Category Archives: Bushwalking

Utah/Colorado/Arizona/California (Sep/Oct 2024)

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!

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

SW USA Part 7: Desert & Cacti

Continued from part 6

And so began our pattern for the next week – getting up well before sunrise so that we could get going in the cooler part of the day, before heading to a motel in the afternoon to cool down. We’d agreed, when we decided to stick with southern Arizona, that the only realistic way to handle the forecast heat was to spend more nights in motels rather than camping.

To give a sense of the heat, below is a graph of actual temperatures versus the long term averages for Tucson for the last 9 days of our trip. We obviously weren’t in Tucson for the entire 9 days but it’s representative of what was happening across much of Arizona and California. 8 of the 9 days were highest temperature records for that day of the year.

Getting from Christopher Creek to Saguaro National Park (Tucson) was one of our longest driving days. We took some scenic back roads, rather than the interstate around Phoenix.   We were excited to start setting saguaros pretty early on. After knocking off a couple of hours driving we had breakfast in Globe (and my second good coffee of the trip!). From there we pushed on to Tucson where we wound our way around the city to the eastern section of Saguaro National Park.

Saguaro National Park (East – Rincon Mountain District) (Arizona)

It was the middle of the day by the time we got there, and hot. We decided we could handle an hour’s walk and did the Mica View – Cactus Forest Trail loop before having lunch in the (shaded) picnic area. Can’t believe we were the only ones out there eating lunch in 40°C!

Saguaros are big!

Tom with a family of saguaros

We drove around the rest of that section of the park, having brief stops, before retreating to the air con at the Visitor Centre. After that I was done. We reversed much of our route around Tucson from earlier to a hotel I’d booked – mainly for the excellent reviews. It was lovely and particularly good value – perhaps because we had to walk up two flights of stairs? (Given the number of people at reception requesting a ground floor room I’m figuring many Americans wouldn’t have been happy with our room allocation) It was a welcome place to retreat from the heat for the rest of the day.

Saguaro National Park (West – Tucson Mountain District) (Arizona)

Another pre-dawn start had us arriving at Gates Pass for sunrise. Tom’s ankle was still a bit sore so he’d agreed to drop me off at a trailhead, after sunrise, so I could climb Wasson Peak. It was a 3-4 hour round trip and I was keen to get going as early as possible. The sunrise photography took longer than expected (as sunrise was better than expected!) so it was a bit later than expected that I started along the King Canyon trail. Even though it was only just after 7am it was already close to 30°C.

Sunrise from Gates Pass

At some point I missed a turn in the track and ended up on the top of a knoll with no track other than the one I’d arrived on. The sensible thing would have been to retrace my steps, but those who walk with me regularly would know that would be unlikely to be my choice! Instead I decided I’d be able pick up the trail after walking down the other side. Bad move. I compounded my error by continuing to walk in the direction I thought the track was, before finally consulting the map on my phone. It’s surprisingly hard to work out what direction you’re walking just from a dot on a map.

Eventually I realised the track wasn’t in the direction I expected and headed back towards it. Walking off-track in cactus country is difficult, particularly as I had to cross two gullies. Anything crumbly that you might slide down can potentially dump you in a world of pain. While I’d only erred about 200m I was very glad when I finally found myself back on the track!

If you look carefully you might be able to see what I think is an owl in the larger hole in the saguaro. Pygmy and elf owls nest in saguaros – the holes are created by gila woodpeckers.

Views from the Sweetwater section of the trail

Views over Tucson nearing the top of the ridge

The out and back ridge to Wasson Peak

Wasson Peak views (well, mainly me!)

I got up to Wasson Peak at 8:30am. I briefly enjoyed the views, but decided that getting down before it got too much hotter was the priority. The next section of track along the ridge (Hugh Norris Trail) was quite delightful.

Hugh Norris Track – lots of cacti!

The King Canyon – Sweetwater – Hugh Norris – Sendero Esperanza – Gould Mine Trail loop was a good one – I’d recommend it if you’re in the area. While I’d been walking Tom had done the driving loop of the western section of the park, and a short walk, fortunately finishing about the same time as me.

Saguaro

The number one thing to do in Tucson (at least according to TripAdvisor) is the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. So that was the next stop (and only 2 minutes drive away). More of a zoo/botanic gardens than a museum with many different reptiles, bird and mammals. It was hot work walking around but fortunately regular shade provided some relief. We had another solitary picnic at an outdoor picnic area before hitting the road to Ajo.

I had argued we would be able to suck up one night camping at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. That was before I’d seen the forecast for the two specific days we planned to be there. I quickly backtracked that opinion and booked us a motel in Ajo. The motel was lovely – an old school which had been converted into an accommodation & conference centre complex. Apparently staying there was a tourist thing to do in its own right? (Not sure that says too much for the things to do in Ajo!)

