10/15/01 Hiking Peek-a-boo Spring Trail (10 miles round trip):
Yesterday, after my hike, I drove the 55 miles from Arches National Park to Monticello. I got the zip code off the post office and satisfied myself I still knew where the laundromat and supermarket were. Then I headed back the 15 miles to the Canyonlands National Park entrance road. It's still another 40 miles or so to the park from there. I camped at Newspaper Rock rather than Canyonlands just to get some shade for at least one night. There is no shade in the BLM lands outside the park. The first 10 miles of this road are desert. But then you hit the canyon and when that opens up you're driving at the bottom of all these red sandstone canyons. Outstanding scenery! They're even having their fall foliage season now and the small aspen leaves and cottonwoods are a bright yellow.
After another mild night I hit the Peek-a-boo Spring Trailhead about 9:15am. This trail is 5 miles in and 5 more out. The objective is the petroglyphs at the spring. The first 2 miles of the trail is sand, then up and down some slick rock, then down, then more sand, then more slick rock.
Sqaw Canyon is at the bottom of the first slick rock and seems more like a valley than a canyon. Then comes Lost Canyon. This is the hard one. The descent is a couple hundred feet over slick rock. The trail follows the canyon floor for a half mile or so and then ascends several hundred feet up more slick rock. It then winds its way around a couple of other canyons.
I passed a woman sitting cross legged on a ledge doing yoga or Yoda or Yogi stuff or whatever. I said hello as I neared her so she wouldn't be startled and go flying off the cliff out of fright. You can't just walk up and start a conversation with a lot of people on the trail because many don't speak English. You kinda say hello and if they respond in English you say something else and if they respond again you have a conversation. This lady understood English but she was more into her thing so I kept going.
The canyon floors retain more moisture so cottonwoods, scrub oaks, junipers and other trees can be found down there. Also many blue birds, some chipmunks and those little lizard guys.
Coming up out of Lost Canyon required some extra huffing and puffing and my thighs weren't too happy with the added work load. Once at the top, the trail led over both red standstone and gray limestone with lots of cracks and fissures to hop over. The trail would follow a canyon to its end, cross over and follow it back the other side. Much of this is on steep, exposed slick rock. A slip would mean a 20 foot slide, a 100 foot drop, a bounce of a wide ledge followed by another 50 foot drop. If you didn't bounce off the ledge you'd probably just be a big spat!
The trail would wind around a large stone partition and reversed direction on the other side. The trial even followed a small arch through to the other side of the rock wall. These walls typically towered 200-300 feet above.
Eventually, at noon, I came to the end of a ridge. I figured I still had a mile or so to go but the trail descended sharply from the ridge and I could see the rock cairns leading off into the distance. Then there was another drop. I decided the legs had had enough for the day so had lunch there where I could admire the canyons, mesas, buttes, bluffs, spires and the mountains way in the distance. Then I headed back.
10/16/01 Hiking Squaw & Lost Canyons Loop (8.7 miles round trip):
Another mild night. Temperatures in the 50's with a bright sun and little wind at the trailhead. From the trail description I expected a nice hike but nothing spectacular. I was wrong. The trail headed right for slick rock and ledges. Here cottontail rabbits scurried away and blue birds fluttered up ahead of me.
I soon came to a nice view of The Needles but they were still miles away. The trail made a short descent to the Squaw Canyon valley floor. Soon I was in Big Spring Canyon. Great stuff. Big red sandstone formations layered with gray limestone. Toadstool shaped columns with rounded, overhanging tops. Other formations looked like softee ice cream that had been poured out of a machine with swirls layered on top of each other.
The canyon became narrower and the walls in front of me rose 100's of feet. Farther on they shrank to 100 feet as the trail descended another 100 feet and the walls closed in tighter. The trail follows an old dried up creek bed over a bunch of small ledges. I soon entered a huge amphitheater 1/4 X 1/4 miles, surrounded by 300-400 foot red and white walls. I didn't take me long to realize I was probably going to have to climb those walls to get out of the amphitheater.
A took a sit down break after 1.5 hours and 2.3 GPS miles. Switchbacks then led me up steep, exposed slick rock. The trail did follow through the only gap I saw in the walls but I still did a bit of huffing and puffing. When I reached the top of the gap... Wow, what a view! Many, many washes, arroyos, canyonettes or whatever dug out of beige sandstone. Many other walls, partitions, ridges or whatever else rise 100's of feet higher. That was worth another sit down break to admire the view.
And then, of course, the trail began an immediate descent over more slick rock. Going up slick rock is one thing. Going down is something else. Believe me, I did a lot of butt sliding on the way down. The trail followed along the bottom of Lost Canyon and intersected with yesterday's trail. I passed a youngish mom with her 8-9 year old daughter off to the back country for a night or two. The little girl had her own (small) backpack and was carrying her full share. Looks like they've done that before.
10/17/01 Hiking Chesler Park Loop/Joint Trail (11 miles round trip):
The Chesler Park Loop didn't sound overly interesting but the Joint Trail did. From the description I thought this would be a nice easy trail. Twasn't! The first part of the trail I had done in April when doing the Druid Arch Trail. After two miles or so it forks with the Druid Arch Trail going to the left down a wash and the Chesler Park Loop going up over some ledges.
And it continued going up and down, up and down with lots of great views. The Chesler Park view is mostly desert with lots of mushroom like rock formations. The trail followed the edge of the desert and things warmed up considerably.
