Big Basin Redwoods State Park, California

Big Basin Redwoods State Park, California

May 20-22, 2012

This trip was divided into two sections; Point Reyes first and Big Basin Redwoods State Park second.  I have described the Point Reyes days as a separate Blog Entry.

We had enjoyed the Lost Coast trips in Northern California so much that we wanted to see if there was another location that had similar attributes.  This combination of parks provided both time on lonely beaches and time amongst redwood trees.

Relevant links

Park Website

Back Country Information

To Buy a Map

 May 20 – Up to Lane Camp

We arrived at Big Basin Redwoods at about 3:30.  We knew we were amongst the red woods even before we got out of the car.  We got our permit and moved the car to Jay parking lot which has a rest room and SHOWERS.  We repacked our packs adding the food we had held out for Part 2 of our trip and omitting a few things that didn’t seem necessary.  We filled our water containers behind the park store.  We were told the water sources near our destination, Lane Camp, were not dependable.  We expected to have plenty to get us to the waterfalls below Sunset camp about mid day, the next day.  We were walking on the Skyline to the Sea Trail by 4:50.  Why does all the miscellaneous stuff take so long?  We knew sundown would be about 8:20 and three hours seemed just enough time to cover the 5.5 miles.  At about 6:45, we got quite concerned.  With sundown over 90 minutes away, we could hardly see the trail.  We guessed that we were just so far down in the forest that the sun could not penetrate to us.  It was only after we finished the trip that we were reminded that there was a total solar eclipse!  What are the odds?  As we climbed higher, (and the eclipse ebbed) it got much lighter again, and we were relieved.  The last half of the hike was on the Hollow Tree Trail.  We walked a pretty fast pace, rested little and made camp about 8:00.  We got set up, hung our food and changed clothes before dark, but didn’t bother with Trivia before bed.

The campgrounds at BBRW have pit toilets and garbage cans.  These are conveniences we usually have to do without, but we had been spoiled at Point Reyes.

Note – We were on the Skyline to the Sea trail for portions of all three of our days.  Per Wikipedia “The Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail is a 29.5-mile (47.2-kilometre) hiking trail that descends from the ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Northern California to the Pacific Ocean, passing through Castle Rock State Park and Big Basin Redwoods State Park. Big Basin is California's first state park. It contains beautiful waterfalls and some of the largest, tallest, and oldest Redwood forests left in existence.  The trail usually takes two to three days to complete, with nearly all thru-hikers traveling from East to West (towards the ocean). It is possible to walk the entire trail in one day, though this is unusual and very difficult. Many hikers like to take a detour up Berry Creek Trail to see the waterfalls or to camp at Sunset Trail Camp, adding an additional 2.7 mi (4.3 km) to the hike.”

May 21 – Down to the Waterfalls and Twin Redwoods

As Norm ate his oatmeal, he noticed Jerry laying everything out on his ground cloth and opening every bag, repeatedly.  His spoon was missing.  You know you must be good friends if you take turns with the same spoon for three days. 

As we had discussed with the ranger when we obtained our permit, our plan was to take the Hollow Tree Trail back a mile or so and them go onto the Johansen Road.  We took the trail back to where we believed we could find the roads, i.e. at Johansen’s shingle mill site.  There are some sizable relics at the mill site.  We saw no trail leading to any road as the map seems to show.  We wondered if the remnants of a road leading away from the mill site could be Johansen’s Road.  The names matched.  There were many fallen trees across this old road.  It didn’t seem like it would be on the map in this unmaintained condition.  Norm said, “The only other explanation, is that the roads are up there somewhere,” pointing northwest.  Jerry climbed up the hill and found a road.  It seemed most likely to be Middle Ridge Road and we couldn’t be sure where we could find Johansen’s Road, so Norm went north and Jerry went south.  Jerry found it, complete with clear signs.  And life was good.

Johansen Road took us to an amazing bit of human creation.  The first thing we saw was a long pipe fence with no trespassing signs.  Not commercial signs but artistic metal signs “carved” with a cutting torch.  Each sign depicts different aspects of this interesting place.  There are Native American style Teepees, a huge tree house under construction, play structures, zip lines, and full sized rail cars!  In the middle of the wilderness. 

 After walking more roads in both directions we determined our location and our next turns.  We followed Anderson Landing Road down to Sunset Camp and Berry Creek Falls Trail to the waterfalls.  We ate lunch at the foot of the Golden Cascade.   

The trail gets very wet at the top of the Silver Falls but there are posts and cables to hold onto and to keep one on the trail.   
 
Finally we arrived at the platform to view Berry Creek Falls where we rested and shared an orange.  All were beautiful.  They can be reached by day hike from BBRW HQ or as a short side hike from the Skyline to the Sea trail.

Just south of the waterfalls the SttS trail widens as it seems to have been a fire road at some earlier time.  Due to erosion at a few points, it will probably not function as a vehicular road now, but it is easy walking.  We completed nine plus miles by 4PM.  Norm originally thought we might want to drop the packs and go down to Waddel beach.  It is another 2.4 miles and we were in no mood to add 5 miles to our day, pack or no pack. 
 