That night a storm raged around us – it didn’t bring a lot of rain but there was plenty of electrical action and Tom got some apocalyptic photos.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (Arizona)

You guessed it… we had another early start heading to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument for sunrise. The car said it was 80°F (27°C) when we left Ajo at 5:30am. Tom quickly raced up the Desert View Trail to get some elevation once we arrived. I followed at a more leisurely pace. Then it was time for the Ajo Mountain Drive – a 34km loop which had a few hikes along it.

Organ Pipe Cactus at sunrise

Saguaro – Tom – Organ Pipe Cactus at sunrise

Our first stop was the Arch Canyon trail – I was immediately suspicious as we could see the double-arch – the supposed highlight – from the car park. Given we weren’t planning on the 300m ascent once we got to the end of the formed trail I didn’t feel like we were going to get a better view than the one from the car park. This proved to be the case, but we did get to hear our first rattlesnake on the trail – not that we were sure that’s what it was at the time.

Signs on hikes always highlight the many dangers of daring to go outside. However, in this case the dangers were primarily illegal immigrants and smugglers who might have snuck across the Mexico border (<10km away). We should not approach anyone with a black water bottle – I was intrigued as to how that was a key identifier. That said, it isn’t really a joking matter – the Visitor Centre is named after a Ranger who was killed by drug smugglers.

Caution!

The double arches from the car park (the second one is very small and above the large one)

We didn’t see anyone (suspicious or otherwise), and so it was time for our next stop, Estes Canyon. We did the 6km Bull Pasture – Estes Canyon Loop. This led us to expansive views looking south to Mexico after a 250m climb. We thought we were leaving things a bit late in the day given the temperature, so we were quite surprised to encounter a group just setting off as we got back to the car at 10:30am.

Tom enjoying views of Mexico

We made it to Bull Pasture

The air con at the Visitor Centre was a pleasant respite. And the ranger confirmed what we’d heard was likely a rattlesnake. It was now too hot for anything fun so time for a long, hot drive to Blythe.

Why Blythe? Mainly because it was a reasonable location to break up the drive to Joshua Tree National Park. It’s just over the state border (the Colorado River) between Arizona-California. What I hadn’t realised was it was only 100m above sea level (possibly the lowest we’d been all trip) which exacerbated the hot temperatures.

But before we got to Blythe we had to go through an unexpected military roadblock. Given we had driven quite some way from OPCNM by this stage we weren’t expecting it. The officer was highly unimpressed that our passports weren’t within reach and that we’d have to get out of the car to get them from the back. In the end he decided the danger to himself from us getting out the car was higher than his need to see our paperwork so we got waved through – with a stern warning to have paperwork ready in future. How are you supposed to know that there’s going to be a border checkpoint 2 hours from the border!?

Much of the driving we’d done to this point had been on a relatively quiet roads, and the few Interstate roads we’d driven on hadn’t been that busy. This changed once we hit the I-10 which runs between Phoenix and Los Angeles. There was a truck every 50m in the right-lane, and then a truck trying to overtake multiple other trucks every couple of hundred metres in the left lane. I was very happy we’d changed drivers just before the I-10 and I wasn’t having to deal with the chaos. I’ve never seen a road like it. Imagine if all these containers could be transported by rail!

Eventually we made it into Blythe – the hottest location of our trip at 45°C. We quickly checked into our motel where we were warned not to take a shower until after 6:30pm as there wouldn’t be any cold water as the pipes were exposed to the sun.

Joshua Tree National Park (California)

The next morning we headed out, as usual in the dark, to get to Joshua Tree National Park around 7am. We did a couple of short hikes straight-up: Bajada Nature Trail, Mastodon Peak Loop followed by breakfast at Cottonwood Spring.

The ranger at the Visitor Centre warned us not to hike after 10am but the temperatures weren’t any worse (in fact maybe marginally cooler) than what we’d had for the last few days. But Joshua Tree National Park attracts the masses so they need to keep their messaging aimed at the lowest level of competence. The park is full of signs warning you “Do not die today”. They certainly get enough selfies taken with them – hopefully the message, which is about safely walking in the heat in the desert, also gets through.

Bajada Nature Trail

Mastodon Peak – surrounded by granite

We proceeded to visit the Cholla Cactus Garden (incredible), Arch Rock and Heart Rock (insta favourites), but we drew the line at Skull Rock after seeing the number of cars stopped to visit it.

Cholla Cactus Garden

Arch Rock (creatively named…)

Heart Rock (unsurprisingly a fav of the insta world)

I was pleased to find some shade at one of the picnic areas for lunch and then in the early afternoon we visited the climbing area Conan’s Corridor, where we were unsuccessful in scrambling up onto the highest boulders. But we were the only ones there! So for a park as popular as Joshua Tree that’s winning.

on the way to Conan’s Corridor

Deciding we’d knocked off enough in the heat we proceeded to Ryan Campground hoping we’d find shade there. The US National Park campgrounds generally have photos of the sites up on the booking page. I’d spent quite a lot of time looking at the photos before I’d booked our particular site – but that was a couple of months earlier – when I hadn’t been expecting 40°C temperatures! Fortunately my desire for a somewhat private site meant we had a large boulder that was casting shade so we had somewhere to hide for the afternoon.