The Joint Trail leads down into a series of rock fractures 100+ feet deep. The walls are so narrow my backpack was scraping along both sides. Nice and cool down there though. After a half mile of this the trail opened up again and continued its ups and downs. With all the ups and downs it seemed more than the stated 11 miles. The views more than made up for it though.
10/18/01 Hiking Druid Arch Trail (11 miles round trip):
I did this trail in April and it is one of my top three trails in the U.S. The first two miles are along the same trail as yesterday. I turned left at the wash for the Druid Arch Trail while the Chesler Park Loop continued straight. .8 miles up the wash a fork to the right kept on track for the Druid Arch.
This section of the trail follows the Elephant Canyon floor and is pretty flat. The canyon is only a couple hundred feet wide so the canyon walls are fairly close. This is good because the walls are made up of various formations and they're right there in front of you to be viewed.
The last half mile or so begins to rise and the last quarter mile is a scramble over boulders in a rock slide, up a fairly steep incline. And then there is the Druid Arch. I can't really describe it adequately so check out the Photographs section. A picture is worth a thousand words.
Then I got a monumental scare. While lunching at Druid Arch, I lost the cap to my water bottle. It just slipped out of my hand and tumbled over a cliff. Nothing I could do about it. On the way back, most of the water I had left spilled out. When I got back to the truck I filled it up and drank my fill. Then tucked it way on the front seat. After driving 2 miles of bad road I saw it had fallen over... RIGHT ON MY LAPTOP!
I immediately stopped, wiped the water off and started it up. The power light came on but no disk activity at all. SH*T!!! My hard drive was fried. I got nothing out of the CD drive nor the floppy. Another $2K down the drain. I didn't have much choice but go find a campsite and continue as normal. Several hours later, after sitting in the hot sun and drying out, it started right up. Since I had no expectations, that was really a pleasant surprise.
10/19/01:
Well, I'm going to be here till Monday at least. I hiked every day for the past week or so, so today was a rest day. I left instructions to have my mail forwarded to Monticello last Sunday but its still not here on Friday. Probably because of the Anthrax problems in the mail. I did the laundry and then some food shopping.
On the way out from Canyonlands, I spotted two groups of wild turkeys totaling 30-40. Then seven mule deer bounded down the road. Leaves are still putting on their fall colors. Cottonwoods turn a very bright yellow and are really something with the early morning sunlight shining down on them.
10/20/01 Hiking Peek-a-boo Spring Trail (10 miles round trip):
I was a little peeved with not having completed this trail the other day, regardless of the reason. So here I go again. 50's and bright sunshine as usual. Bear and mountain lion warnings on the trailhead signs. Sun shining directly in my eyes as I headed out so all I could really do was keep an eye on the trail and the cairns. No sight seeing for a while. Started thinking about contents of the day pack. Feel kinda silly lugging around a bunch of rain gear in the desert. Although I did run into snow showers here in April, so you never know.
After 45 minutes the trail heads down over some big ledges and a ladder. Some desert walking and the slick rock starts. The trail goes up a couple of fairly steep sections and follows along one side of several canyons and then back the other. After passing through a hole in the wall, the trail continues out onto the ridge I had stopped at the other day.
From here the trail goes down a fairly steep section and continues downward for another half mile. After descending another ladder the trail levels out for the final half mile. A couple of pictographs of what appear to be two turtles and a few hands are the final goal. So, the other day I quit about a mile before the end of the trail as expected.
Things heated up on the way back. It really bounces up off the slick rock at you. A breeze seems to pick up after noon so that evens things out a little.
10/21/01:
Cows kept me awake half the night with their mooing. On the way into Canyonlands National Park I saw cow crap all over. That's a nice way to introduce one of our national parks, especially to foreign visitors.
Low 50's, overcast with heavier, darker clouds drifting by at 9am at the trailhead. The first hour of the trail is along the canyon floor of Squaw and Lost Canyons. 1.5 hours brings you to the top of the pass with the gorgeous view of surrounding canyons. The trail descends just as steeply and at the bottom the trail splits off towards Elephant Canyon.
I soon came to a crack in the wall narrow enough for me to have to adjust the camera and daypack to get through. No place for the chubby folks here. Exceptional views continued as the trail wound its way back towards the towers and then around the canyon below, A 360 degree panorama of 300-400 foot walls complimented by towers and monoliths. Even the heavily overcast skies did little to detract from the beauty of this basin. This is probably the best close up view on any trail, anywhere. It doesn't get much better than this.
The trail continued up one ladder and right back down another one into another beautiful basin. This one has many 'needles' type spires. The trail led all the way down to the canyon floor. Now I had to look even higher to see the tops of the walls.
I got to the Druid Arch, Chesler Park junction in the wash at noon, had lunch and then pushed on. I still had more than 4 miles to go yet. For some reason I thought the trail back to Squaw Flat would be flat; probably because of the name. It isn't.
Down I went into a canyon and then up an incline and down into a deeper canyon. Much of the 3.5 mile trail was that way. Down into a canyon, back up and then down into another one. Great scenery though.
10/24/01:
I've been screwing around for the past several days waiting for my forwarded mail to appear in Monticello. No luck though. Probably to do with the Anthrax problems going on and since some of it occurred in Florida, my mail may be having trouble getting out of the state. In any case I've given up and am moving on. I filled out a change of address form at the post office and hopefully the mail will find its way back to my mail forwarding service and we can try again.
I've been camped at 7000 feet near Natural Bridges National Monument. Strong winds have been blowing and until mid-morning, things were really cold.