A
hiking trip to the canyons of Utah!
April 30 to May 5, 2006
Led by tour
guide Galen Berry
We have a great trip planned for the spring of 2006 -- a week in the magnificent canyonland country of the great Southwest! We will visit Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, the Escalante National Monument, Kodachrome Basin State Park, Coyote Gulch, and Capitol Reef National Park.
This is a men-only hiking and camping trip. We will be roughing it! Sometimes we will be in campgrounds, sometimes there will be motels available, but some nights we will be so far in the boonies that we will have to carry in our water and food, and pitch our tents on the sand or rock. It will be primitive, but this means no stress, no noise, no traffic -- it's great. Imagine 20 bears in the outback, just us and the great southwest scenery -- and you can be part of it.
Southern Utah
is anything
but a bleak, barren desert. It contains 5 national parks and 5 national
monuments, far more than any other area in the whole country. Only the
finest scenery or natural wonders in the country can be designated by Congress
or the president as a national park or monument. If you have only done mountain hiking in
the past, come try a canyon hike with us -- it's like an upside-down mountain!
I have spent time every year for the last 20 years exploring this area, and have led other tour groups. This will not be a luxury tour by any means. Some of the hikes will be rather strenuous, and only men in good shape will be able to handle one of the climbs. But the rewards will be worth the effort! You will see some of the most spectacular scenery our country has to offer, and will feel privileged to visit places the average tourist could never hope to see. We will go to some popular places like Zion and Bryce, but others like Coyote Gulch and Muley Twist Canyon are so remote that hardly one person in a million gets to visit them each year.
What will it
cost? Nothing! At least, not to me... I'm just doing this for the
fun of it, and to share the love of this great countryside with my friends and
fellow bears. No profit is involved. But there will be some
expenses. You will have to pay a fee for some of the campgrounds.
The national parks have an entry fee of $5 to $20 for each vehicle, though it
doesn't matter how many people are in the vehicle. You will be responsible
for all your food (we will stop each day for groceries to take to the
campsites). We will travel caravan-style, in your own cars or trucks.
You will have to arrange to meet us in St. George, Utah, by driving there from
home, or by flying to Las Vegas and renting a car.
Coyote Natural Bridge, Coyote Gulch
Who can come? If you are in good health and have a fairly active lifestyle, you will probably do fine on this trip. On some days, several hours of hiking is involved, especially in Coyote Gulch, where some hand-over-hand climbing must be done at the end. If you are very overweight, have health problems, or can't walk for several miles in rough terrain, then this trip is not for you -- medical help would be far away. The trip is meant especially for single guys (some fine friendships can develop out there in the wild and romantic outback). We would especially like guys to come who have never been to this area of the country before -- it will be great seeing you fall in love with the place. Because of national park regulations, we can only have a group of 20 people. A large group tramping around would destroy the quiet and solitude that other visitors come to find in this wild country.
What should you bring?
No backpacking will be required, we are only
doing day hikes. But you must be
able to carry at least a 2-litre bottle or half gallon of water with you on all
hikes, and some lightweight snacks like protein bars and trail mix. A fanny pack is ideal for this, it doesn't weigh down your
shoulders like a backpack would. You will need a small tent and some kind
of air or foam mattress. It can get pretty cool at night, so have lots of
covers. If you can sleep in your truck or van, you won't need a tent. No large campers,
trailers, or RV's can be taken, since some of the roads we'll be on are too
steep or rough. If you have a 4-wheel-drive, that will be great, we will
need several for some short side trips, though regular cars can manage the main roads we will be on. Gravel roads such as the Burr Trail or
the Hole-in-the-Rock Rd. can be very washboardy, muddy, or dusty, so you may not
want to bring a new car. By all means bring a camera. Cell phones
won't work in the canyons. No dogs are allowed in national parks or
monuments, so you'll have to leave them at home.
The temperature during the daytime is usually 70° to 80° in
May, so
hiking shorts and T-shirts are fine, though bring a jacket and jeans for the evenings.
You will need good lightweight hiking shoes. They will get wet on our
Wednesday hike, so don't bring good leather ones. Do not go out and buy a
pair right before the trip! Break them in for weeks ahead of time. A
sore foot or toe can really ruin your trip. It doesn't rain much here, but
when it does, it really pours, so be prepared.