Shady campsite at Ryan Campground

In the late afternoon we wandered out, then clambered up to Tombstone Rock – which I discovered afterwards was one of the classic grade 13 climbs in the park. If I’d known perhaps we’d have a packed a few quickdraws!

View from the base of Tombstone Rock towards Ryan Campground

Tombstone Rock – a classic grade 13 climb gets you to the top (we scrambled to the base)

Joshua Trees at sunset

Tom had hoped to do a bit of star photography since Joshua Tree (along with almost every National Park we’d been) claimed to be an International Dark Skies Park. We had mistakenly thought this meant it should have good stargazing, especially since this is promoted as a key attraction of Joshua Tree. However, the designation just means the park has policies to support appropriate night lighting, and to educate the public. And while it might be a good night sky compared to say, being in Los Angeles, it really wasn’t very dark. The glow from LA was ever present on the western horizon.

The next morning we’d planned to get up early (what!?) and hike up Ryan Mountain for sunrise. Some initial reluctance to get up was overcome when other cars started rolling out – one concern (excuse?) had been waking the other campers. It was pitch black when we started walking – because we were round the side of the mountain that blocked out the LA glow. It was well worth getting up for.

Early morning light from Ryan Mountain

Views from Ryan Mountain

On our way back to camp we hit up the “Hall of Horrors”. It’s an interesting spot as while there is a car park and big sign there is no explanation of the name or a map. If you randomly pulled over there you would just wander around some Joshua Trees and boulders – which are nice enough, but probably be quite confused as to why there is a huge car park.

Hall of Horrors is a climbing area. A couple of mini-slot canyons, that you can loop together, became insta-famous and the park has conceded to the popularity by putting up signage and the car park. But, they’re not helping you find it! You need to know the “secret” way to get to the slots (don’t worry a quick google search will reveal all). We had it to ourselves – if you don’t count a swarm of bees. Obviously compared to what we have done in Utah this was pretty tame.

With two things ticked off for the morning and the temperatures already up there we figured we may as well have breakfast. We finished off our Joshua Tree visit with a couple more short walks – the Hidden Valley trail and the nature trail by Cap Rock.

the “Hall of Horrors”

Oh my – so skinny!

Nature Trail loop with Cap Rock in the background

From there we headed out to 29 Palms and visited the Oasis of Mara and found some shade for an early lunch at Park Headquarters. To kill time and not melt before we could check into our motel we visited the Visitor Centre and then the ice cream parlour. Fortunately the ice cream parlour was not busy so we could sit there for a couple of hours without feeling guilty (except maybe for the “small” ice creams we had).

Our final overnight stop was at a motel that U2 had stayed at when getting photography done for their Joshua Tree Album – for what it’s worth 37 years later. More importantly in the present the motel did have a surprisingly cold swimming pool which was a welcome way to cool down, before the less appealing need to sort out all our stuff so we could have some hope of squeezing it into our bags to get on the plane the next day. We’d also managed to eat our way through most of the food we’d bought in Las Vegas at the start of the trip so that meant we could have a nice dinner out guilt-free.

Something besides air-con to cool us down!

Lovely meal out on our final night in the US (spot the hen’s party at the table behind us)

Our final day and our first sleep in for over a week? Of course I was awake anyway, so was pleased to find there was an excellent view of sunrise from the chairs outside our room.

Sunrise over 29 Palms from our motel room

Eventually we set off on the final drive of the trip – 3-4 hours back to Las Vegas a large section through Mojave National Preserve. It looked like there were a few interesting detours in the area but being slightly pressed for time (and hot, of course) we didn’t stop.

Frequently occurring road sign on our drive to Las Vegas

For some reason one of the chocolate producers in Las Vegas also had a cactus botanical gardens so we visited that, and got our free chocolate, before making our way to the airport. (As an aside, Las Vegas’ climate does not seem like the best location for chocolate making!)

We didn’t quite get through Tom’s full music collection. We had just started the Ys as were driving around Las Vegas. Some poor directing by me was just a ploy to drag out the driving time to see if we could get to the end – but we are left wondering if there were any songs starting with Z.

Tom hadn’t yet fully packed and getting everything balanced appropriately for weight & volume between our bags was proving challenging. Fortunately the airline staff member managed to magic up a third bag tag for us free of charge which alleviated a large amount of stress. And so then it was just one short (to LA) and one long and painful flight (to Sydney) before our US adventure was over.

Back to the main trip page

SW USA Part 6: Arizona Canyons

Continued from Part 5

We briefly stopped in at Lone Rock – in Lake Powell – before retracing our drive up and out of Page from a couple of days earlier. I can’t remember what letter of the alphabet the music was up to but it wasn’t enough to keep Tom alert and I got to take over driving duties much earlier than I expected.