There was only one other person at Twin Redwoods.  We filtered our only water on this 7 day trip at the campground.  We ate Backpacker’s Pantry Pad Thai.  Didn’t taste much like Pad Thai Norm had eaten, and both of us got hungry earlier than usual.  Won’t buy again.  Wouldn’t recommend.  This camp was inhabited by another pretty bird, the Steller’s Jay.  It is a crested bird with a black head and back and blue wings and tail.  Again, Jerry didn’t trust their intentions and tossed pebbles at them.  We tried trivia but had poor results with questions about presidents.  Wow, we just didn’t know much about anyone between Adams and Woodrow Wilson, except for Lincoln, Johnson and Grant.  This was our warmest night.  Single pair of socks, no gloves or hat required.

May 22 – Back to Park HQ

Backtracked up SttS trail as far as McCrary Ridge Trail.  The warning at the trail intersection is sobering.  There is a no bikes sign and the words say something like “Recommended for horses only, due to steepness of the trail.”  From the map, we could tell there was a whole bunch of up before we reached the ridge, but we didn’t appreciate how much up there would be.  Oh, and it is as steep as the sign warns.  

 As near as Norm could tell, it was like 20 of our training hills put together with no downs in between.  Every time the slope would decrease, Jerry would say we must be at the top.  We’d go around some little bend and find the next pitch.  Norm finally asked Jerry to stop talking. To distract ourselves we tried to think of a song with a girl’s name for every letter in the alphabet.  We got about 16.  We finally reached the road at the top and it did level out.  There is a redwood bench at Mr. McAbee Overlook where you have a clear look down to Waddell Beach. 

 The Howard King Trail crosses and recrosses the road.  We could not reconcile the map to the signs but luckily jumped on the HKT at the right exit to the left to get us to the SttS trail with only .8 miles left to the Park HQ.  We were back to Jay Parking by noon.  Talked to the ranger about our difficulty finding Johansen Road.  He said he’d go up there and see if a trail got obscured or a sign removed.  It was during this conversation that the mystery of Sunday’s early darkness was solved, when the ranger asked where we were when the eclipse occurred. 

We were so happy to see that there were showers, and not only showers but inexpensive showers.  If you hurry, you can get completely clean for 25 cents!  We’ve used pay showers that cost $2.00.  The amount is really not an issue, it’s having that many quarters.  Anyway, it was great to get cleaned up at the park and not have to wear our grungy clothes all the way to the motel.  Jerry found his spoon with the things he actually didn’t need for part two of the trip.  We had breakfast for lunch at Alice’s Restaurant. 

Point Reyes National Seashore, California

Point Reyes National Seashore, California

May 16-20, 2012

This trip was divided into two sections; Point Reyes first and Big Basin Redwoods State Park second.  I will describe the BBRW days as a separate Blog Entry.

We had enjoyed the Lost Coast trips in Northern California so much that we wanted to see if there was another location that had similar attributes.  This combination of parks provided both time on lonely beaches and time amongst redwood trees.

Relevant links

Hiking Map

backcountry camping

Plan Your Visit

Basic Plan

Arrive mid afternoon of the day we fly from Michigan.  Hike a “respectable” distance that day.  Day 2 – Hike to a camp site near the water and hike on the beach if possible.  Day 3 – Hike to a campsite across the park.  Day 4 – Hike without packs to the water again and walk on a beach.

May 16 – In to Glen Camp

We left Detroit at 9:00, arrived SFO early at 10:40, left SFO about noon, arrived at REI, just off Highway 1, north of the bridge in Corte Madera about 12:45.  Bought gas for the stove, freeze dried meals, drink mixes and snacks.  Good lunch next door at Counter where you build your own burgers from an exhaustive list of options.  Exit to Point Reyes, i.e. Sir Francis Drake Blvd was about the very next exit. We almost missed it.  The first part of SFD Blvd is very congested but then it opens up into farm land.  Found Bear Valley Visitor Center by following the signs with little difficulty.  Got our official permit tag, packed final items, changed clothes and started walking about 3:30 with 4.4 miles to go to get to Glen Camp. 

Norm remembered he had forgotten to transfer his only reading material, his Kindle, into his pack, so he retraced many steps to get it and his hooded sweatshirt which would be essential for warm sleeping and morning hiking.  The Bear Valley Trail is wide and level for 3 miles of this walk.  Once you move on to the Glen Trail, the trails climb into the hills.  We didn’t anticipate the extra .9 miles of the Glen Camp Loop.  All trail intersections in Point Reyes are well marked with arrows and destinations with distances.  We were always confident that we knew which trail to take.  We were eating dinner at Glen Camp by about 7:30. Sun set about 8:15.  We read a bit and fell asleep.  Fog came in so none of the items we hung out dried at all.  Jerry stayed pretty dry under a tree.  Norm pulled his rain fly over to keep moisture off the exposed part of his sleeping bag.  All the sites at Point Reyes come with picnic tables, grills for charcoal fires and metal boxes to protect food from animals.  At each camp, there is a well maintained pit toilet, a trash can and a water faucet.  We have never had such great accommodations in our backpacking camp sites before.

