Rachel Grindlay

Tom & I spent four weeks in south-western USA primarily Utah, Colorado & Arizona. The main goal was canyoning but we ended up with quite a bit of hiking as well and even some via ferrata!

• Part 1: Zion & San Rafael Swell, Utah (Days 1 – 6)
• Part 2: North Wash, Utah  (Days 7 – 9)
• Part 3: Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP & Ouray, Colorado (Days 10 – 14)
• Part 4: Mesa Verde NP, Canyoning around Page, Colorato/Utah/Arizona (Days 15 – 18)
• Part 5: Buckskin Gulch, Utah (Days 19-20)
• Part 6: Arizona canyoning (Days 21 – 23)
• Part 7: Desert & Cacti, Arizona/California (Days 24 – 29)

I have a list of things we learnt from across our 3 trips (2013/2017/2024) which might be helpful to any Australians planning a canyoning trip to Utah.

Day	Date	km	Driving Time	Overnight at…
0	Fri 6 Sep	10		Las Vegas, NV
1	Sat 7 Sep	300	3h 21	Watchman Campground (Zion NP), UT
2	Sun 8 Sep	156	2h 17	Lava Point Campground (Zion NP), UT
3	Mon 9 Sep	170	2h 16	Point Supreme Campground (Cedar Breaks NM), UT
4	Tue 10 Sep	107	2h 18	Panguitch Lake Campground (Dixie NF), UT
5	Wed 11 Sep	336	3h 27	Dispersed camping, UT
6	Thu 12 Sep	85	1h	Green River, UT
7	Fri 13 Sep	185	2h 8	Dispersed camping, UT
8	Sat 14 Sep	0	0	Dispersed camping, UT
9	Sun 15 Sep	186	2h 45	Green River, UT
10	Mon 16 Sep	210	1h 56	Grand Junction, CO
11	Tue 17 Sep	141	2h 1	South Rim Campground (Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP), CO
12	Wed 18 Sep	119	2h 12	Amphitheater Campground (Uncompaghre SF), CO
13	Thu 19 Sep	11	23m	Amphitheater Campground (Uncompaghre SF), CO
14	Fri 20 Sep	12	27m	Amphitheater Campground (Uncompaghre SF), CO
15	Sat 21 Sep	120	1h 44	Friend’s place, CO
16	Sun 22 Sep	142	2h 27	Morefield Campground (Mesa Verde NP), CO
17	Mon 23 Sep	440	4h 43	White House Campsite (Grand Staircase-Escalante NM / Vermilion Cliffs NM), UT
18	Tue 24 Sep	205	2h 20	Big Water, UT
19	Wed 25 Sep	27	20m	Buckskin Gulch, UT
20	Thu 26 Sep	270	2h 51	Flagstaff, AZ
21	Fri 27 Sep	72	1h 6	Flagstaff, AZ
22	Sat 28 Sep	12	20m	Flagstaff, AZ
23	Sun 29 Sep	190	2h 15	Christopher Creek Campground, AZ
24	Mon 30 Sep	393	4h 53	Tucson, AZ
25	Tue 1 Oct	237	2h 42	Ajo, AZ
26	Wed 2 Oct	453	4h 57	Blythe, CA
27	Thu 3 Oct	195	2h 22	Ryan Campground (Joshua Tree NP), CA
28	Fri 4 Oct	51	55m	29 Palms, CA
29	Sat 5 Oct	315	3h 30	Plane

Total – approx 5,150km

Continued from Part 4

The decision to stay indoors meant we had a quick, easy departure the next morning to meet our car shuttle operator. When I’d booked our shuttle for 7:30am I hadn’t looked at the sunrise times. Sunrise was only at 7:15am. Once I’d realised I almost made it later – turns out it was a good thing I didn’t. We also had to make sure we were talking Utah times as Arizona doesn’t observe daylight saving and had an hour time difference – tricky when the border was only 20 minutes from where we were meeting!

Our shuttle operator was waiting for us at the White House Trailhead well in advance, and we were on our way to Wire Pass Trailhead exactly on time despite our faffing. The trip to Wire Pass went twice as fast as it would have had we been driving! Yermo had clearly driven the road many, many times previously, had a 4WD and was completely comfortable. Perhaps too comfortable, as he pulled out his phone, while driving, to show us photos of Antelope Ridge Canyon – apparently going to be the next big thing in the area.

