roadtripper
Well-known member
Back to "working" after a month in the American Southwest!
Since my employer has not yet blocked the VFTT forums, here are my favorite pics & a trip report from the trip that used every single last personal, sick & vacation day I'm receiving this year
Trip Report:
We weren’t supposed to spend much time in the southwest this year. We applied for permits to backpack Mt. Whitney via the standard Mt. Whitney Trail route. If we had obtained these permits, we would have spent a week or two acclimatizing in the Sierras before attempting this peak. Afterwards, we would have topped the trip off with a quick stop in Zion so that those who hadn’t climbed Angel’s Landing or walked the Virgin River Narrows could do so.
Well, we found out in early April that we didn’t get a single Whitney permit. After a quick discussion of our options, we decided to change our base camp from the Sierras to southern Utah.
As a result of the changes, the trip became segregated into three distinct parts:
Part 1 (14 days) ~ Trip w/family (Zion, Bryce, Escalante, Capital Reef, Arches, Grand Canyon)
Part 2 (8 days) ~ Trip w/friends (Zion & Havasu Falls)
Part 3 (7 days) ~ Trip w/Jenn (AZ & CO)
Part 1:
My family wanted to see all the classic southwestern stops on our vacation so we did do pretty much just that. We started with a day hike up the Virgin Narrows with near crystal-clear water conditions that day. We went as far as the junction with Mystery Canyon and decided our feet hurt enough from all the rocks you encounter while hiking up the river. The following day called for a climb up the famous Angel’s Landing, which everybody loved.
We also visited the much quieter Kolob Canyon section of Zion. We hiked a 1-mile trail at the end of the road for some pretty impressive views. From here, we drove to Dixie National Forest for a few hikes recommended to us within a Utah hiking guidebook. We started with the Twisted Forest Trail, which led to a panoramic viewpoint of the Ashdown Gorge Wilderness. The end of the trail offered an elevated 180-degree view of true wilderness. I found the view to be very comparable to the feeling you get while perched on the rocks on the top of Mt. Garfield looking down into the Pemigewasset. We also visited Navajo Lake, which had some neat volcanic rocks along its southern shore.
Leaving Zion, we headed for Kanab, Arizona and Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, which is a fine state park with its extremely fine grain orange and pink colored sand (gorgeous!). You do have to watch out for ATVs throughout most of the park as you hike, though. We went early on a weekday and pretty much had the place to ourselves.
After stopping at Big Al’s Burgers in downtown Kanab (by far the greatest fast food joint I’ve ever discovered), we headed for the north rim of the Grand Canyon, where we had reservations for a small cabin for the night. We made the long drive out to the Cape Royal area of the north rim. The 1-mile Cape Royal Trail provided some incredible views of the Colorado River and the canyon. This turned out to be one of the finest viewpoints I’ve seen from either rim of the canyon. If we had had more time (and a 4wd vehicle instead of a minivan), I would have loved to drive to the lesser-known “Toroweap” viewpoint, accessible by Kanab National Forest service roads to the west of the main north rim facilities.
From the Grand Canyon, we drove to Bryce Canyon for more grand Utah scenery. We decided to do a longer-than-our-usual hike and combined several of the parks popular trails into one long 8.5 mile loop. We walked the Rim Trail from Fairyland Point, connected that with the Queens Garden Trail and the Peek-a-boo Loop. We finished by walking the western half of the Navajo Loop Trail through “Wall Street”, where we saw the remnants of the 2006 rock fall that occurred there.
Since we had some animal lovers in the group, we inquired at the visitor center if they had any prairie dog towns within the park. The ranger keyed us into a secret spot and directed us to a town with 30 or 40 dogs that were very active when we arrived. I know farmers detest these animals for ruining their crops, but I find them incredibly entertaining and could watch them for hours.
The following day we took a speedy tour through Kodachrome Basin State Park and then continued on UT state route 12 (one of the most scenic highways in the country IMHO) to our primary destination of the day, Calf Creek Falls, which is a set of falls with a huge reputation and a place I had wanted to visit for several years. I drove by the trailhead in 2003 and again in 2006 but was short of the amount of daylight required both times to hike the 6-mile round trip hike to the falls & swimming hole. We arrived early in the morning and were able to swim at the falls for an hour or so. It was a truly gorgeous spot that exceeded all expectations.
With hungry bellies, we headed for an awesome local restaurant called Capital Reef Café, which I found several years ago using the great guidebook Roadfood. After dinner, we made a decision to skip our campsite for the night and drive to the town of Moab since nobody else in our group besides me had been before. We took a quick scenic drive through Capital Reef National Park before doing so.