May 17 – Wildcat and the Beach

Knowing we would have potable water at Wildcat, we were able to carry only a couple of pints.  That was wonderful compared to “tanking up” for hiking in the dessert.  Only 2.5 miles to Wildcat.  We’d get to drop our packs and “day hike” the rest of the day.  There is a very long descent into Wildcat and we could see two very large parties in camp.  We could only hope they were leaving.  One group was probably college age.  The others seemed to be middle schoolers.  Wildcat is just above the beach, so we just carried our packs down to the beach and had a second cup of coffee.  We then went as far north as we could, about a mile.  After walking back, we had lunch, read a little, maybe napped, and then went as far south as possible (1.2 miles?).  We had a great time in the tide pools at low tide on the Lost Coast hikes so we hoped to repeat that at Point Reyes.  It looked like the south end of the beach might be an interesting place based on lots of big rocks in the water.  The lowest tide of the day was during the night, but the other low tide was at 3:45 in the afternoon.  Unfortunately, we saw only one sea anemone, but no crabs, no star fish, etc.  Near the south end of the beach, we found Alamere waterfall which has a strong flow.  When we arrived, we met a young couple who had come down from the Ocean Lake Loop.  They recommended we climb up at that point.  It didn’t look like fun to us.  It was very windy on the beach in the afternoon.  Walking back to camp was a chore.  Probably 8 total miles counting the trails and the beach.

 

We were glad to see that both of the large groups had left.  Three other sites were occupied.  We had Mountain House Stroganoff, an annual favorite.  So far we had seen slugs, quail, plover, tracks of raccoon on the beach, and dozens of empty crab shells.  We had a beach fire permit but we had no way to learn if the fire danger had changed (which is a requirement) and it was much too windy for a fire.  It was so windy, Norm couldn’t get warm, so he went on a long walk along the Ocean Lake Loop.  Indeed there is a lake overlooking the ocean.  He saw deer on the trail and met a group of equestrians.  We played a little trivia and went to bed.  The wind abated about midnight, but the temp went down to about 40 degrees.

May 18 – Up to Sky Camp

Up at 5:45.  Walking by 7:30.  Long climb out of Wildcat.  It was so cool we had two shirts and our hoodies on, and were not getting hot on that climb.  We started with a plan to go directly up to Sky camp via Baldy and Sky trails.  We could see that this was going to get us to camp about noon with little to do, so we went back down to Coast trail and followed the ridge and the great views.  It would be a shame to visit Point Reyes and not take the Coast Trail.  Great sweeping views.  We took a break at Kelham Beach, one of the two places one can get down to the ocean.  There are about 140 steps built into the hillside.  We had lunch on the beach and a walk as far north as we could go.  The hillsides are wet and there are thriving hanging gardens.  Due to haze on the prior two days, this was our first view of the headlands that extend west out to the point of Point Reyes.  When we came back up to our packs above Kelham Beach there were two fellows sitting in the shade near our packs.  One said, with a European accent, “We took a call while you were down.  The Smithsonian wants your packs.”  Pretty funny.  We explained how hard we had to work to find and purchase these external frame packs.  Jerry told of his experience with his internal frame pack.  Counting the capacity of the stuff you can so easily tie on the top and bottom, and all the handy zippered compartments on the outside, you can carry about 20% more stuff in these old packs.  This is one of the reasons we can take the 7 day trips we usually take.

After lunch we met some horses on the trail.  We asked what we should do.  Norm had a prior experience when his backpack spooked a horse and the rider was thrown.  The lead rider asked us to keep talking.  She said her horse would be fine if we just kept talking.  We jabbered until all four horses were past us.  Later we met a single rider.  He gave us no instructions, so we probably made the worst possible choices.  Norm went left and Jerry went right.  The rider went between us. 

We left the Coast Trail at Woodward Valley Trail.  We called it Woodward Avenue, which is a main highway in Detroit where there is a huge hot rod meet each summer.  Woodward was more like a Grand Canyon trail than the others at Point Reyes, in that it is quite narrow, rocky and steep.  Norm was concerned about meeting horses on that trail, be we didn’t meet any.  We came upon a deer on the trail.  He watched us and even stepped toward us, before meandering off the trail. 

We seemed to be the only humans at Sky Camp when we arrived but we found a huge cabin tent and some personal effects at site 10, which was our site.  We cleaned up and then hung our stuff out to dry all over site 10.  We had Backpacker’s Pantry Fettuccini Alfredo.  It was quite tasty; would buy again, would recommend.  Eventually a young couple came in to the site and of course said, “You’re in our site.”  Norm of course said, “You’re in our site.”  They said they definitely had reserved the site for two nights and this was their second night.  Their permit was in their car, so we couldn’t check it.  They offered to go back to the car and show us.  It seemed possible that when the NPS converted to computer reservations, Norm’s human registered reservation might have gotten lost.  We moved our stuff down to site one, which looked like it might not actually be assigned to anyone.  It is small and has no real flat spot for a tent or a bivy sack.  Jerry had found a flat spot not far away where we planned to roll out our “beds”.  The party from site two came into camp and offered to let us sleep in their site.  It was a group site and so we thought we could find a couple of flat spots there.  We stayed in site one until dark to minimize our intrusion into their privacy.  Most, maybe all Sky camp sites were occupied, but this was Friday night.