I didn’t really know what to expect from our overnight trip through Buckskin Gulch. Even though I’d read that it was claimed to be the “longest slot canyon in the world”, I hadn’t really thought about what that would mean. After the first half hour approach, we were walking down a slot canyon for the entirety of the day. It wasn’t always super narrow, and to be honest those wider sections were something of a relief, but a good proportion of it was 2m wide. There is only one escape, the ‘middle exit’, and so it’s not a location to be walking if rain is forecast.

Unfortunately the area had got decent rain in early September which had filled up the canyon. The water had been draining (or evaporating) slowly but apparently even the week before we would have been doing chest-deep wades.

As it was we hit our first knee deep pools (and of course mud) quite early on. It didn’t detract from the canyon – though Tom was apparently expecting a more spectacular canyon. I think his expectations were too high!

The notes we had suggested 3 hours from when we entered the slot to reach the middle exit. But every time I looked at something promising it didn’t go… and we kept going, and then hitting more mud and deeper pools. I had now been in up to my upper thighs, and in danger of getting wet shorts (which had been hitched up as high as they could go). The mud and pools made things very slow as it was so slippery you inch through the pools trying to ensure you don’t fall over and end up saturated and stinky.

Eventually we reached middle exit – it had taken us closer to 5 hours rather than the expected 3. Subsequently it was a very late lunch! We bumped into 3 others at the base of middle exit. Two who’d walked up from Lees Ferry over a couple of days, and the third appeared to be a guide to get them out middle exit. It became clear while we were eating lunch why they needed the guide. Middle exit seemed to be a slickrock ramp that just needed to be walked up – easy if you’re used to friction walking in that environment. Not so easy if you’re not used to it – they were still getting up the ramp as we finished our lunch.

We were somewhat buoyed by the news from the other walkers that there wasn’t really any water downstream. They had been covered in mud so we weren’t getting too hopeful though! Thankfully it was largely dry for the next hour and we were happy to be able to march down the canyon without much thought to foot placement.

We were also waiting for the crux of the day to arrive, which according to the notes we had, was about an hour downstream from middle exit. So every indication of rockfall we thought – this must be it! But no… however, we did get to a mud pool. The description from the other couple made sense once we hit it – they’d said no water but just mud you keep sinking into. It was basically knee-deep liquid mud. We came out of with a slick layer of mud over anything that went into the pool.

Of course, feet covered in the mud, was when we eventually, about 2 hours downstream hit the crux.

The crux is a pile of large boulders. Sometimes you can go through a hole at the base, but other times that hole is blocked up and you need to downclimb a boulder which has had steps carved in it. Both options were available to us, though Tom left his pack behind when he went to investigate the low route, so had to climb up the boulder to get back to his pack. I guess he got the full experience.

We were hoping this later section was going to be ‘on time’ and not an extra two hours because we were already looking at a 5pm arrival at camp. Fortunately it was. We actually walked past the campsites initially – it was only when we arrived at the confluence of the Paria River and Buckskin Gulch that we realised our mistake. We were a bit grumpy about it as it had been a long day and we didn’t want to have to do unnecessary extra walking – but too late! As it turned out it really wasn’t that far back upstream to the campsites. We’d both been expecting that the canyon would widen out for where we camped – but having seen the sites it was then abundantly clear why you were required to carry your poo out (remember the wag bags). We were literally camping in the canyon – just on a couple of well-entrenched sandbanks.

Tired, after what was by far our longest day, we quickly devoured snacks, soup and dinner and were in bed pretty early. Before we could leave the next morning we got to have our first use of a wag bag. I’d done a bit of research before we left but I hadn’t appreciated that we would be needing to poo into a bag (as opposed to onto a flat sheet). I’m quite used to digging holes in the bush but the set-up for the bag required a bit more coordination. I’m sure after a few uses you get it sorted but I wouldn’t say it was the most user-friendly experience I’ve ever had.

