Heaps Canyon, Zion National Park

 Back in June I had an invitation to go to Heaps Canyon, one of the longest and most difficult canyons in Zion National Park. I happily accepted, not quite sure what the trip would entail. I knew it would be long. We started hiking about 4:20 am (MDT) from the Grotto parking lot, switchbacking our way up towards Angel's Landing. We went around the corner and continued on the West Rim Trail as the sky gradually lightened, and then we were treated to a marvelous sunrise.

The West Rim Trail is pretty amazing, with rock blasted off to make room to walk in places.

We kept up a good pace, although I couldn't help pausing to take photos along the way.

We reached campsite #4 in about three hours, and then it was time to descend into the canyon. We left the well-maintained trail for scanty social and animal trails, and in just a few minutes reached our first rappel.

It was a bit scary looking down into the trail-less canyon world below. It was a bit of a desert survivor's conundrum. How could we survive this canyon country? Fortunately we had plenty of gear and good information about the route. But once we did the first rappel and pulled the rope, we were committed to about 24 more rappels and 10+ more hours before we would end up at the Emerald Pools.

 Another rappel later and quite a bit of hiking, we finally reached the first set of narrows. We donned our wetsuits and jumped in the water. It felt really good. The low the night before had been about 89 degrees, and the high was expected at well over 100 degrees. A cool canyon was the perfect place to be.

Many of the rappels looked something like this, a smallish drop ending in water. Sometimes the water was over our head and we swam after we got off rope. Fortunately wetsuits are somewhat buoyant, so it was easy to stay on top of the water.

After the first set of narrows, we walked through this massive corridor. Apparently sometimes it is wet and the sand is like quicksand. This time it was super easy to navigate.

Then we entered a second set of narrows. It was difficult to dry the viewfinder of my waterproof camera, so most of my shots have water spots. You get the idea, though, of the narrow canyons.

At the end we found frogs!

We still had another set of narrows to negotiate, and they were the coldest and darkest yet. Here's a spot with some sunlight where folks warmed up a bit. The third set of narrows was where I finally felt a little bit cold, but not uncomfortably so. I was in a 4/3/2 mm wetsuit, and I think part of the reason I stayed so warm was that I was really hot when I put it on.

After the narrows we had two dry longer rappels.

Then we changed out of our wetsuits, climbed up a slot to the little tree below where our fearless leader Bryan was standing, scooted down a little slot, and got ready for three rappels in a row that totaled over 500 feet and that would get us out of the canyon.

On the first rappel we couldn't even see the bottom, we were just rappelling to the tree below.

From that tree, we could see the tiny pool below. I rappelled with my normal cave gear, so that if I had any problem I could switch over to ascent in about three seconds. That's one of the biggest differences to me between canyoneering and caving--canyoneering is usually all down, no climbing rope to get back out. And you often don't need a headlamp (although I certainly took one!).

Here's Jenny, who was stationed at the tree to make sure we made the transition to the next rope correctly.

At the next transition, the bird perch, the pool looked slightly bigger. Can you see the people on the sandy beach? I think they thought we were crazy, appearing as little dots dangling from a rope.

I spun and spun on the way down, which made me slightly dizzy. It was a 270 foot rappel, mostly free hang, and quite beautiful. We had each person except the first bottom-belayed for extra safety.

It took awhile to get everyone down, but we did it in daylight, something I didn't expect. From vehicle to vehicle it took 15 hours, and was an amazing experience. I especially liked swimming in the pools in the narrow canyons. Although we were really tired, we managed some smiles on the hike back to the road. What a great day! Thank you to those who made it possible!

A Long Trip

Sorry for the lack of blog posts, the kids and I have been in Kentucky and Indiana for the last while with very spotty Internet connections. That was a long trip, but before we left, we met Matt, who was on an even longer trip, biking from coast to coast to raise money for multiple sclerosis research. We had met him via my brother in Indiana who used to work with him. Matt stayed a couple nights with us so he could have a rest day. His rest day consisted of climbing 13,063 foot Wheeler Peak--not most people's idea of a rest day!

When he was ready to leave, we decided we would ride to the edge of town with him.