May 19 – “Day hike” to Limantour Spit

We awoke and moved our beds back to site one.  After breakfast we moved our packs up to site 10 and left our food in the box.  We bid adieu to the young couple.  Walking by 7:50.  No packs today.  We walked north to pick up Fire Lane trail, which is very steep down.  We quickly took off our hoodies and detached the bottoms of our zip-off trousers. We covered the 3.6 miles to Coast camp in about two hours.  We stayed on the trail/road above the bluffs for another mile or so and then went down to the beach at our first opportunity.  We rested, snacked, and took our boots off.  We enjoyed seeing the pelicans flying in formation right along the tops of the waves.  The beach is littered with empty crab shells.  The gulls must be well fed.  We walked another mile or so west in bare feet, had lunch, and then walked back to our boots and then to Coast camp.  There were about 15 people near a point where the Limatour Road ends, but basically we felt we had the beach to ourselves.  Near Coast Camp there was an excavator on the beach amongst some metal debris.  We couldn’t figure out what was being dismantled, but later learned from a Ranger that a boat had run aground recently and after draining the diesel fuel, they were taking the boat apart to remove it.   We had some water left but expected to get more at Coast, but we learned there is no water at Coast.  The Park Service had just brought in a huge water tank that they would be hooking up to provide water again. 

We hiked back from Coast camp to number 10 at Sky camp in about two hours.  We met a woman riding a horse and leading another.  Her only request was, “Please don’t give them a carrot or an apple.”  Later, we were taking a break, and were startled by a “death wish” runner coming at full speed down a very steep part of the trail past us.  It seemed he would eventually take a serious fall, if he kept running out of control like that.  10-11 miles, no packs.

No one was in site 10 and no one came for site 10.  We heard of no other reservation issues, so it seems that couple were scamming us or they just got their dates wrong.  The camp was inhabited by some beautiful birds we don’t see at home or in the Grand Canyon; Western Scrub Jays.  Blue wings and tail and head with a black back.  They seemed harmless enough but Jerry believes any bird at our camp site is after his food so he kept shooing them off.  We had Mountain House Chili Mac.  It was OK.   Might again, Might recommend.  After dinner two twenty-something girls came into site 10 sipping wine from plastic cups.  They said they were looking for the site with the best view.  Norm invited them to step up on the picnic table to get a great view of Limantour Beach and the “point”.  They asked about our other backpacking trips and eventually told us we were an inspiration.  We love to hear that at least once per trip.

May 20 – Back to the Car and on to Big Basin Redwoods

We hiked back down to the visitor’s center in about two hours via the Wittenberg Trail.  It is about 3 miles and we couldn’t imagine that couple carrying in that cabin tent or the “wine girls” their cooler up these trails.  We deduced that there must be a shorter, perhaps leveler trail to Sky camp.  Later we confirmed via map and car that the closest trail head is on the Sky trail from the Limantour Road.  That’s about 1.3 miles and surely more level.  Parking at the visitor center worked just fine for our whole itinerary, but not for those who are just camping at Sky. 

How could it get any better than… almost no food, 1 pint of water, cool of the morning, downhill?  We shaved and washed up at the car.  Rinsed out some clothes.  We then went into the visitor center.  They have some nice displays of the park.  We should have probably spent the time first instead of last.  We were reminded that Point Reyes is West of the San Andreas Fault.  It seems to be the only part of Marin County that is west of the Fault, and in fact has no geologic similarity to the rest of the county.  To find its “origin”, one must travel down to Monterey Bay, where the “point” was about five million years ago. 

Just to avoid backtracking, Norm chose Route 1 to get back to the bridge.  This would probably have been a fine idea on a week day, but on Sunday, Route 1 is narrow, windy and full of bikes and even more full of cars.  How the bikers survive is a mystery.  After crossing the bridge there was a crazy backup through Golden Gate Park.  After that the traffic flowed more normally.  Once on I280, we got hungry so Jerry picked a random exit to find food.  All we found was homes, miles and miles of homes.  A friendly young man gave us directions back onto I280 and we didn’t get off again until our exit #24 at Sand Lake Road.  Eventually we got to the busiest intersection (35 meets 84) between San Francisco and L.A. where we found Alice’s Restaurant.  It was evidently a destination for bikers (bicyclists), bikers (motorcycles), and cars of all varieties.  “Whether it's garlic fries, a Jalopy burger, or a Mexican scramble, you can get anything you want ... at Alice's Restaurant.”  We called home.

The remainder of our trip is posted on this Blog under Big Basin Redwoods.