From there we headed back to the junction with the Paria River, which we would exit up. We had been surprised how few people we had seen in the canyon – a few at the start near the car park but otherwise we’d largely been on our own. So it was a bit jarring to bump into 3 people and 2 dogs, coming from downstream, first thing that morning. We recognised the group as they had set off from White House Trailhead when we’d been camped there two nights earlier. The smaller of the two dogs had a much harder time of it – lots of pools it had to swim! Another thing about the USA which just feels weird to me – dogs being allowed in so many more places than they are in Australia.

The section of the Paria was quite stunning and we enjoyed the morning’s walk. There were lots of people (and horses) heading in as we walked out. The closer we got to the car the sooner we needed to start making some decisions.

This was meant to be the end of the canyoning section of the trip, and from here on we were heading to Arizona for desert hiking and cactus viewing. However Tom had looked at the forecast a couple of nights earlier only to find ‘extreme heat warnings’ issued over almost the entirety of Arizona and California for the next week. Did we really want to head into that? And if not, what were our alternatives?

We needed to make a decision before we drove anywhere, so we settled in under the picnic shelter at the Paria Contact Station with our maps of Utah and Arizona, phones at the ready, to try and work out a plan for the rest of a trip.

Because the heat was so widespread there wasn’t really anywhere that close to escape from it. If we opted to do some more canyoning in the Paria area (which had been skipped in favour of Colorado) we would be doing it in 30°C+ heat. That wasn’t likely to be that much fun – so perhaps we should just suck up the 40°C+ heat further south?

With that solid reasoning behind us we set off for Flagstaff – which at least at its higher altitude wasn’t setting daily record temperatures for that time of year (unlike Phoenix).

Continued from Part 3

I was keen to drive the “Million Dollar Highway” while it was dry so we made sure we got an early start. The highway was a treat with many Aspens turning to their fall colours. We stopped a few times to take in the views.

From Molas Pass we did a few kilometres of the Colorado Trail to Little Molas Lake and then part way up the Twin Sisters Trail section. We hadn’t intended to go far and so hadn’t taken anything (e.g. raincoats) with us. However, we’d kept walking – just to get to ‘that’ spot, or that next view, and next thing we knew we’d were over an hour from the car and the weather had packed it in and was snowing on us. Dropping down a few contours back into the trees got us to drier climes and we got back to the car without getting drenched!

We also got lucky as shortly after we’d stopped for lunch at James Ranch, a massive hailstorm came through. There were piles of hail all over the yard. We were lucky to be ensconced in the dining room eating burgers and not on the road. With the weather as it was we were very glad to be staying with Rachel who we’d met at Poison Springs the previous weekend. At our trip halfway point it was great to be staying in a home, with the opportunity to get some washing done.

We got away relatively early the next morning heading to Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde is famous for cliff dwellings that the Ancestral Pueblo people occupied until around 1200AD. We were booked on a guided tour to Balcony House – involving ladders and crawling through narrow access points. The cliff dwellings are very impressive and the thought of trying to access them without modern ladders makes the mind boggle.

We hadn’t appreciated how much there was to see at Mesa Verde, and also how much driving was involved. Despite getting to the park at 10am we didn’t make it back to the campground much before sunset – to think we’d originally had ideas of then pushing on to somewhere else (mainly because the campground is extortionately priced).

The drive to Page the next day was one of our longer driving days. It was brought to us by songs beginning with I, J, and K. When Tom had been connecting his phone up to the car he’d had some difficulty getting his music to play. When it finally did start working it was playing his collection in alphabetical order – not daring to touch it in case it broke, that was how it stayed for the whole trip. Perhaps unsurprisingly there are a lot of songs beginning with I.

Things on the schedule were a bit vague from here as we were constrained by the dates of our Buckskin Gulch permit and how to work other activities around it. In retrospect the order we did things was likely inefficient, but at the time it seemed sensible. After finding a delightful green-grass covered park in Page for lunch, we headed out to the Paria Contact Station to pick up our permits and WAG bags (more on this later!) for Buckskin Gulch two days later. While there we checked out the White House Trailhead and decided to secure a campsite for the night. Catstair Canyon was just a few minutes up the road, so that was the next stop.

Catstair Canyon has a unique feature of many old cars stacked up, presumably as surety for the wall of the road? Otherwise it’s a pretty brief canyon ending at a petroglyph wall. A good way to stretch out the legs after a long morning in the car though! And another opportunity for me to meat-anchor Tom/him to partner-assist me down.

