Entries Tagged 'Zion' ↓

In the morning we packed up our stuff and hiked back down to the wash from our hilltop campsite. We left our big packs against a tree and followed proceeded to follow the wash upstream. It was a lovely hike with sun, sand, and water. The abundance of vegetation was rather surprising and ended up stopping us a little short of our goal. We basically hiked as far as you could go. I’m going to say we hiked to the end of the wash. My best guess was we went about 4 miles from where we had left our packs

After we got tired of navigating the spiky bushes we turned around, hiked back down and grabbed our bags where we’d left them, and continued all the way back to our car. It is interesting how walking the opposite direction things can look completely different. The hills and turns of the trail seem different. With the different light it was like another hike altogether!

Arriving at the car with a decent amount of daylight we got started on the drive back to Bozeman. About an hour north of Salt Lake we found a hotel parking lot and slept in the back of the van. This trip really made me appreciate the minivan in that it is like an RV except reasonably sized and with way better gas mileage.

The day before we obtained a permit from the backcountry office in Zion to backpack in a more northern, mountainous region of Zion, Kolob Canyon. After the hour-long drive to the trailhead, the possibility of cold nights and hiking through more snow inspired the 2nd southern migration of our trip. We got our permit changed and drove back to the area of the park where we were earlier in the morning to hike up something known as the Coal Pit Wash.

With a name like “Coal Pit Wash” I didn’t expect too much except for warmer temperatures (the area is a lot lower than Kolob canoyn and basically a desert). It turned out to be a really varied and interesting hike. There was a good-sized stream the whole way, which we felt like only occurs in the spring when the snow melts. As you hike up the wash the water becomes clearer and colder as you reduce the time the snow melt has to flow among the sand and the red rocks. Also, as you follow the wash upwards the vegetation changes gradually from a very sparse desert to almost an impassible jungle as you get higher into areas more protected from the sun by the cliffs.