Grosvenor Arch, Escalante National Monument
Where we will go:
Sunday evening, April 30: We will meet at a campground somewhere between St. George and the town of Hurricane (no, they've never had one there), in the far SW corner of Utah, which is much closer to Las Vegas than to Salt Lake City. We'll decide which campground later.
Monday: We will drive to the glorious Zion National Park, the most famous of Utah's parks, and one of the greatest jewels of the whole national park system -- it is aptly named. We will spend half a day there, taking the shuttle bus up Zion valley (private cars are no longer allowed, which is great). We will take an easy hike a short ways up the Virgin River Gorge to the Narrows, with moss-covered 1000-foot canyon walls towering over our heads. That afternoon after leaving the park, we will drive past Bryce Canyon into the Escalante National Monument and climb the beautiful Grosvenor Arch, a rare double arch. We will camp out that night at the group campsite in Kodachrome Basin State Park.
Tuesday: After seeing some of the amazing and rather surprising rock formations at Kodachrome (like the Dick Rock), we will head off for Bryce Canyon National Park. The parks of Utah can be described with many superlatives: Arches is incredible, Capitol Reef is grandiose, Rainbow Bridge is magnificent, Escalante is spectacular, and Zion is simply sublime -- but Bryce is just plain weird! Strange, bizarre, unearthly. We will hike down into the canyon and see this enormous case of mass erosion close-up. After passing the great Wall of Windows, we will come back up to the canyon rim and then drive to the end of the park, where we can see the ancient bristlecone pine trees, the oldest living things on earth -- they can live to be 4000 years old. After stocking up on groceries and souvenirs at Ruby's Inn, we will drive through the town of Escalante and go partway down the famous Hole-in-the-Rock Road -- a 60-mile dead-end dirt road to nowhere. Along the way we will wander through Devil's Garden and try to climb the cute Metate Arch. Then we will camp out that night in the boondocks near the Dance Hall Rock, a large isolated redrock dome where Mormon pioneers used to stage folkdances a century and a half ago.
Wednesday: The
big hike!! Today will be the highlight of our trip -- an all-day walk up Coyote Gulch in the Escalante National Monument.
Imagine a deep ancient canyon carved into the red rock of Utah; a beautiful
stream winds its way through the high cliff walls, with waterfalls and
springs; tall green trees, wildflowers and mosses grow all along its banks, and
a massive natural stone arch standing high on a cliff at the end looks out
across the whole grand scene. This is Coyote!
It will be the longest
and hardest hike we will take, in the most isolated countryside. But this hike
may provide you with your favorite memories of our trip; it's a place like you have
never imagined existed, much less imagined you would one day find yourself
exploring. Much of its charm is in the fact that it is often totally
unpeopled, though this could change as more and more hikers discover it.
Since it was designated part of a national monument a few years ago, the number
of visitors has steadily climbed. Come see it while it is still wild and
wonderful!
Until the last few years, this had always been regarded
as a three-day, 25-mile in-and-back-out hike, and only dedicated backpackers made it
all the way in to see the Stevens Arch at the end. But a park ranger
showed me a short cut, in which all the best parts of the canyon can be seen in
a one-day loop trip of about 7 miles, with no need to backtrack or
backpack. I have already made the hike four times, and led a group
through it with me the last time -- some of them wanted to go right back and do
it again the next day on their own, so they did!
In the morning we will all pile into the 4-wheel drives, then take off
full speed (to keep from bogging down) on the deep-sand road to the
trailhead -- it feels like you are floating, with nothing solid beneath the
tires. The first half hour is just a stroll across a bare
rocky plateau. But once we reach the canyon rim, a whole new world opens
up for us. We will squeeze sideways through the scary Cracks of Doom, roll
down the
giant sand dunes to the Escalante River, and then, rounding a corner, suddenly
we will see the majestic Stevens Arch (pictured at top of this page), one of the
largest natural arches in the world. The opening is 225 feet... that's ¾
of a football field! Those who want to can actually climb up inside it...
it looks scary, even impossible, from below, but the rock ledge leading to it is as wide as a
freeway. You have to be right inside it to fully appreciate its size.