I had thought we’d do something else but it was a very hot afternoon, and the other canyons on our hit list weren’t particularly close. Instead we settled for the shade, behind the car, back at the campsite. Though later that afternoon I used my spare pair of gloves to clear the tumbleweed (yes, literally, aka Russian Thistle) which had taken over the marked tent area of our campsite.

The next morning we set off for Blue Pool Wash, another canyon that was very close to Highway 89, and also contained random car parts in it. We hadn’t dressed for down-climbing (my poor bare knees) so we made things a bit trickier than they should have been. However, a good canyon, and well worth the stop.

From there we stopped in Page for Tom to check out the Glen Canyon Dam while I tried to book us some accom for the night. We’d agreed it would be better to stay in a motel so that we didn’t have to pack our gear up for our 7:30am shuttle pickup. Unfortunately, unlike earlier in the trip where leaving bookings to the last minute had resulted in cheap prices, the opposite occurred in Page. In the half hour I was searching the prices increased, agh! I ended up booking a motel I’d looked at the previous day but at a 50% higher price.

With logistics sorted we had a long drive around to the Lees Ferry Road. Tom was enamoured with abseiling to the Colorado River, even if it was a pretty contrived route. We set out for 2.8 Mile Wash in sweltering temperatures in the early afternoon – no relief was provided in the wash as it was very wide.

Tom, in particular, then had a long time in the sun as he very carefully set up a retrievable anchor for the 50m abseil to the Colorado. Our pull cord was only 35m so we’d tied our handline on to it and hoped that would make it long enough – we’d only know once I’d got to the bottom.

Fortunately, the handline/pull cord combo was long enough, so that meant we could use the retrievable anchor and not need to leave a sling behind. Nothing like using a fiddlestick for the first time in the field, with just the two of us, on a 50m drop! The moment of truth – the pull – and it came away perfectly.

It was a relief to get down next to the Colorado with some breeze in the shade. It wasn’t long before we made it to Cathedral Wash (which is normally done as an out and back) and proceeded to scramble our way back up and cross-country to the car. Despite being somewhat less enthused for this outing compared to Tom, having done it I can see the attraction, particularly for out-of-towners.

Tom had wanted to go to Horseshoe Bend for sunset but that just made logistics difficult so he conceded and we paid our $10 parking fee and went in the late afternoon. We seemed to have hit a slightly less busy period – most people had headed off to start winding down for the day, and the sunset crowd hadn’t yet arrived. By the time we left new tides of people were arriving by the minute. Despite the crowds it is a very impressive view, and there are plenty of vantage points along the clifflines.

Finally, not long before sunset, we made it to our motel. As it turned out our expensive room meant we had a seat out the back with extensive views over the desert as the sun set – lovely. If you could ignore the odd dude who was digging in the gravel of the car park until it got dark. Packing for our only overnight walk (canyon) of the trip – not so much fun, but as we’d ended up with a two-roomed apartment we had plenty of room to explode our gear everywhere.

Continued from Part 2

One of the issues with canyoning around Hanksville is the general isolation, and lack of mobile reception. When we’d headed into Maidenwater Canyon three days earlier the forecast had been for rain to come through on Monday. Without reception we didn’t know if that was going to come earlier/later/not at all until we got out late Sunday afternoon. I’d had some slightly nervous moments on Saturday night watching lightning in the distance and wondering if a storm was going to come through that night.

Regardless of weather, we needed to head to some form of civilisation because we needed to fill up water, and restock a few lunch supplies.

As it turned out the unstable weather, which had been due to come through on Monday would bypass the Hanksville area, and wouldn’t hit until late Monday. It looked like our new plan had us driving straight into it – but not wanting to make yet another plan we stuck with the new plan. And so we headed to Colorado – somewhere that hadn’t been on the itinerary at all – and my first time there.

It was a bit of culture shock to go from rural Utah towns to the slightly up-market foodie destination of Palisade! We had a lovely lunch at Carboy Winery with views out to Mt Garfield before doing the Palisade Rim (Lower) Hike. The second winery visit was slightly less relaxing as the wind battered the exposed deck we were sitting on and the rain snuck in the small gaps. We didn’t linger.

