Utah: Take Two

Alright-- it's true, we have been delinquent in our blog posting...but that is about to change!  Wanted to catch folks up on where we have been before getting on to where we are now (still California).  When we last left off, we had dropped Erin off at the Green River amtrak station in central Utah and were heading over to western Utah to explore those national parks.  Utah is truly a beautiful place, and for all the amazing stuff we saw, I can't wait to go back and explore more.  

First stop, Capitol Reef National Park.  This is a relatively small park comprised of "THE WATER POCKET FOLD," which means the earth turned itself into a set of stairs and there are really neat rock colors happening.

The different colors arise from various types of rocks formed throughout geological history.  Apparently, its rather uncommon to see such a variety in a rather isolated space such as this -- a really special place indeed.   The photo above and several following come from the park:

So far the photos have come from a hike we did to the Navajo Knobs, really remarkable vantage points.  You can see the lay of the land, one captures the trail, directly above is Pectol's Pyramid. 

The following day we set out on an overnight hike, a loop that would take us through the Lower Muley Twist Canyon until we reached the Waterpocket Fold that would take us back to the car.  Hiking through the canyon for the near entirety of the first day was certainly a unique experience, although perhaps not one that either of us is eager to repeat.  The environment can be claustrophobic at times, and Ellie thinks (and I agree) that its nice to be atop a canyon every once and again to get a feel for what else is around.  Below are a few shots from the second day of this trek.

Some desert wildflowers tucked into the foreground shrub.

Preparing for the big gulp after a fine breakfast of oatmeal in the Fold.  (The Big Gulp is what you do to clean your dishes in the back country: squirt some water into the pot, rub the gunk off with your finger, and then....gulp!  Matt is especially good at this.)  Below is a tumbling tumbleweed holding pen.  I like these guys a lot because they make me sing the song from The Big Lebowski.

The next few photos are from an afternoon in Bryce Canyon with its famous hoodoo rock formations- they remind me of giant drip castles that you would make at the beach.

The guy who took this picture for us specifically positioned us because the rocks seems like they were forming two heart-shaped arches in the background....

Next up, one of the coolest backpacking trips I've done- four days through Zion National Park.  We hitched a ride up to the northern end of the park and then hiked back down to the main valley.  Entering the main part of Zion is like Disneyland- there were way too many "Cruise America!" RVs.  But, we saw very few people on the trails up north in Kolob Canyon, and even the popular West Rim had few people.  It was really special to feel like we had such a beautiful place all to ourselves, and we got some neat wild life encounters in the deal as well.  I am really grateful that there was enough water for us to do the four days straight- most of our hikes have been in places where the springs have already dried up for the summer, making anything longer then an overnight impossible.

Ok, first night out in Kolob Canyon.  Below is our totally picturesque campsite, and above....well, I really get a kick out of watching people blow up their sleeping pads, and Matt just looks so much like a monkey!

This is a walk through an alpine meadow.  We lucked out and saw a weasel pop up out of his hole to scope the scene, very cool.

Lots of sage brush.

What could this possibly be?  Yeah, we weren't sure either when we came across this track in the mud.  It looks like one of a bird, but its so big that it seems unlikely -- the pocketknife in this photo shows it to be roughly seven inches long!  Hmm.  Was it from a special trekking pole used to traverse the patches of snow still found along the trail?  We held tight to this notion until we spotted the culprit, a wild turkey.  This is a BIG bird!  A bit of trivia which I'm sure some of you are aware of -- the wild turkey was the rival candidate of the bald eagle for our national bird.

I nearly stepped on this horny toad while strolling along, the first of many that later had near death encounters with my hefty boots.

The lay of the land.

A solitary tree twisting on the hillside that dips down into the canyon that separates the West Rim from the miles of desolate rock in the background.  Our third and final night in Zion was spent along this rim in what is very well the most treasured of campsites in the park.

The sun sets on Zion from the rim.

Our final day begins, and we head to Angel's Landing (below).

The centerpiece, aside from the lovely lady, is the landing -- a narrow rock fin that reaches high above Zion Canyon's floor.  The great thing is that its relatively easy to climb to the top, although its not for those wary of heights.  At several points there are actually chain ropes to grasp and guide you up, nice additions given the semi-treacherous drop-offs on either side of the path.