That meant Tom was on accommodation booking and we ended up at a Motel 6 for a bargain basement price of US$50 for the night (the nearest camping was close to US$40). Tom did warn me it was close to the Interstate but as we drove in I thought it didn’t seem too bad. Except we soon discovered our room, understandably at the price, was round the back of the complex, with nothing but a couple of hundred metres separating us from the traffic. Neither of us slept particularly well, and so when the alarm went off pretty early, there was a brief conversation about ditching our ambitious plan for the day. But, with the amount of traffic noise, I figured we weren’t going back to sleep, so we may as well get up and go.

We headed to Illusions Canyon, a tributary of the West Fork of Oak Creek. We had finished our last US trip in Sedona and driven past this area. On that trip, we hadn’t given any thought to hiking Oak Creek – even though it’s apparently one of the most popular trails in the area – and definitely had no thoughts of canyons in the area.

Illusions is considered one of the best canyons in Arizona, by many people on the interwebs, and had come highly recommended to us by a friend. But it also comes with a myriad of warnings about a possible keeper pothole at the very end. In easy mode it’s simply a pool which you swim across after the last abseil, but in hard mode it’s a 19 foot deep pothole that many of the usual pothole escape methods don’t work on. We don’t have much (any) need for pothole escapes in Blue Mountains canyons and so we don’t own pothole escape tools, let alone have the experience for a challenging escape (I have stood on Tom’s head once to get out of an easy-ish pothole…). So there was no way we were going to attempt this canyon if we thought there was even a chance it wasn’t in easy mode. The Arizona Canyoneering Facebook group and conditions reports on RopeWiki assured me it had been in easy mode the week before.

The other big decision was whether to do the traditional approach and exit, which involved hiking up the AB Young Trail – a 500m ascent, and then descending the West Fork of Oak Creek at the end. The alternative is a much shorter ‘sneak’ approach which involves about an hour of driving on forest roads to get to the top.

Given my well-known love of dirt roads, we (I) figured we’d rather ascend 500m on foot! Plus West Fork of Oak Creek is supposed to be a worthwhile objective in its own right. With the decision made, an early start was definitely in order, which is why we were at the trailhead not long after 7am. The hike up AB Young wasn’t too bad, as it is a series of many (33) switchbacks and we were early enough that the temperature was quite pleasant.

Tom most of the way up the AB Young trail

From the top we took a somewhat circuitous route on the plateau to the Illusions drainage. If we were to ever do it again (unlikely – because we live in Australia, and we’d likely do the sneak route) we’d probably contour across the plateau to save some walking. I hadn’t packed the compass which I was somewhat regretting as we were trying to follow the instructions to get in. We had various electronic navigation devices, but nothing beats having a compass when you’re just trying to head in a particular direction.

We found ourselves in the drainage and got our first introduction to Arizona bushwhacking. I’d heard enough about it from friends, but you never know what other people’s scrub thresholds are. And as it was neighbouring largely vegetation-free Utah I had thought the scrub might be over-hyped. I like to think my scrub threshold is pretty high – but being surrounded by unfamiliar plants made it a lot more challenging. Turns out lots of the Arizona plants were spikey – like blackberry spikey. I was also a bit surprised that for what I thought was a pretty popular canyon there didn’t seem to be much of a route. We likely dropped in slightly early and we did find ourselves on a social trail after a few minutes.

Bush-whacking – Arizona style

The vegetation didn’t really ease off, but at least I started to work out which plants really needed to be avoided! Eventually we got to the sign warning us of all the dangers of canyoneering and soon after that the creek turned into a canyon – one that wouldn’t have been out of place in the Blue Mountains.

Out of the vegetation and into the canyon

We could be in the Blue Mountains

The upper section very much could have been the Blue Mountains but soon we got to features and downclimbs that were not at all Blue Mountains-esque. Twisting corkscrew downclimbs, climbing through arches, abseiling through arches all wonderful features of this canyon.

Wonderful arch feature

Corkscrew downclimb

Abseiling through an arch (though afterwards we realised for the sake of rope groves we should’ve gone over it)

Tom on the other side of a swim

Tom on a tricky downclimb – I got down in a different spot

Besides the pothole, our main concern with this canyon was the temperature. We only own 3mm and 3/4mm wetsuits – which seemed to be on the light end of what was ever recommended at any time of year. We were hoping with it being autumn that we’d get through ok. By the time we got three-quarters of the way through we were definitely feeling the cold. We got to a drop which our beta said was a downclimb, but Tom didn’t like the look of it. As were both shivering we just needed to make a quick decision. I meat-anchored Tom down and then he partner-assisted me. While we could see where a skilled person could downclimb it was above our comfort level that day.