A saturated car park and heavy grey skies greeted us the next morning and made us feel good about the decision to stay in a motel. We sat around waiting for the weather and eventually headed off towards the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park – ever heard of it? No, neither had we until a couple of days earlier. The name apparently comes from the narrowness of the canyon – some points in the gorge only receive half an hour of sun a day.

Right on forecast the weather cleared in the early afternoon, just as we arrived at the park. So we set off on some short walks, and then drove around and enjoyed some of the overlooks at sunset. We did the remainder of the short walks / overlooks the next morning before moving on to Ouray.

We were lucky to secure a campsite at the Amphitheater Campground above Ouray and then set off to do Angel Creek Canyon. Ouray is famous for its Class C (flowing water) canyons, but being autumn the water levels were very tame. We hadn’t researched any of the canyons prior to the trip and definitely missed having RoadTripRyan. The RopeWiki descriptions weren’t always easy to match to reality.

Angel Creek Canyon

We came away a bit underwhelmed at how easy Angel Creek had been – but then chatting to a guy in the outdoors store he said he knew of a group that had to bail out of it because of rapidly rising water only a couple of weeks before. So despite what appeared to be very innocuous conditions I guess you’ve always got to be on top of possible dangers.

Not all of the creeks were tame – the Box Canyon, one of Ouray’s main attractions, was absolutely pounding – very impressive.

The next day we hit up the Ouray Via Ferrata. There’s two routes – the Upstream and Downstream, which both start from the same place. The outdoors store guy had told us doing the Upstream route first, if we were planning to do both, was the more efficient, so that was our plan. The Upstream Route (VF Grade: 4.5B) is the harder of the two and we quickly found out that it wasn’t going to be an easy ramble – a step up from anything we had done in the Dolomites. Almost immediately we were doing slightly overhung moves and wondering if we’d got ourselves in over our heads. Fortunately the difficulty ebbed and flowed and we managed to make it through the route – albeit with much more of a workout than expected.

Ouray Via Ferrata – Upstream Route

We had a late morning tea (as it was already after midday) before wandering back down the track, to the start, to do the downstream route. The Downstream Route (VF Grade: 4B) was more scenic – the gorge in that section was more attractive, and it was easier. Though our hands were pretty worn after the morning so Tom, in particular, found it a bit trying. It would have been challenging had we done them the other way around! The end of the Downstream Route is at the car park so we were then able to head into town for a very late lunch near Cascade Falls.

Ouray Via Ferrata – Downstream Route

Ouray is well-known for its hot springs, so it seemed wrong not to visit them. A couple of hours soaking in the outdoor pools with the beautiful backdrop was wonderful.

The outdoor store guy had also suggested that Oak Creek water levels might be at a level we were comfortable with, so that was where we headed first thing the next day. Ouray is already at 2,400m and we had a solid 350m climb to start the day, to take us to the highest altitude canyon we’ve done. (We did visit Pleiades near Moab in 2013 which I think is higher but given it was covered in snow(!) we didn’t descend it). We weren’t really clear if autumn flow conditions warranted wetsuits but we figured we should play it safe and after much wriggling we were suited up and ready to go.

Lower Oak Creek

Lower Oak Creek has 9-ish rappels, the highest 40-odd metres down a waterfall. Even in the low flow conditions I got pretty wet on the way down – though Tom tells me that’s because I took a poor line. But he didn’t get to pop into the alcove behind the flow and ‘enjoy the unique view’. Our feet were pretty cold, but other than the main waterfall we weren’t really in the water very much above knee height.

It was very easy to tell when we’d got to the end as there’s a pedestrian bridge crossing the creek. After we’d de-wetsuited and packed up all our gear it was time for all the hikers to walk past. It was quite funny when they started asking how far it was to go etc, and us trying to explain we had no idea as we had not got to that spot by hiking. We got back into town in time for an earlier lunch than the previous day.

As we hadn’t yet done Portland Creek, the other Ouray beginner canyon, we figured we better do it that afternoon. We’d driven over Portland Creek several times already, as it’s on the road to the campground we were staying at. In fact the first rap is under the bridge you drive over. It was a short but scenic canyon. You just don’t get canyons like that in Australia where you can basically drive to the start, and so your entire trip is just the canyon – no real time spent on an approach/exit hike. It feels like cheating!

