Hiking the crest of the Virgin Anticline

May 24, 2014, 9:14 pm

Dan wanted to spend a day geocaching near St. George and suggested a one-way hike along the crest of the Virgin Anticline. On paper this looked easy enough—about 35 caches over 4 miles point to point. We dropped a vehicle at the end point and Janet dropped us off at the beginning.

Crest of the Virgin Anticline

After a bit of walking it became apparent that I might have underestimated the scale this ridge. There wasn’t a trail (not even a use-trail) and some of the bolder fields were tricky to get through or around.

Navigating through the rocks

The expected 4 mile hike turned into 5+ miles, and it seemed like a lot farther. The ups, downs, and dealing with the big rocks left me very tired. On the upside, we logged more than 30 caches and experienced a very unique area.

Just follow the crest

Links
—Photo gallery for St. George 2014 vacation

May 24th, 2014 | Category: Geocaching, Outdoors | 5 comments

Hiking Zion’s Many Pools Canyon

May 23, 2014, 9:59 pm

A couple of years ago I began searching for off-the-beaten track hikes in Zion and discovered that while many of them are technical (climbing/rope skills required), some are relatively easy. Many Pools Canyon is one such hike. We have hiked there once before, but decided to return and explore a little farther.

Climbing the slick-rock wash

Access to the canyon is about a half-mile east of the short tunnel on highway 9. There is parking in a good-sized turnout. A short hike up the road leads to an obvious place to scramble down into the canyon bottom and begin route-finding up the wash. The canyon is wide with lots of slick-rock and a number of bathtub-size potholes in the drainage channel. I’d love to see the area when the snow is melting and the drainage has flowing water.

Some of the many pools

Surveying the bottom part of the canyon

We mostly followed the bottom of the wash, although in a couple of places we needed to climb around a dry-fall. Towards the upper end of the canyon the wash became narrower and more brushy, but we found a nice use-trail up out of the wash that was quite nice. We turned around when the canyon became more choked, but clearly an intrepid hiker could continue up and reach the east rim.

One of the dry-falls that we worked around

Links
—Photo gallery for St. George 2014 vacation

May 23rd, 2014 | Category: Outdoors | 4 comments

North Fork of Taylor Creek in Kolob Canyons area

May 22, 2014, 9:52 pm

Today we made different plans than Dan and Janet and drove north to the Kolob Canyons area of Zion. We have done different hikes in this area before—the toughest a 14 mile slog out to Kolob Arch and back. One of the more popular hikes (because it is easy) is Taylor Creek. I had read that it is possible to hike up the north fork of Taylor Creek, although there is no trail, so we gave that a try.

Actually, at the fork there is an easy to discover use-trail that heads up the north fork. It gets brushy in places, and often you must walk in the stream-bed. This wasn’t a problem because the stream-flow was quite low. We had the canyon to ourselves. It was enjoyable to do once; not sure I’ll do it again.

North Fork Taylor Creek. This is also the use-trail.

May 22nd, 2014 | Category: Outdoors | Leave a comment
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