Tom abseiling

Tom below a beautiful section of canyon we’ve just abseiled down

We were glad to get to the final section of narrows as it promised warmth wasn’t too far away. Other trip reports I’d read had made me think the final narrows were going to be a bit longer – but the two raps were right on top of each other and with only the two of us we made pretty quick work of them. Tom was wondering whether to prepare for needing to escape the final pothole – but I was like “just assume it’s going to be a swim and get on with it!” Fortunately that was the case and it was just a swim across the pothole.

Tom abseiling again

Tom on the final abseil – can’t see the pool/pothole from the top

The pool/pothole – hard to imagine it empty!

After Tom hauled me out I got to have a look at the pothole. It is amazing what difficulties can be hidden! It was such a nondescript pool. It made me wonder how many Blue Mountains canyons hide similar problems – but the pools just never empty so we don’t have to deal with them.

I assured Tom I’d read two trips reports that said there was another abseil further down the creek. We were cold enough (and weary of the vegetation) that we left our wetsuits on. After quite a way he was definitely sceptical that the abseil existed. But we did eventually hit the final rappel. From there it wasn’t far to the West Fork of Oak Creek proper. Time for a late lunch!

Lunch on the West Fork of Oak Creek

Great rock colourings

From there Tom had suggested it was only 3km or so to the car park so I was expecting an hour at most. We started bumping into people once there was a track (rather than wading) and a couple of ladies asked how far it was back – of course we hadn’t done it but I suggested 2 miles, and they said ‘no way, we’ve walked way more than that’. Tom… what haven’t you told me?

Tom on the walk down West Fork of Oak Creek

Once we’d walked the trail of indeterminate length (3km / 3 miles / who knows?), at least one of us needed to retrieve the car from the car park 3km down the road. Tom had unfortunately rolled his ankle as we had been descending the tributary. He suggested I should push on quickly and then go retrieve the car. So I set off at a brisk pace, with my very heavy pack (I had the wet 60m rope in addition to all my wet personal gear). The trail was lovely but it did take a lot longer than I had been expecting.

Once at the Call of the Canyon car park I “just” had to get back to the Bootleggers Picnic Area where we’d left our car in the morning. Before we’d separated Tom had tried to point out some tracks that ran parallel to the road on OpenStreetMap, but I hadn’t thought walking along the road had looked too bad. Not sure which section of road I’d been looking at to think it wasn’t too bad!

There was basically no shoulder for lots of it, so my early technique was to jog the bits with no shoulder, walk the sections which did. I got lucky early on that the breaks in traffic coincided with my no shoulder sections. However 2km down I hit a section with much longer no shoulder sections, and a lot more cars. Eventually I gave up on that and was, fortunately, past the private properties, so I cut down to the creek and picked up the track on the other side. Eventually I was back at the bottom of the AB Young trail and could clamber back to our car – 5:30pm, only 10 hours after we’d left it. The walk along the road was the scariest part of the day – in retrospect I should have tried to get someone leaving the car park to give me a lift down the road.

Luckily the lady on the car park booth didn’t make me pay to stop and pick up Tom, and so we were soon on our way back to Flagstaff. I was feeling pretty smug as I’d decided we needed to book accommodation the night before as I had an inkling it would be a long day. We’d largely avoided being in towns on Friday & Saturday nights – but there was no avoiding this. The whole area is a popular spot to visit and the change in price for the weekends was significant. The basic room we’d had at Motel 6 the night before for $50 on a Thursday night was $180 on Friday night. Needless to say we didn’t head back to Motel 6. I’d found us a lovely Air BnB for the weekend, and we were delighted to have a well-appointed kitchen and the opportunity to eat some fresh produce (and no traffic noise).

Two of the three previous days had been up there with the hardest on the trip, and we had been on the go for almost three weeks. We were both ready for a day off, and what better location than Flagstaff. At 2,100m it was sort of escaping the heatwave. Our sole excursion for the day was to a bakery/café, where I got a surprisingly good coffee (US trips are generally coffee free for me). Otherwise we read, rested and ate good food.

Enjoying our rest day

The next morning we were refreshed and ready to go again. Arizona canyons have a short season as most of them are fed by snow melt, so by the time autumn rolls round there’s little to no flowing water. Christopher Creek was the main suggestion from the locals for the time of year, unless we wanted to find ourselves in stagnant disgusting water. So, Christopher Creek was our next stop.

After securing a campsite we drove a short way down the interstate and strolled the 15 minutes in to the creek. Christopher Creek is a more open creek, rather than slot canyon, the main attraction is jumps. I’m not really a jumper unless I have to, but even if I was, I don’t think the water levels were high enough to do much jumping.

Tom sliding in Christopher Creek

Tom abseiling

Tom abseiling

Another abseil

Tom downclimbing

We did quite a lot of swimming though and sadly my camera didn’t survive. Well, the camera survived, but the screen did not and as there is no view finder I was taking photos in the dark so to speak.