Portland Creek

The weather was due to turn again the next day so it was sadly time to move on.

Continued from Part 1

Maidenwater Canyon

We took advantage of the 11am checkout before heading to the Maidenwater canyons on the Ticaboo Road. We chose the middle fork as the beta suggested it rarely held water, compared to the other forks – we’d had enough of being wet the day before!

There were plenty of downclimbs and it was a good opportunity to try and get our heads back in the downclimbing game. Unfortunately when there’s only two of you and you’re partner-assisting on climbs there’s no one to take photos. At one stage I meat-anchored Tom and then I had to stand on his head to get down – would have been a great photo I’m sure. We’re not quite out of the canyon game yet!

From there, we headed to Poison Springs where we were hopefully meeting some friends of a friend to canyon the next day. I heard the others arrive late that night, but Tom had slept through. We’d been told it would likely be a late start (10am), but I don’t think I’d quite believed it until we wandered up to where they had camped at 8:30am and everyone was fast asleep. As it turned out Tom & I probably could have run a canyon that morning as we didn’t get going until after 11am… but that wasn’t the point of the day – the point was to go canyoning with other people!

It was a motley crew from Salt Lake City and Durango – many of whom hadn’t met until that weekend (lots of friends of friends). With 2 Rachels and 2 Coreys, along with Zac, Tom & Val it meant remembering names wasn’t too tricky!

Tom & I put our vote in for doing Constrychnine first as we’d done the other two Poison Spring canyons in 2013. No one else had much of an opinion so off to Constrychnine we went.

Constrychnine Canyon

The first drop is 40m off a deadman anchor, and we spent a lot of time here, as we politely worked out everyone’s skills and who should be doing what… You forget how long it takes to get 7 people down long abseils even if you’re working efficiently, and with the next one being 55m, and then a subsequent 30m one, we spent a lot of time in the canyon! That meant we had plenty of time to get to know everyone.

Just as we thought it was over there was one final drop, with no anchor, for us to overcome. Most of us were meat-anchored down, and a deadman/cairn anchor was set for the LAMAR.

Funnily enough, as it was around 5pm by the time we’d climbed out, there wasn’t too much enthusiasm to do a run through Arscenic to finish the day. Instead we had a great evening socialising, aided by an amazing spread of snacks, and dinner provided by (Durango) Rachel. Tom & I were most grateful for everyone’s welcome & hospitality, particularly given we didn’t have anything delicious to contribute. And it was nice to have someone to talk to other than Tom 🙂

The next morning I was keen to get moving and make use of the day as the following day the unstable weather was coming back. Eventually we said our goodbyes and headed off to do Shillelagh Canyon.

Shillelagh Canyon (East fork)

We arrived just as another couple were preparing to do the same thing – we followed them up to the start where they insisted we go ahead as they were just learning. The anchors on the rappels had been extended to avoid rope-grooving. This made the starts quite tricky as you needed to get a long way over the edge before you weighted the rope.

Coupled with the tricky starts, the bottom of rap 2 had a muddy pool. Fortunately Tom was able to do a somewhat stretchy traverse around it – and then was able to haul me across. I suspect the two beginners behind us would have found things a bit more difficult!

We had an early lunch back at the car and debated what to do for the rest of the day.

Eventually we settled on Angel Slot Canyon even though it involved more dirt roads. Fortunately this was probably the best quality dirt road we’d encountered – though there were three quite sandy sections which may have been tricky without AWD. It was super windy when we arrived at the high, exposed car park and we were happy when we eventually got into the slot.

Angel Slot Canyon

Though depending on which way the canyon was running we were having sand blow into our eyes which made bits of it very unpleasant! Overall it was a high quality canyon with plenty of downclimbing and very speccy views on the way out.

From there we had a shake at Stan’s in Hanksville for old times’ sake before another motel night in Green River – yes, we’re getting soft.

Continue to Part 3

It had been 7 years since our last trip to the canyons of Utah. There hadn’t been a lot of canyoning done in Australia during that time either – what with bushfires, floods and Covid in the last 4 years.

I thought I’d set a relatively unambitious schedule with easier canyons – nothing overly exciting on the list. But even that seemed like it might be too ambitious when Tom managed to magic up some bruised (actually more likely fractured as it turned out) ribs the week before we left. Great.