Where to go next?

If any of you have done 5-7 day backpacking trips, I would be interested in where and when. We are always looking for a new place to hike.
Criteria
1. Trip should be about 55-65 miles long with little to no road walking.
2. Weather needs to be dry 5 out of 7 days (on average)
3. We take our trip in April, May or June every year. Evenings need to be above 45 degrees.
4. We've done the Ozark Highlands Trail and 3 connecting trails in Georgia. We enjoyed both trips, but to be honest, about all we saw was trees. We enjoy some vistas or rock formations or something different and interesting.
5. If you can also get to the camp grounds or vistas by car, its not what we're looking for.
6. It needs to be in the United States.
7. Currently considering a trip here in Michigan along the North Country Trail and through the Pictured Rocks National Park.
We'd appreciate any suggestions you may have.

Ballad of Norm and Jerry

Sung to the tune of the Ballad of Jesse James
Norm and Jerry sought adventure
They were looking for a trip
Jerry said “Hey le-t’s backpack.”
They asked “Where shall we go?”
“Let’s walk down to the Colorado”
And the Grand Canyon tradition was born.


Chorus
Norm makes the plans, Jerry cooks without a pan.
Every year we eat freeze dried stroganoff.
Every trip is seven days and somewhere there’s a maze.
Come home safe and sound every time!


We train to 16 hills
Then we leave out all the frills
Do we really need the tent this year?
To the airport we go early
Air travel is so squirrely
Took 3 different planes one year.

We were stuck at Papago pitch
It was quite a fix.
We couldn’t find a way to climb.
We waited for a boat (pause)
Then we planned to float.
Said “screw it” and we climbed it anyway.



It was our second trip
The first day was blue chip
Hermit, Boucher, Ton-to to Slate.
The trail down Slate was steep
Made for mountain sheep
We said No and headed back again.

Two couples came to raft
We rode inflatable craft
Sturgis told u-s tall tales.
We slept on the ground
Privacy could not be found
Jan and Trina were great sports anyway.


Horn Creek had a massive wave
Norm’s raft could not be saved,
Lost glasses, hat and had a cold swim.
Lava Falls we had swimmers
But we all felt like winners.
George made it with on-ly one oar.

We had been to Tanner twice
The routine was so nice
But we forgot the T-SA
When it ca-me time to cook
For matches we did look
Making sparks was the best that we could do.



The feds were making catches,
Luckily they gave us matches.
Yes, they sav-ed our trip.
And if it was our first
You might understand the thirst
But we did Beamer 4 ye-ars before.

The guide book mentioned brush
How could it be so lush?
Merlin - more than we had bargained for
Cactus needles in our hands
No trails across these lands
Ponderosa spring must be here somewhere.



The route Jim found amazing
At the river, his knee was blazing,
Jimmie got a helicopter ride.
We kept half his tent
And we kept half his clothes.
He had to make do with the Lost and Found.

Preseason if you please,
With snow above our knees
We post holed to the North Rim
Over Utah Flats we cruised
And swam through Phantom pools
Rim to rim to ri-m is so cool.


On Kanab number two,
Johnny had the flu (pause)
We didn’t mind that boat ride anyway.
We, on number three, refrained
until the ankle sprained
That’s the only thing we tried but could not do.

Grand Canyon we love most,
Second place is the Lost Coast
Northern California is the place.
On the beach we walked
Giant elk we stalked
W-e loved the low tide wild life.


We crossed the Gila River
At night we had to shiver
The trail brought us to the Indian Ruin.
The stove was barely working
Starvation surely lurking
Jerry found a way to nurse it to the end.

On the Ozark Highlands Trail
We climbed o’r hill and dale
Ev’ry night we check-ed for ticks.
At first we smelled the smoke
Then thick enough to choke
We finally stepped right through the open flame.


On the Georgia Loop (pause)
We met quite a troupe
A fellow with a day pack and a dog.
We got so sick of rain
It was such a pain
We left our packs and hitch hiked in a truck.

At pictographs we looked
Where Anasa-zi cooked
How did Kirk get that buckboard to his ranch?
We bushwacked to the Green
It became an ugly scene
No matter where we looked there was no trail.


Norm hikes every spring
Bonnie can live with that thing,
as long as he takes her now and then.
At the North Rim we began
Walked across the silver span.
Bonnie hiked across the Grand Can-yon.

Nanc’ and Amy were so sad
They wanted to hike with dad
Nan-c’ said I ha-ve vacation days.
The permit said Clear Creek
Jerry said “It is too bleak.”
Piano Alley to the Promised Land.

Bonnie’s poles we employed.
Cool weather we enjoyed.
Lawrence gave us inspiration
Tonto Trail is on the edge
This Jerry would allege
Down Tanner he would rather skateboard.

Started at Point Reyes
Best camp sites of our days
Strangers in Sky 10
Redwoods and waterfalls
Big Basin has them all
and there we shared a spoon.