And then Matt was off to finish his grand adventure. He kept a blog for the trip, which is a fascinating view of the country. He was biking solo, carrying a tent and sleeping bag, and everything he needed to support himself. That involved lots of planning and some very, very strong legs and mental fortitude.

As we were driving to the airport for our trip, we passed two big (20+ people) groups of bike riders heading in our direction. We are along the Western Express biking route that extends from Pueblo, CO to San Francisco, CA, so we see cyclists daily during the summer. One of the groups was also supporting Bike the US for MS, which made us think of Matt. He successfully finished his journey--congratulations!

A Quick Trip to Salt Lake City

 Desert Girl recently got her kindergarten shots (she is so looking forward to kindergarten!). She did great. Since we have to travel so far to go to doctor's appointments and I had to take the day off, I decided why not take one more day off and just go to Salt Lake City and see a few more places covered by our Connect Salt Lake Pass that we had bought on Groupon.

Before Salt Lake, we went and visited our neighbor who has moved to the Wasatch Front. It was so good to see her. She's our surrogate grandma.

Afterwards we continued to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. We started at the Big Bang and proceeded through time. The dinosaurs certainly got lots of attention, but I think the kids' favorite part was the interactive sand table with flash floods to bury dinosaurs.

Our little paleontologist also really enjoyed the sand pit.

The next morning we went to Hogle Zoo, arriving just fifteen minutes after it opened and finding the parking lot full. The Zoo was certainly a zoo. We navigated our way through strollers and crowds of toddlers and admired the dinosaur animatronics.

We watched the rhinos getting fed.

After a couple hours we had seen it all and were ready to go on. We had a nice lunch and continued to the Children's Discovery Museum.

We went through the old train depot at the Gateway, admiring the amazing stained glass windows.

The kids checked out the old ticket counter.

The children's museum was lots of fun for the kids.




On the way back to the vehicle, the kids played in the fountain. Do you think they stayed dry?

Not quite!

 

 After two full days, it was time to go home. Looks like I wiped out the kids!

Family Hike up South Fork Baker Creek

After doing the 5k Snake Valley Slither on summer solstice and then hiking up to the bristlecones that afternoon, my visiting family wanted a shorter hike, so I suggested one of my favorites, the South Fork Baker-Baker Creek loop. It's about 3 miles long, although with roughly 800 feet elevation gain (that's a guess). But by the time we got to the trailhead, the kids were complaining, and we weren't sure we wanted to listen them for two-three hours.

The crying seemed contagious.

But we gathered up our strength and set off, and before long were seeing neat things, like this woodpecker, a yellow-bellied sapsucker.

This swallowtail was visiting the columbine as we walked under the aspens.

Desert Girl was a little tired, but we bribed her and cajoled her, and she kept going.

And finally we made it to the big meadow and found a spot to take a big snack break. Even better, it had water nearby.


We started seeing lots more smiles.

While the family hung out, I went off in search of good photo opportunities.


This meadow is amazing, I always feel like I'm in Yellowstone and a bear might step out of the trees. But we don't have bears in Great Basin National Park, so that makes hiking and camping a lot less stressful.


I was just blown away by all the bistort.

This painted lady was busy pollinating some flowers.

Nearby was another butterfly--a skipper?

Besides the bistort, there were also fields of shooting stars.

The colors were amazing.

I had fun looking at this bee and seeing all the little hairs on it.

Eventually I wandered back and this is what I found:

 Ah what fun with uncles!

We continued on to make the loop.


The trail crew was making the trail a little wider and very smooth.

It made for easy walking.

We crested the ridge, passed some ponderosa pines, and came down on the north, shady side of the ridge. We found these orchids, spotted coral root (Corallorhiza maculata).

When I saw the lack of green, I guessed they were parasitic, and found I was right. They parasitize fungi, which depend on the roots of other plants. The flowers are gorgeous.

When we got down to Baker Creek, it was time to play in the water again. The kids even tried swimming, but the very cold water deterred them.


On the way back we saw big mushrooms,

this beautiful flower, death camus (Zigadenus species),

and had a grand old time. It was a really enjoyable hike, and I highly recommend it!