Things didn’t start well when the airline moved our flight 24 hours and didn’t bother to inform us. Fortunately I had logged on to check the flights and noticed – so we managed to fly only 10 hours delayed rather than 24 hours.

As we had learnt from our 2013 and 2017 trips it’s not worth trying to get out of Las Vegas on the first day. Due to the change of flights it was just as well we weren’t planning to, as we didn’t get in till 10pm. That didn’t stop us accepting free (crappy) champagne from the concierge at our hotel though.

Feeling groggy (from the jetlag!) the next morning we set off on the unpleasant task of trying to buy supplies for a month living out of the car. This isn’t fun at the best of times, let alone when you’re jet-lagged and in a foreign country with strange things lining their supermarket shelves. I quickly felt justified at bringing full-fat milk powder, untoasted muesli and cup-a-soup packets with us, as nothing resembling these were available in the supermarket we went to.

Shopping took most of the morning and it was after lunch before we were on our way to Zion. We had hoped to shop the previous day and have time for a longer canyon but as things were we settled for Ghost Rider. The idea was that this would just get our heads in the game. We watched in horror as the car temperature climbed to 110°F (43°C) as we drove across the desert. Ghost Rider wasn’t far off our route so we figured we’d give it a go anyway – the canyon was only supposed to take an hour.

I don’t think I’d registered it was in limestone country so any hope of it getting us used to the grippy sandstone were dashed.

We didn’t melt and it wasn’t long before we were driving through Springdale with lots of fond memories of previous trips. The advantage of arriving late was there was no queue to get into Zion National Park! The temperatures did not abate overnight and we had a sticky low of ~30°C.

Much like our 2017 trip I had scheduled Boundary for the first couple of days. And much like our 2017 trip Tom decided he wasn’t physically up for it. The forecast was a bit unstable as well – possible thunderstorms. I lay there trying to think of alternatives and finally came up with what I thought was a great option – Middle Echo – we’d really enjoyed it in 2013, we didn’t have drive anywhere, there seemed to be permits available, and it wasn’t too big a day. Except then I realised that the access point within Zion was closed due to rockfall. So much for that idea.

We’d never been to the Kolob side of Zion and I had Lava Point Campground booked for that night. So the compromise plan was to do a hike in that area. It was only the next morning when I looked at things a bit more closely that I realised Lava Point was not really anywhere near the Kolob hiking area. Needless to say there was a little bit of frustration creeping in as nothing was going quite to plan.

Not having a better option we decided we’d just head to Taylor Creek anyway. We had a pleasant (if hot) hike out to the Double Arch Alcove. After that we headed to the Timber Creek Overlook Trail which had excellent views of the Zion area. I can’t believe we hadn’t been here previously!

We were forced to have a stop in La Verkin for a cold drink as the jetlag and hot weather combination was making it dangerous to keep driving. Eventually we did safely arrive at our campsite at Lava Point. We were very happy to get up in altitude and to some lower temperatures. While we were setting up there were thunderstorms rolling around, and we eventually retreated to the car as the rain came through.

I still had hopes for Boundary and was trying to convince Tom we should do it the next day. There were still possible thunderstorms forecast but I thought if we got up really early we should be able to beat them. But eventually between Tom’s ribs and the forecast we decided it wasn’t the best idea and we’d just do what the original schedule had called for and head to Benson Creek.

We didn’t take the optimal driving route and so it was a bit later than planned when we arrived – and there were ominous grey clouds positioned right over the canyon. Needless to say I was a little nervous as the thunder rolled around our heads as we marched up the trail. On the plus side it was a short canyon, and the terrain seemed to have some soil to capture the run-off if it did start raining.

We managed to get through Benson Creek narrows in less an hour without the weather deteriorating any further. We then made the (foolish?) decision to have lunch at the picnic area just below the canyon. Most of it was spent huddled under a tree as it spat on us. Just as we were finishing up the rain really started coming down. So there was more huddling, but eventually we sucked it up and marched back to the car in the rain. Why would I bring a raincoat for a trip like this/with a forecast like this?!