This year Jerry will go light
Every ounce he’ll fight
at Big Ag-nes he will draw the line.
If we take the UV light
Giardia will be a fright.
His pack will wei-gh 50 pounds again.




This song may have no end
Every year a verse is penned
We wonder when we’ll stop
Norm just keeps finding places
We tighten up our laces
And climb those 16 hills again.

Every verse of this song
Has its own story long
We can’t tell the details with tune
If you have a while
We’ll tell each with a smile
Stories let us live it all again.




Chorus
Norm makes the plans, Jerry cooks without a pan.
Every year we eat freeze dried stroganoff.
Every trip is seven days and somewhere there’s a maze.
Come home safe and sound every time!

Tanner, Escalante, Tonto, Grand View Trails

April/May 2011
Photos available at https://picasaweb.google.com/7days6nights/GcTanner2011

Down Tanner – We awoke at the Red Feather Inn, Tusayan AZ, at 5:00. Had McDonalds for breakfast. Norm dropped Jerry and the packs at Lipan Point at 7:15. Norm was hitch hiking with his Lipan Point sign from Grand View by 7:30. Had a chance to maybe talk a fellow into giving him a ride almost immediately but did not try. Norm practiced the appeal he should have used as he walked about two miles. He eventually waited near the first place a car could pull off the road. A pickup came from the opposite direction and turned around in the side road. The driver invited Norm to climb in. He had just dropped his wife off for a trip down New Hance Trail. He knew from the Lipan Point sign that Norm was a backpacker. He came back specifically to give Norm a ride and apologized that he hadn’t picked him up on the first pass but his truck was full at that point. He had been a river boatman for a couple decades. He is 71 years old and had spent over 10% of his life below the rim. He had done more than 180 trips, including one with an Arizona governor.

The rim temperatures were forecast to be below freezing and we had sweatshirts but it was very pleasant that morning so we left our sweatshirts on the rim. We started down the Tanner Trail at 8:50. The trail has many switchbacks and is full of rocks, large and small, to climb over or slide down. We took two breaks before the saddle. We stopped for lunch under a shady tree on the traverse around Escalante Butte. Norm didn’t like the looks of the mayo he mixed with his tuna so he ate beef jerky instead. After finishing the traverse around Cardenas Butte we went down the Redwall break. It is not as steep or loose as Norm remembered it. (He didn’t have a stick the first time.) (The first section of Tanner, through the Kaibab, Toroweap, and Coconino down to the saddle, may be the most difficult portion.) Once you start down the Redwall the trail remains reasonably steep through the Muav too. Met two parties of two fellows coming up. One was going to camp just above the Redwall. Temperatures were pretty cool and did not exceed 85 dry degrees.

We camped on a nice flat spot overlooking the trail about 200 vertical feet above the start of the Dox. We stopped for the day at 4:20. There was one camp site between our site and the Dox, where there are no flat spots. We dropped our packs and walked down the trail into the shade and rested until the shade reached our site. We had reached the river on day one on two other trips, but were satisfied to stop when we did. Had stroganoff for dinner and played trivia until 7:30. It was already dark. Great stars tonight and all nights on this trip. Norm saw shooting stars every night. Temperature was cool so we basically wore just about everything we had with us. Socks, two shirts, long pants, stocking caps, and rain jackets. This was true for all subsequent nights. Maybe it would have been worth the weight to have those sweatshirts?

To the River and on to Cardenas Creek Beach – We awoke at 5:15 and were walking by 6:30. Much of this walk was in the shade, because of the time of day, which was nice. We arrived at Tanner Rapids at 8:00. We rinsed clothes, shaved, and filtered some water. Found a shady spot with a view of the rapids, and read for a while. Had lunch and started for Cardenas beach about noon. We arrived at the beach at about 1:30. Bathed and rinsed clothes again. About 3:00 a private boat party asked if they could share the beach. They offered beverages, dinner, and to take our trash. We agreed. Almost all were nice folks, but somehow boat parties always seem to feel they are rescuing backpackers. The question this year was “So, were we your last hope for a hot meal?” Answer, “No, we would have had something freeze dried, but it’s tough to get freeze dried lettuce salad.” They also had some beverages we weren’t carrying. They were mostly from the same family with a few friends and three hired boatmen. Most of the equipment was rented. They had originally requested a permit for a private boat trip 17 years ago, and it finally came through.

Around Escalante Butte – We awoke at 5:15 again and were walking by 6:15. Boat party offered coffee but we had already eaten breakfast and were on our way out of camp. It was windier than we had ever experienced in the Grand Canyon. On occasion it would blow us off the trail or force us to halt until the wind subsided again. Norm was thinking about traversing the Butte in wind like this. It seemed dangerous. (Our first trip had been very windy. We had to tie our hats to our packs because they continually blew off.) We again missed the trail to the Indian ruin, even though the river guide had told us it was a “must see”. We were pretty distracted by the wind. This may explain why we were so shocked to find ourselves within about 5 feet of the real edge overlooking Unker rapids. This is a huge drop and we knew the trail worked its way over from prior trips. It was still a shock when we realized how close we were. As usual, Jerry moved over about 20 feet.

