Camping

FYI: this might be a bit of a lengthy recap of our camping adventure... So we decided to go to Zion National Park at the beginning of this month. I'd been once before but adam hadn't.  We left early Friday morning so we could claim a camp spot in the park.  We were going to camp on BLM land but we didn't know the rules on leaving your stuff there all day long or what so we went for a camp site in the park and got lucky and found one!

Our first order of business was to hike Angels Landing while we were fresh.

Maybe it wasn't the best time of day to do it but it turned out to be quite pleasant. The hike round trip took us 3 hours, and that included some time at the top to enjoy the view and eat a clif bar.

View from the top.  So crazy how high you get up there!

It's us! The person who took this wasn't a very good photographer.  She got the guy standing in front of her on the edge of this picture!

Going back down....

Gazillion switchbacks. I will say that think I was in better shape than last time I did this hike.

 

Back at the bottom we went to take a looksy at the Virgin river. The rivers all over Utah are flowing pretty high and fast. In fact the Narrows were closed because of that. 

After that hike we decided we could handle another easy hike. This one was just half a mile round trip.  This is Weeping Rock.

On Saturday we decided to get away from the crowds and do something different.  The Frommer's guide suggested doing this hike called the Hop Valley Trail that starts kind of in the upper mid region of the park and goes up to the Kolob Arch.  Frommer's says that this hike can be a day hike, 13 miles round trip with an extra mile one way to the Kolob Arch.  So yeah, we thought this would be great.  We were told there was some sand involved but we didn't think it would be too bad.  And it wasn't.  At the beginning anyway.  And it was definitely not busy, we only saw about 10 people all day.  Here we are all chipper and enthusiastic about our choice of hike.

We saw lots of little bug tracks in the sand, enjoyed the scenery, chit chatted for a few miles until we got into the meadow.  Then we started having to cross this river bed that had some very shallow water flowing through.  The river snaked along through this canyon so we crossed over it about four billion times. My shoes started getting sand in them and my feet started getting wet despite gortex shoes. Well we had been following footprints and just continued to follow footprints for a while. And then eventually after seeing some drop offs and no where else to go, we figured we must've followed the wrong prints. We found our way back to the right path, somehow we missed the trail mark.  So then we walk up this mountain and then down down down all while getting attacked by flies. Finally made it to the end of the trail and found the sign that pointed to Kolob Arch. Started walking a ways till we ran into some campers who told us we'd gone too far.. "go back a ways and cross the river..."  Um, cross the river... There really was no where to cross and the river was moving super fast. We saw some guys looking for the arch and told them about the river crossing.  We all searched for a place to cross and they eventually decided to take off their socks and shoes and just cross... The river turned out to be pretty deep, up to their mid thighs.  I probably would've been swept away. But we ate a little lunch still deciding what to do and found this little log to cross...

Yeah it wasn't very stable or thick but we did it anyway because we were so close to the arch and we read that it was the largest freestanding arch, possibly in the world.  So, river crossed, we hiked on. And got to a point that said, Kolob Arch, look up.  So here it is, the Kolob Arch.  Still miles away, and looking like a postcard.  This is a zoomed in picture.  Good grief, how disappointing!

So we turned around, crossed the river again, got attacked by flies and journeyed back to the car. In the heat of the day.  With limited water left. And tired wet feet.  And a lot of up up up up up hill to go. Honestly, it felt like we were never going to get out.  Adam kept up an overly positive attitude as to not give into despair.  He said that he thought that if we stopped for too long, we would probably die in the desert. He kept pointing out familiar landmarks so I would know we were making progress. At this time, the sand was also getting fluffier in the heat making it harder to walk on.  Also, most of the trails we walked on were sand, not just some. We finally got out with Adam having zero water and i had maybe half a liter or so.  Our 13 mile hike turned into a 15 mile hike with the arch part and turned into an at least 17 mile hike with our getting lost and back tracking. All in all, we were hiking for 9 hours.  Dear Mr. Frommer, you shouldn't recommend the Hop Valley Trail as a day hike. 

Turned out that those flies buzzing all around us all day were biting flies.  Lovely. Adam got two gross bites that turned into pus balls basically, and i got one.  But I got my fair share of regular looking bites on my shoulders. Well, we laugh about this hike now, but at the time, it was tiring. We kept asking each other what were we thinking doing this as a day hike!

Well the next day as to rest a little, we did 3 easy hikes. All paved. All short. But still nice views. This is the Pa'rus Trail.

All the flowers I saw on cacti were pink but this one was yellow so it was worth a picture.

This is a wild turkey on the trail to the Lower Emerald Pools.

The Lower Emerald Pools. Not so emerald.

And this is somewhere... maybe the Riverwalk Trail.

Before we left the next day, we decided we should do one more hike.  The Hidden Canyon Trail. It was a pretty good hike and the end of the hike takes you to a canyon. It was neat-o.  The sign at the mouth of the canyon said it was the end of the maintained trail and that we could continue further and that there was scrambling involved and that there was no outlet and that we could see an arch too.  So exploring we went.

Trying to figure out the best route.

We walked about 30 minutes into the canyon, so probably at least a mile, and never saw an arch anywhere.  And there was lots of scrambling involved.  Here's adam deciding if we should go on or turn around. There didn't seem like there was much further to go so we went back.

Coming back down the canyon.

It was a nice hike because there weren't any other people in the canyon.  We passed a few coming back to the mouth but that was it. We never saw the arch.

We looked it up later when we got home.  Apparently the arch is just a half mile or so in so we definitely passed it.  It also said it's at ground level.  So i'm not really sure how we missed it.  We probably walked right through it!  Here's a picture of it I found online...

Anyway, here's us coming down the trail after we left the canyon.

Oh and here is our little camping site. Our little 2 man tent that barely holds two people.  Also, there is adam doing what he did in all our free time in the evenings... reading a book on Continental Philosophy.  I played cards.

And that is the end of our trip.  We left the Zion area with an ice cream cone in hand. Yum!