As we go up the canyon, we will pass the little Cliff Arch,
climb around a couple of waterfalls, and then go through the lovely Coyote Natural
Bridge, where the stream has carved its way right through a rock wall.
After crawling through the massive Jacob Hamblin Arch, we will have a picnic in
the Symphony Hall, a vast and echoing natural amphitheatre where the river has
undercut a cliff for millions of years -- it's amazing.
Then we climb out!
This is the hard part, especially coming at the end of the day when we are
already tired, but that's typical for canyon hiking. If you are in good
shape, you can do it just fine. We will let the big muscle bears go up
first and throw down some ropes for the rest of us, just in case some of us need
them. You'll be past the hard part in just 4 or 5 minutes, then you can
stand up and climb normally. In 10 minutes you'll be on top. Yes, it
can be a dangerous climb, but if you just take your time and use good sense
you'll be okay. At the end of this day, you will definitely feel you have
accomplished something! And you will have -- our planet's scenery doesn't
get much finer than this.
Thursday: After the Coyote Gulch hike, you will probably
be wanting an easy day. So we will go back up the Hole-in-the-Rock Rd. to
Escalante, get showers at a campground, and maybe eat lunch at a restaurant for
a change. Then we will take the famous Hogsback Highway, with its
thousand-foot dropoffs on both sides, to the town of Boulder. We may take a
pleasant hike to the Calf Creek waterfall along the way. Then we will
drive the old Burr Trail up to the south end of Capitol Reef National Park, the
part that hardly one in a thousand park visitors ever gets to see, since it's
far off the main highway. There we
will spot the giant Peekaboo Rock many miles away; then as we get up to it, we
will wander through the scenic little Muley Twist Canyon ("so crooked it could
twist a mule"). We will camp out somewhere in the area for the night.
Friday: In the morning, we will drive down a rather terrifying but spectacular set of switchbacks, coming down out of the reef to the flatlands. Going north, we will hit Highway 24, which goes though the main part of Capitol Reef National Park, where we will spend several hours seeing the sights such as the Hickman Arch, the Grand Wash, and the Golden Throne. Capitol Reef is the world at an angle... massive ancient groundlifting forces have tilted the giant stone formations and rock strata to a 45° angle and more. This enormous shelf of land, thrust skyward by unimaginable earthquakes eons ago, now has eroded and weathered into a series of golden cliffs and domes over 75 miles long. When the setting sun hits the western cliff walls, it's a wonderful sight. Our final campout will be tonight in the Fishlake National Forest.
Saturday: After
breakfast, we will start to take off on our separate ways. Highway 24
heads right on up to the freeway -- left to Las Vegas, right to Salt Lake City
or Denver. If you have time, several other great places can be visited on your own while you're here, such as Cedar Breaks National Monument,
the Manti Temple, or
Kolob Canyons in Zion N.P. Or just spend the day resting up if you
don't have to leave for home right away.
The above schedule might change somewhat depending on weather and road
conditions -- a rainstorm could throw the whole schedule off, so we might have
to eliminate something. But we will do the Coyote Gulch hike no matter
what, even if it has to be a day or two later.
*******
For
more information or to sign up, e-mail me at:
Skookumchuck36@aol.com (Galen
Berry)
*******
Click
here to see pictures of Coyote Gulch and
the Escalante National Monument.
Click
here to see more pictures
of places we will go.
Click
here to see a map
that shows where we will be going.
Click
here to find out more about me,
your tour guide.
*******
If everything goes as planned, we might get to do it all over again a year or two later! We could go to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Monument Valley Tribal Park, Navajo National Monument, take a boat on Lake Powell to Rainbow Bridge, and our big hike would be in Natural Bridges National Monument. You can spend a lifetime exploring southern Utah and the Four Corners area -- I know; even after 20 years, there is still so much I haven't seen: Hovenweep ruins, Ute Mountain Tribal Park, Owl and Fish Canyons, Davis Gulch, the Golden Cathedral, Vermilion Cliffs, Coral Pink Sand Dunes, Dead Horse Point, Grand Gulch Primitive Area, the Fisher Towers... the list of wonderful places goes on and on.