We encountered a couple of climbers part way down. And then a whole lot of climbing hardware – via ferrata style lines set up so they could get upstream to climbs avoiding the canyon, and many bolted routes.

Sadly we didn’t take lunch in as the exit point would have been a great place to eat it.

Relaxing at Christopher Creek campground

Back at camp we enjoyed the pleasant conditions in the shady campsite, particularly knowing this was the last time we were likely to be cool for a while!

Continued in Part 7

SW USA Part 5: Buckskin Gulch

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.

Early start at Wire Pass Trailhead

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.

Early on – still have dry feet!

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.

Beautiful sculpted walls – but we’re concentrating on not falling over

Amazing colours

Enjoying a more open section

Tom admiring the canyon formation

Somewhat dried out mud

Tom enjoying the mud…

A not very happy mouse

Yay, more wading

It’s getting deeper

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.

Happy to be in faster moving terrain

The canyon formation just keeps going

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.

Now onto the liquid mud section

Mud socks

Look at those walls!

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.

Tom climbing up the crux… to get back to his bag

Which he’d left behind when he’d taken the low option (though that is my pack where I’d left it to go back and help him get down)

More spectacular formation

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.

Camp in the canyon

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.

Paria Canyon – also spectacular

Arch in Paria Canyon

Amazing rock strata

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 in Part 6

SW USA Part 4: Mesa Verde, around Page

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.

Fall colours on the Million Dollar Highway

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!

Little Molas Lake in the background, along with the brewing storm

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.

Remnants of the hailstorm during lunch

Mule deer eating its way through the flowers in Durango Botanic Gardens

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.

Modern day access to Balcony House

Tom in Balcony House

Exit for Balcony House!

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 perfectly lovely, but very expensive, Morefield Campground

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.

Unusual canyon feature! (A major road runs parallel with canyon left)

Abseiling in Catstair Canyon

Abseiling again in Catstair

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.

Camping at White House Trailhead – I cleared the entire tent ‘platform’ which you can barely see for the Russian Thistle in this shot

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.

Tom trying to remember how to downclimb at the start of Blue Pool Wash

He’s remembered!

But not so much that we didn’t abseil

Another rap

Beautiful sculpting

If Lake Powell was full the area this area in the background would be underwater (would make for an interesting exit!)

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.

In 2.8 Mile Wash. Mountains behind are much higher than they look

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.

We can see the Colorado…

Just need to get down this drop

Well, I’m down! Tom’s head sticking up at the top

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.

Tom almost at the bottom, pull cord (handline!) well out of the way

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.

Making our way up Cathedral Wash

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.

Horseshoe Bend & Tom

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.

Continue to Part 5

SW USA Part 3: Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP & Ouray

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.

Mt Garfield views from Carboy Winery, Palisade

Palisade Rim Hike (Lower section) – views over the Colorado River, Book Cliffs, Mt Garfield

Palisade Plunge – look out! (mountain biking track)

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.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Sunset at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

The Painted Wall, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

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

Rap 1, Angel Creek, Ouray “You will get soaked on the first rappel”

Rap 2, Angel Creek, Ouray

Rap 4, Angel Creek, Ouray

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.

Box Canyon (Tourist access!), Ouray

Home for 3 nights at Amphitheater Campground

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.

On our way to the Via Ferrata start

Ouray Via Ferrata – Upstream Route

Upstream Route, Ouray Via Ferrata

Tom climbing the Helix Ladder, Upstream Route, Ouray Via Ferrata

Upstream Route, Ouray Via Ferrata

Upstream Route, Ouray Via Ferrata

Final somewhat challenging climb, Upstream Route, Ouray Via Ferrata

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

Downstream Route, Ouray Via Ferrata

Downstream Route, Ouray Via Ferrata

Downstream Route, Ouray Via Ferrata

Downstream Route, Ouray Via Ferrata

Downstream Route, Ouray Via Ferrata

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.

Relaxing in the hot pools after a strenuous day (Tom’s head front right)

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

Taking the dry line R2, 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.

Tossing the rope for the ‘highlight’ 40m rap

Looking back up at R3 (40m) and R4 (6m off the log)

Scenic backdrop (and awkward start) to rap 6

A short rap 7

Tom below Rap 8

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.

Packing up all the gear below the hiking bridge

Views from the Perimeter Trail

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

Upper section of Portland Creek

Portland Creek

Rap 1 in Portland Creek – road to the campground above us

Rap 2 in Portland Creek

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

Continue to Part 4

SW USA Part 2: North Wash

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!

Hot approach walk just after lunch

First abseil – the blue rope was already in place

One of many downclimbs

I think Tom rapped this and then helped me downclimb (rope pull no good from where it was set as you can imagine!)

More downclimbing

Still more downclimbing

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.