View from the top.  From here it was it a couple miles DOWNHILL to the canyon floor and the end of our hike.  

Next Stop: The Paria Wilderness.  My friend, Tony, is a US traveler extraordinaire, and when I was asking his advice of spots to check out in Utah, he mentioned a place called THE WAVE. The Wave is a crazy rock formation in a wilderness area called Coyote Buttes, which means they only allow 20 people "in" a day, to keep things feeling wild.  So what, there are tons of neat rocks in Utah, you say.  True, but this has a name, which means that people hear about it- as far away as Germany.  It means that they need a lottery for all the people who want to see it.  Matt and I have never gambled before, but we in fact participated in said lottery, two of fifty-four people vying for the coveted 10 remaining spots.  Woah.  Well, luck was with us, and not only did we get permits to go in, we also heard about a very neat back way to this rock formation.   

You know there is hiking with a map and trails and signs, and there is hiking with a map and a compass, and then there is hiking with intuition and coyote tracks.... I'm going to go ahead and say that trying out that last option for this hike was a very empowering experience.  Matt and I had verbal directions to get to this place and a lot of enthusiasm, but not much else.  Knowing that we were the force of our own destiny I think made us that much more aware of what was going on.  It also gives an added sense of exploration - as if we were the first people to see any of this crazy landscape!

First land mark and exciting discovery: petroglyphs from a long long time ago.  It is so neat that in the entire middle of Utah (not the parks) you can hike wherever you want and see evidence of people who got to live out here.  That's definitely a part of Utah to be checked out at a later date.

At this point we have crossed a patch of desert and climbed up the ridge I am standing on.  We think we are supposed to hike up a "V" on the other side of the pointy rocks I am looking at.  We do that and then meander around for a while and climb a lot and follow lots of coyote scat and then get to the view below:

Woah.  That amazing stripey, flowing rock down there- that's The Wave.  We are looking at it from very high up.  We are very excited that we have found it all by ourselves.  We are in awe of the view.

And then, of course, The Wave itself.  The rock is so striped!  The whole formation is sandstone carved by the wind and it's several football fields big.  It was neat to walk around and not see a single footprint in the sand.

This looks like a cow pie as tall as me.

This looks like melting ice cream.

This looks like me feeling very happy about our day.  And as all good things do, it came to an end shortly thereafter.  

Although Coyote Butte was technically in Arizona, just across the border with the now much beloved Utah, this felt like our final experience in the Beehive State.  It was difficult to leave the desert sage, huge rocks, solitary spaces, and kind folks that inhabit the southern portion of this state after our three and a half week love affair.  I hope to find a way to return.

The Grand Canyon State was up next, and well the name says it all in terms of destinations.  This was an exciting but brief visit.  To do anything extensive -- overnight trips, etc. -- one must prepare months upon months in advance, as the park faces extraordinary demands on accommodations.  The flexibility that our trip demands prevented such forethought, which was totally cool.  By this point, we were both ready for a low-key experience in the parks.  We spent a couple of days leisurely pacing the canyon's south rim, enjoying the view and the parade of other visitors (although this was by no means peak season).  We were even able to camp for free just outside of the park's south entrance in some national forest land.

A shot from the east entrance.  While this photo isolates the canyon, the desert plain stretches out in the east (to the right).

Taken from the same vantage point as the last photo, this one looks clear across the canyon to the north rim.  The north rim, which was still closed during our visit in the south, is roughly a thousand feet higher in elevation.  We've found that black and white photos are valuable not only in their own aesthetic right, but also for their ability capture definition that gets lost in color shots when the sun is high.  I must say that Ansel Adams came to mind quite a bit while in Utah and Arizona for his mastery of capturing these landscapes and of black and white photography.

This was a unique photo technique that Ellie employed.  In order to enhance definition, she shaded the camera lens with her sunglasses.  I thought it turned out great.

There's so much more we need to share in order to get you all up-to-date, but we'll have to end here for now.  In case you were a bit thrown off by the transitions of voice in this post, yes, Ellie and I wrote this one in tandem.  There was so much to cover, the idea of taking it on alone seemed overwhelming.  For a special prize, see if you can differentiate between the two of us!