We didn’t have much time to spend in Moab so we decided to concentrate our visit on Arches National Park, where we did the standard hikes to Delicate Arch and Double Arch. More importantly, we rushed straight to the Moab Brewery after these hikes, where we more than made up for our physical efforts of the day =)
After Moab we headed back to Las Vegas where I lost an amount of money I’d rather not discuss publicly . At this point, my family flew home and nine of my friends flew in for the second part of the journey:
Since my employer has not yet blocked the VFTT forums, here are my favorite pics & a trip report from the trip that used every single last personal, sick & vacation day I'm receiving this year
Trip Report:
We weren’t supposed to spend much time in the southwest this year. We applied for permits to backpack Mt. Whitney via the standard Mt. Whitney Trail route. If we had obtained these permits, we would have spent a week or two acclimatizing in the Sierras before attempting this peak. Afterwards, we would have topped the trip off with a quick stop in Zion so that those who hadn’t climbed Angel’s Landing or walked the Virgin River Narrows could do so.
Well, we found out in early April that we didn’t get a single Whitney permit. After a quick discussion of our options, we decided to change our base camp from the Sierras to southern Utah.
As a result of the changes, the trip became segregated into three distinct parts:
Part 1 (14 days) ~ Trip w/family (Zion, Bryce, Escalante, Capital Reef, Arches, Grand Canyon)
Part 2 (8 days) ~ Trip w/friends (Zion & Havasu Falls)
Part 3 (7 days) ~ Trip w/Jenn (AZ & CO)
Part 1:
My family wanted to see all the classic southwestern stops on our vacation so we did do pretty much just that. We started with a day hike up the Virgin Narrows with near crystal-clear water conditions that day. We went as far as the junction with Mystery Canyon and decided our feet hurt enough from all the rocks you encounter while hiking up the river. The following day called for a climb up the famous Angel’s Landing, which everybody loved.
We also visited the much quieter Kolob Canyon section of Zion. We hiked a 1-mile trail at the end of the road for some pretty impressive views. From here, we drove to Dixie National Forest for a few hikes recommended to us within a Utah hiking guidebook. We started with the Twisted Forest Trail, which led to a panoramic viewpoint of the Ashdown Gorge Wilderness. The end of the trail offered an elevated 180-degree view of true wilderness. I found the view to be very comparable to the feeling you get while perched on the rocks on the top of Mt. Garfield looking down into the Pemigewasset. We also visited Navajo Lake, which had some neat volcanic rocks along its southern shore.
Leaving Zion, we headed for Kanab, Arizona and Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, which is a fine state park with its extremely fine grain orange and pink colored sand (gorgeous!). You do have to watch out for ATVs throughout most of the park as you hike, though. We went early on a weekday and pretty much had the place to ourselves.
After stopping at Big Al’s Burgers in downtown Kanab (by far the greatest fast food joint I’ve ever discovered), we headed for the north rim of the Grand Canyon, where we had reservations for a small cabin for the night. We made the long drive out to the Cape Royal area of the north rim. The 1-mile Cape Royal Trail provided some incredible views of the Colorado River and the canyon. This turned out to be one of the finest viewpoints I’ve seen from either rim of the canyon. If we had had more time (and a 4wd vehicle instead of a minivan), I would have loved to drive to the lesser-known “Toroweap” viewpoint, accessible by Kanab National Forest service roads to the west of the main north rim facilities.
From the Grand Canyon, we drove to Bryce Canyon for more grand Utah scenery. We decided to do a longer-than-our-usual hike and combined several of the parks popular trails into one long 8.5 mile loop. We walked the Rim Trail from Fairyland Point, connected that with the Queens Garden Trail and the Peek-a-boo Loop. We finished by walking the western half of the Navajo Loop Trail through “Wall Street”, where we saw the remnants of the 2006 rock fall that occurred there.
Since we had some animal lovers in the group, we inquired at the visitor center if they had any prairie dog towns within the park. The ranger keyed us into a secret spot and directed us to a town with 30 or 40 dogs that were very active when we arrived. I know farmers detest these animals for ruining their crops, but I find them incredibly entertaining and could watch them for hours.
The following day we took a speedy tour through Kodachrome Basin State Park and then continued on UT state route 12 (one of the most scenic highways in the country IMHO) to our primary destination of the day, Calf Creek Falls, which is a set of falls with a huge reputation and a place I had wanted to visit for several years. I drove by the trailhead in 2003 and again in 2006 but was short of the amount of daylight required both times to hike the 6-mile round trip hike to the falls & swimming hole. We arrived early in the morning and were able to swim at the falls for an hour or so. It was a truly gorgeous spot that exceeded all expectations.
With hungry bellies, we headed for an awesome local restaurant called Capital Reef Café, which I found several years ago using the great guidebook Roadfood. After dinner, we made a decision to skip our campsite for the night and drive to the town of Moab since nobody else in our group besides me had been before. We took a quick scenic drive through Capital Reef National Park before doing so.
We didn’t have much time to spend in Moab so we decided to concentrate our visit on Arches National Park, where we did the standard hikes to Delicate Arch and Double Arch. More importantly, we rushed straight to the Moab Brewery after these hikes, where we more than made up for our physical efforts of the day =)
After Moab we headed back to Las Vegas where I lost an amount of money I’d rather not discuss publicly
. At this point, my family flew home and nine of my friends flew in for the second part of the journey:
