been a number of years since I had done any canyoneering. We spent the rest of the day preparing for our mini road trip that would start the following day.