It was deja vu all over again as I returned to southern Utah in October. Yeah, I know, I was here last April so I won't bore you with the same old thing again except to say this is exceptional country. Just for viewing I like Arches and Bryce Canyon National Parks best, each with tons of outstanding red sandstone/white limestone rock formations. Canyonlands and Bryce Canyon National Parks have to have some of the best hiking in the world.
Zion National Park is the most majestic. While hiking the Angels Landing Trail there I got a bit of a surprise. The last half mile of the trail was about the wildest I've ever been on. A narrow knife's edge ridge leads upward several hundred feet after you think you're at the top. The trail description says a narrow trail with long drop-offs from that point on. Not for those afraid of heights. Hrmph!
Up over little ledges and rocky steps, some just inches from the edge of a 1500 foot drop straight down with nothing but a big splat at the end. Seems they should have named this trail Devils Staircase instead of Angels Landing. They've hammered thick chain into the rock for handholds where they can. I wonder how many people went over the edge before they did that. I'll bet the trail crew was roped in while working on these sections.
This was like sitting on top of a flag pole or something with nothing but air all around. 200 feet from the top I came to some slickrock angling outward and downward. Earlier I had slipped on some slickrock so used that as an excuse to turn back. This old guy will live to hike another day.
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (Lake Powell) sits right in the middle of all these national parks and also has some of the best paddling in the U.S. too. It's spectacular with 2000 miles of shoreline and more than 90 major red sandstone canyons to explore. I spent more than a week down at the Arizona end of the lake. I don't have the equipment now for touring so I was only able to do day trips. The problem with day trips here is the middle parts of the lake are not accessible by road.
Then I moved down to Lake Mead, 20 miles outside of Las Vegas for some more good paddling. The Colorado River is dammed again here (Hoover Dam), this time backing up 50-60 miles forming Lake Mead. Sharp, jagged mountain peaks and ridges rise up several hundred feet around the lake, much different than Lake Powell but still a top paddling area. While out paddling near the dam I got buzzed by a black helicopter with a long skinny thing sticking out the front a gunship? This was after September 11th.
You have to drive across Hoover Dam to get from the Nevada side of the lake to the Arizona side. To get to the dam you have to go through roadblocks from either direction, probably the result of September 11th. I saw my first desert big horn ram just past Hoover Dam. Yeah, I drove into Las Vegas one day when the winds were high. Didn't stop and didn't gamble any. I'll save my money and addictions for other things.
Did you get a chance to see that meteor shower in November? Cool stuff. That night was in the teens when I got up at 3am to watch. Looking up in the sky I could see the stars were out in force and seemed exceptionally bright... and sure enough, the meteors were flashing across the sky. It was great sitting in a nice warm cab, listening to a soft rock station, drinking hot chocolate and watching the show. The meteors appeared at a constant rate, no more than a few seconds between appearances, sometimes 5 or more one right after the other. Many had tails of light streaming behind, some quite long.
I spent a couple of weeks just hanging out in southwestern Arizona enjoying the snowy weather reports from the rest of the U.S. Buffalo, N.Y., seven feet!!! Wasn't doing much of anything except putting on some pounds. I started running again and got myself back up to an hour per run. Well, not really running, more like the old man shuffle. Still have to get rid of more pounds though.
Took a swing over into southern California. Nothing but Sonoran Desert over there too. Joshua Tree National Park and Mojave Desert National Preserve are at 3000-5000 feet making them part of the high desert as opposed to low desert at lesser elevations. It can get cold that high in January and the wind... days on end 20-30mph and higher. Got into the Sequoia National Forest but roads into the National Monument and National Park were closed because of snow.
Hey, do you old geezers remember the 20 Mule Team Boraxo ads on TV back in the 50's? Death Valley was one of the major sources of Borax. Spent a couple of weeks there hiking and sight seeing. Mountain ranges are various pastels of purple, green, blue and gold for some colorful vistas. These are offset by large salt flats and sand dunes plus your common every day desert with sage brush and stuff. Death Valley goes from 280 feet below sea level to over 11000 foot peaks. Great place for a winter visit... 60-07F in February. 120F in the summer would be a bit much for me, though.
Back in Arizona it was time to get on the move again in mid-March. I stopped at Organ Pipe National Monument and Saguaro National Park. Lots of cactus. Saguaros are those great big cactus that look like they have arms and grow 50 feet tall. Organ Pipe cactus are a whole bunch of skinny Saguaro stalks growing from a single base. While at Saguaro I ended up camping on a known smuggler route from Mexico. Had all kinds of lights flashing through the night. Car parts all over the road in the morning. I thought it might be a good idea to move on.
Tombstone, Arizona was a bust for me. The OK Corral (which I thought was in Dodge City) where Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday had the big shootout with the Clanton brothers or someone has walls all around it and you have to pay to watch some silly re-enactment so I skipped that. The famous Boot Hill is there too but they've done so much work on it nothing looks natural. The only natural thing in the whole town was some tumbleweed tumbling down the main street.
The Chiricahua National Monument was a great stop. Mountain crests with columns and pillars and such that reminded me very much of Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. This is where Cochise of the Chiricahua Apaches (remember the Broken Arrow TV show in the 50's?) and Geranimo used to hang out.
Headed up to the Grand Canyon for a few days. Did the South and West Rim Trails. What views of the 10 mile wide, 1 mile deep, 250+ mile long canyon. Most of the trails are into the canyon with anywhere from 4000 to 6000 foot drops in elevations. I was thinking about maybe going down halfway and coming back up but bad weather drove me away.
I'm back in southern Utah again ready to do my little loop through there to places I haven't been yet. Then up into the Badlands of South Dakota, then into Wyoming, Montana and Idaho for the summer.
Web site has been updated with trip reports and lots of good photographs. I won't let so much time pass before the next report. Thanx for the emails asking if I had expired yet... the answer is ... not yet.