Top of the first rap – a motley collection of canyoneers and their gear

SLC Corey on the first rap

SLC Corey and Durango Rachel – checking out the second drop

Rachel on the second rap

Piling up at the bottom of the second rap

Val bridging below the second rap. We set a rope for the downclimb so technically our third rap.

The spectacular third (official), our fourth, rap

Third rap

Corey in the canyon

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.

Huh, a drop we weren’t anticipating (though if we’d read the notes properly we should have)

(the other) Rachel at the bottom of the final drop

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 🙂

Good times back at camp – Tom, Val, Corey, Zac, Rachel, Corey

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.

Tom on the first rap

Tom contemplating the awkward start on the second rap (see the rope grooves on the left)

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!

Exhausted from hauling me across the pool at the bottom of the second rap? (He traversed by getting off in the alcove in the photo and doing a dodgy traverse around the bulge about the level where the rock strata lines smooth out)

Downclimbing!

Peek-a-boo!

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

Views over the Dirty Devil Wilderness – can’t feel the wind from the photo though!

Rapping into Angel Slot

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.

In the slot and out of the wind (mostly)

Downclimbing

More downclimbing

In the canyon

More canyon

Spectacular walk 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

SW USA Part 1: Zion and San Rafael Swell

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.

Heading down the drainage to Ghost Rider

Abseiling in Ghost Rider

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.

On the walk out – we haven’t melted!

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.

Pre-requisite Zion campsite photo

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!

Double arch alcove – Taylor Creek

Timber Creek Overlook views

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.

Watching the thunderstorm roll around us

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.

Abseiling in Benson Creek

Abseiling in Benson Creek

Abseiling in Benson Creek

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?!

Lunch in the drizzle

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.

Cedar Breaks National Monument – spectacular

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.

Cedar Breaks National Monument

Cedar Breaks National Monument

The Bartizan, South Rim trail, Cedar Breaks National Monument

Amazing light

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!

Twisted Forest trail

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!

Abseiling in Lupacchiotta Canyon

Abseiling in Lupacchiotta Canyon

Couldn’t quite avoid the water

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.

Campsite with all the mod cons

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.

Big country – on our way into Eagle Canyon

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…

Wading in Forgotten Canyon

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.

We made it up Forgotten, looking back at Forgotten Canyon Arch

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.

Tom contemplating a swim in Eagle Canyon

Now how do I get down from here?

Looking excited for a swim at the bottom of the final rap in Eagle

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!

No, I really don’t want to get in that

Exposed traverse to get back up to the car out of Eagle Canyon

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

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Lake Macquarie Rogaine (24 Aug 2024)

Lauren and I teamed up for our second Lake Macquarie Rogaine. A relatively small map meant we picked up over 85% of the available points, and the winners cleared it with 3 hours to spare!

There were lots of fire trails and motorbike tracks which meant there wasn’t that much cross-country navigation. We tried to take any opportunities available to us to get off the roads, but in the northern section in particular, you didn’t really want to be off the tracks in some of the heavily vegetated sections.

That said as the map was generated using LIDAR there was still plenty of subtle navigation needed – plenty of minor gullies just waiting to trick the unobservant.

Two of the SBW teams – Lauren & me, Shellie & Peter

Almost every team heading for 51 from the start

Gorgeous ridge on the way to 93

So many orchids out

Control 93

Beautiful ridge walking

Steep descent through lots of grass trees

It was unseasonably warm for winter – a high of 26°C made for thirsty walking and taxed bodies unconditioned for the heat. At one point I had to take my gaiters and gloves off just to get more air flow on my skin. We enjoyed the brief cooler periods we had when we crossed some of the larger creeks and entered another (cooler) world.

Cooler & completely different vegetation in the creeks

Much road-walking

In the northern section of the course there was a ridgeline with 2 controls – but warning from the course setter that you couldn’t walk along the ridgeline as there were impassable cliffs. Lauren and I entertained giving it a go since we are both competent scramblers – but in the end opted for the road, which was just as well as the cliff was a sheer 10-15m drop. There was no chance of getting up that.

Despite being on the road I had the brilliant idea of climbing up to the cliffline and walking along the base of it. The vegetation was white on the map so should be fine – right? Instead we found ourselves in lantana hell. Fortunately we weren’t the only team silly enough to think this was a good idea. Brendan and Rachel ended up in front of us and did a bit of the work, until Rachel got herself immersed so heavily in one thicket she didn’t seem to be going anywhere and I found an alternative way round. Eventually we fought our way round and rejoined the track we could have taken – probably only lost 10 minutes or so, but gained plenty of lantana grazes to show for it.

About to enter lantana hell (photo credit: Lauren)

Slightly hidden 91 with a great showing of orchids

One unusual feature of the course was that it was being used for an adventure race on the same day. The mountain bike section started in the evening while the 12-hour teams were still out. The controls for both the adventure race and the rogaine were exactly the same flags – just a different control stamping mechanism. We came across at least 3 instances where the adventure race control and the rogaine control were within 50m of each other – just another way to keep you on your toes!