We took a break in a sheltered water course, and from that point until we reached the western end of Escalante Butte, wind was thankfully not an issue. The Butte seemed to shelter us. The walk up to the eastern end of the Butte is pretty easy but once you arrive, there are moments of notable exposure. The most memorable example involves the three triangular stone steps of trail jutting out of the cliff wall between which there is only open space. Most of the rest of the Butte involves narrow sloping trails with Dox sandstone sloping above and below. The sheer drop off, if there is one, is below the Dox. There is a bit of boulder hopping in the middle as you cross some rock slides. There is more to hold onto here. The final portion of the Butte trail is sloping Dox again. The trail stays somewhat low and does not reach the end of the Butte until you are well beyond the end of the Tapeats that is perched on the top of the Butte. Norm thought we were almost done twice before we actually reached the nose of the Butte. The trail runs right down the nose for about 30 yards. There are breathtaking views upstream and downstream from there. On the backside of the Butte, the wind was strong again, but it was blowing us “into” the side of the Butte so we did not feel vulnerable. The trail seems to be taking you down right into the creek bed but it goes back up again after crossing the creek. There is a nice shady niche just past the creek crossing. We have had lunch there on all four trips. The trail eventually does go right down into the creek bed and is a fun walk down this slight slot canyon. It jumps out to the left to avoid a long pour off. The trail is steep again until it reaches the creek bed at the bottom. We arrived at the river at 12:15. It turned out that 6 hours was about our preferred work for the day for this and subsequent days. We could go as fast as we used to but not for as long each day.

There was a party of 4 who were resting at the river before they set out again in the direction we had come from. Somehow they didn’t know the trail went up the creek so they walked upstream down the beach into the scratchy, bushy stuff. After maybe an hour they came back and Jerry pointed them up the creek. We put out a cairn in the creek to help others in the future.

We read, washed, bathed, and shaved. We took a short walk down river but barely made it to 75 Mile Canyon before going back to camp. We took our books back up Escalante creek to find shade until the sun set. We had Hawaiian Chicken for dinner. Package asked for much too much water. We slept among the tammies. The beautiful beach was all washed away, again. Jerry personally encountered 5 mice.

75 Mile Canyon and Popago Pitch – Walking by 6:40. No hurry. Not many miles today but thrills and chills were anticipated. We reached the “go down” point in 75 Mile Canyon by 7:30. We decided to go up 75 Mile Canyon further. We walked about a half hour until we were blocked by a pour off. It wasn’t very high but the bottom receded and we couldn’t get a foot “hold”. Jerry tried piling stones and Norm tried to jam a log but neither approach worked. It looked like someone may have climbed a vertical route on the right, but it didn’t look like fun. By 8:30 we were back at our packs at the “go down” point. For perhaps the first time in our Grand Canyon experience we chose a spot in the sun to rest. It was too cold in the shade. We enjoyed a slow walk down to the river. 75 Mile Canyon is Jerry’s favorite spot in the Canyon.

We took the beach route towards Papago Pitch. It goes high at the end but that’s how it always seems to go in the Canyon. We were at the Pitch by 10:00. We decided to hang out there for a while to break up the day. We walked down river to see if the beach beyond the eddy was far or near, as it had been in 1991. It was far. There is no way we would consider swimming against the eddy current now. Norm climbed the pitch without a pack while Jerry took pictures for this blog. We read, napped, and ate lunch. Jerry finished his book, so Norm cut his book in half, giving Jerry the first half so Jerry would have something to read while Norm could still finish the book.

We climbed the pitch about noon. Norm showed Jerry how to take the easy route to the left at the top but Jerry thought it had too much exposure, so he, again, went up the center, even at the top. There are no hand holds, so he lunged and Norm pulled him up by his pack. We worked our way up and to the right but Norm couldn’t get up through the crack in the bolder. Jerry showed it could be done and Norm made it on his second try. Jerry started down the scree slope before we noticed there was a party coming up. They took cover and waited for us to come down. The route is pretty well worn now but is no more fun than it was in 1991. Norm put his telescoping pole on his pack for most of this descent. We settled our pulses at the bottom in a wonderful shady spot before climbing through the tammies over to Hance Rapids. Even though this was our fourth time over these obstacles, they got our hearts pumping and the adrenaline flowing.

We were alone at the north end of the beach at Hance Rapids and eventually camped there. There is a nice “kitchen” with a bench and plenty of “tables” for the stove, etc. There are about 400 square yards of nice soft sand to sleep on. We walked down to see the rapids. There is a whole lot of turbulence going on, and it goes on for about a half mile. Looks like no matter what side you start on, you have to cross the river to avoid something very bad. We saw what looked like an approaching cloud and started to get our stuff ready for rain but it didn’t move toward us and eventually dissipated completely. At the end it looked more like smoke from the North Rim, which corresponds to a controlled burn plan. We ate Mesquite Chicken. It was very tasty. Bed by 8:00. Coldest night yet. No mice encountered. Clear skies again.