From there we headed up to Point Supreme Campground, at 10,300 feet (3,100m), the highest place we’d ever camped. No worries about the hot weather here! In fact us, along with many others, spent a couple of hours that afternoon hiding in the Cedar Breaks National Monument Visitors Centre while it alternated rain and hail. It cleared and we were able to set up a dry tent, and even get a nice sunset at one of the view points.

We checked out the Southern Rim Hike the next morning which was excellent – though the altitude did make it harder going than it would have been normally. The light was stunning.

From there we drove to an even higher point – Brian Head at 11,307ft / 3446m this was the highest either of us had ever been. No work to do it for it either as there was a road to the high point. Then we did the Twisted Forest hike for lunch. I enjoyed it so much I did it twice… when I realised I’d left my drink bottle at our lunch spot. Fortunately it was only a 40 minute return march the second time round!

Not content with our activities for the day we finished off with a visit to Mammoth Cave which is a lava tube which I wriggled through, but Tom decided his ribs wouldn’t thank him for it, so he contented himself with photography instead.

Another (not quite as) high camp that night at Lake Panguitch kept us at a good temperature, but the next day we descended down to the San Rafael Swell. We had another short (2-3 hours) canyon on the agenda – Lupacchiotta Canyon. This one involved just parking on the side of the Interstate highway.

Rather than following the directions Tom decided we could navigate better. But he’d forgotten about cryptobiotic soil – you shouldn’t just march cross-country as you bust open the protective soil, so we had a slow and inefficient approach avoiding all the crypto. Should have just followed the instructions!

Our intended camp for the night while very close as the crow flies, required us to be on the other side of the interstate and it was 12 miles of driving before we were able to turn-around and drive back 14 miles or so. It was a slow drive in to our intended campsite as we spent plenty of time checking out various sections of the road before proceeding, but we got there eventually.

The next day was the first ‘big’ one of the trip – in that it was a full day and not a half day or less. We set off early to try and get the cross-country done before the heat of the day.

We weren’t too happy to find ourselves with some waist-deep wades with associated goopy mud as we progressed up Forgotten Canyon. The beta we had promised “This is NOT a route for beginners, nor for those looking for a slot canyon adventure. It IS a route for those looking for an elegant and challenging route with a little bit of technical rope work. The route requires good navigation skills, route finding, and most of all, good judgment. In several spots, there is relatively easy, but very exposed climbing. Not for the faint of heart or inexperienced.”

The exposed climbing was not going to be fun with our shoes covered in mud. And our judgment proved correct – we got to the crux climb and stuffed around trying to overcome it. The slickrock that I think we were meant to just walk up just wouldn’t stick our shoes. I tried climbing the corner and couldn’t get up the very top. I tried climbing the dryfall but wasn’t bold enough to get up the final section. Eventually Tom had a go at the corner and managed to get up, and then was able to belay me up the dryfall (easy when you’re on a rope!). And after all the time we spent there I didn’t take a single photo of that section…

Once up the crux, we made it up Forgotten and over the mesa and back into Eagle with little issue. Though we did rim walk the upper narrows in Eagle since we could see they were wet. Eventually we got to the short technical section in Eagle – it looked very wet! Time for lunch then before we got saturated.

As this was a route that isn’t done that frequently and it seemed like it had probably flashed recently I was a bit nervous about the anchors – particularly for the final rap which was a log. Without knowing the nature of the log you’re never sure if it’s one that’s going to stick around for years or one that will get washed away with the next flood.

Subsequently we took a very conservative approach to the technical section – leaving ropes in place and checking out anchor options before proceeding. The final log was in place (phew) but with only a sling draped over it (not around it – maybe washed down from elsewhere?) so more time spent replacing that. The final rap took us in to a large pool with a 10m swim to get out of. Probably over an hour to get through 150m at most of canyon.

We were relieved to be out of it (and in the sun so we could warm up after several swims), only to find the next section was not only wet but the wet was black, rotting vegetation. No way was I going through that if I could help it! Fortunately we were able to rim walk and then step across the canyon at a narrow section and climb down past the worst of it. Winning!

Back to the car at 4:45pm it had truly been a long day. It would have been great to camp another night where we were but we stank. And I was happier to get out that night so I wouldn’t spend the night worrying about whether the car would get stuck. So to Green River and a motel – bliss!

Continue to Part 2

Return to Main Trip Page