Beautiful pool at 105

We walked through fields of these orchids

The course had a plenty of opportunity for running. Lauren and I ran for exactly none of it, so I wasn’t sure what that was going to do for our result. As it turned out our nav must have been on point since we managed to top the Open Women’s division and come in sixth overall (coincidentally the same results as last year).

The GPS log had us covering 42km in our 11h 45 on the course. We had a couple of ‘medium’ navigation mishaps – probably costing us 10 minutes or less each time – though with an extra twenty minutes (to add to the 15 we came in early) we might have made it into fifth overall!?

Results

Newnes – the hard way (3-4 Aug 2024)

With the road into the Wolgan Valley closed indefinitely I was keen to find out what was achievable from Glen Davis. One thing I hadn’t realised prior to this walk was that Glen Davis is 200m lower than Newnes! This means a 500m ascent on the Pipeline Track to the divide instead of 300m – admittedly at a much easier gradient.

A happy party (& deranged Tom?), early on day 1

the eponymous pipeline

We headed off from the saddle onto the ridge and found a lovely morning tea spot with great views. We had great weather for the weekend with no wind which was a welcome change to the previous Sunday.

beaut morning tea spot

Everything was going according to plan until we got to the upper reaches of Petries Gully. The LIDAR map wasn’t showing us the full picture – it looked like the laser beams didn’t find the ground so some significant drops into the creek weren’t on our map. Additionally there were some significant drops in Petries Gully itself so even when I did manage to scramble in upstream I wasn’t able to continue downstream. We ended up using the handline to get in below what we hoped were the last of the major drops in the creek.

an unexpected technical descent into Petries Gully

David and Wally waiting to spot Xanthe

On any other trip I would have been excited when we hit a section of canyon. But in mid-August with no technical gear it was time to find a way out and around. The LIDAR suggested we’d struggle to find a way back into the creek so we went up instead.

An unscheduled canyon

We were fortunate to find a scrambly route to take us to below the upper cliffline and we were able to follow that around into the tributary of Petries Gully that we’d been aiming for.

Our fortunate escape route

Relatively easy walking below the upper cliffline

Not walking in Petries Gully meant we didn’t have the chance to fill up water but fortunately we were able to find some in the upper tributaries. Loaded up with water for the night we headed up onto the ridge. I was well aware of the daylight hours left (~2.5 hours) and the distance we had to cover (~2.5km) and I gambled we’d make it to our intended campsite right on dark. However the going was pretty slow along the ridge in the re-growth and we found ourselves still on the tops as the sun set.

Beautiful views from the ridge west of Mt Tricky

The party taking in the views as the sun races towards the horizon

That’s the last of the sun for the day

About half way down we needed to stop and get the torches out. It felt just like a rogaine, and our next control was the camp cave! Was the ‘control’ accurately marked on my map!? We navigated our way through the maze of parallel pagoda gullies to eventually be down and with ‘only’ a couple of hundred metres to go down the creek. Half an hour later we were all very relieved when Tom yelled out that he was at the cliffline and had located the cave.

Final scramble before getting into our camp gully

Our lodgings by daylight

The next morning the going was slightly easier in the daylight heading back up the creek. It didn’t seem to take too long before we were descending our exit canyon down to Little Capertee Creek. We made short work of a couple of drops with pack passing teams.

Canyon descent

I was pretty happy, and I daresay not the only one, when we hit Little Capertee Creek and some easy walking down the fire trail.

The team at morning tea near Little Capertee Creek

We’d been discussing how the fire trail was looking unused and soon discovered why, when we hit a big washout on the road.

I wouldn’t be driving a car along here

It was eerie waking through the Newnes campground with not a soul in sight. The campground has been closed for 3 months, and recently updated to remain closed until end of August – presumably because the toilet blocks are being upgraded.

The deserted (closed) Newnes campground

I was bemused to find a sign advising the Pipeline Track was closed as we left the camping area. There had been nothing about that on the NPWS website when I’d checked just before the start of the trip. Hoping that this was a very old sign rather than a very new (that day) sign we continued on.

No Solar Flares or Grumpy Yowies spotted. Or any sign of the closure on the NPWS website. (Also note the distance to Glen Davis from Newnes is further, than from Glen Davis to Newnes)

The impressive landslide that probably closed the Pipeline Track a while ago

Near the top of the Pipeline Track

We enjoyed lunch and the views at the Pagoda Lookout before retracing our steps down the other side of the Pipeline Track back to Glen Davis.

Re-energised after lunch

Apparently the only reason you’d walk this track is to go to the Newnes Campground so ‘do not enter’ tape was erected

We got back to the cars at the very civilised time of 4pm, almost erasing the memories of the late finish from the day before!? A weekend with some elements of type 2 fun, and a little bit of epic. I probably can’t say a great time was had by all, all of the time, but hopefully a great time was had by all, some of the time!

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