From Hance Rapids to Hance Creek – We awoke at 5:30. Ravens were hanging around to see if they could rob our packs of something. Walking by 6:45. We found monument sized cairns at the north end of the beach. Yes, the trail goes up right away. The first hour is quite rugged with boulder fields and steep gullies to cross. The incline of the climbing decreases and the trail gets less rugged through Hakatai shale. We met a younger fellow whose companion had cancelled at the last moment. He was doing our trip in the opposite direction.

He made a big deal about our retro Jansport packs. We had to admit we were not early adopters of new technology. We stuck with good old fashioned canteens with shoulder straps until 2007, when we switched to camelbacks. We never adopted Nalgene bottles at all. Used wooden sticks until this year when it would have cost an extra $70.00 to get them on the planes, so we brought Norm’s wife’s collapsible aluminum sticks. Jerry talks about buying a UV light water filter but Norm basically refuses to trust it. Jerry tried an internal frame pack on two trips but without the 5 extra zippered pouches on the outside he could never find anything. He found a “retro” Jansport on EBay this spring. We used big, heavy LP gas stoves until 2006 when we got our first Jetboil Zip stove.

Eventually the trail passes through the Tapeats sandstone and then is perched near the edge of the abyss of Hance Creek for another hour plus. The trail is on Bright Angel Shale about 4 sloping feet from the edge but it seemed to be “right on the edge” to Jerry who doesn’t like heights. We arrived at Hance Creek at 12:30. We rested on some shady Tapeats ledges and then chose a camp site amongst the other parties who were already set up. I don’t think any of us could see the others from our respective sites. Norm finished reading the last page of his book just as Jerry finished the “first half”. Norm then started Jerry’s book. What a team.

After dinner, Lawrence came over from his site. He was hearing a noise he couldn’t identify and thought it was coming from our direction. Jerry heard it too. We never figured it out but agreed it was coming from the creek. Lawrence was 69 and doing the Grand View, Escalante, Tanner trip by himself. He had a SPOT emergency alert device in case he had a true emergency. We talked about the misuse of these devices. He hopes to keep backpacking for another 4 years in order to “beat” his regular companion who is older and who had retired from backpacking. We discussed Nankoweap, which we had all done.

Norm had an Outsak wire food bag which is basically pest proof. He hung it very near Jerry’s sleeping spot. Jerry thought he heard some gnawing but there was no visual evidence of any intrusion in the morning. When Norm got home, he washed out his gorp zip lock and found many “pin” holes, probably from that same evening.

We played trivia again. We were not very successful with American Presidents as we had been unsuccessful with artists and authors on previous nights. This was the coolest night yet. Norm wore two pairs of socks on this feet with his pants tucked into his socks and another pair of socks on his hands. It’s hard to turn pages in a book with socks on your hands.

Hance Creek to Grand View Overlook – Up at 5:20. Walking by 6:37. First part of the hike is perched on the edge of the abyss again, then the trail turns left and works its way up towards Page Spring. The Tonto Trail continues to the right on around Horseshoe Mesa. We had planned to add water at the spring but we deciced we had enough. The trail to the spring is “right on the edge”, so Jerry didn’t mind that change of plan. The trail up to Horseshoe Mesa was not as difficult as Norm remembered it. He had clear visions of huge step-ups that went on for an hour. There were only a few such huge steps. He had forgotten the narrowness of certain bits of the trail. There are a few Redwall switchbacks that are very narrow and thus exposed. It would not be a trivial “walk in the park” to go down from the Mesa to get water at Page Spring. We were on the Mesa by 9:00 and left the at 9:30. The trail to the rim was more difficult than we remembered but last time, we started from the Mesa, not from Hance Creek. It is more “on the edge” than we remembered. Jerry said he would rather go down Tanner on a skateboard than climb out Grand View again. Norm felt just the opposite. We had lunch with us but Norm was motivated by the thought of a salad at the Desert View snack bar, so we just pressed on. We arrived at the rim at 1:00 PM. We had that salad and then viewed much of our trip from the Tower overlook. We then got another room at the Red Feather Inn, and had our traditional steak dinner with plenty of side dishes at the steak house in Tusayan.

Dripping Springs Day Hike – After having breakfast, and taking the shuttles, we started down the Hermit Trail at 8:40. The temperature was cool and going down was wonderful. We eventually zipped off the bottoms of our trousers. We encountered a few parties starting or finishing multi-day hikes. We followed the signs to Dripping Springs. At the first fork the other trail is the Hermit Trail which goes down to Hermit Camp and the river. After the split there were about 30 minutes of the trail being “right on the edge”, and this time there were no 4 feet of sloping shale. This trail is truly right on the edge in the Hermit Shale. Eventually the trail leaves the edge and goes back up to the spring, which drips out of an overhang in the Coconino Sandstone. (Another trail continues on the edge over to Boucher Creek.) The overhang provides plenty of shade at mid day. We arrived at 10:50. We had lunch in the shade. Jerry filtered water from the spring for our walk back out.

We started back at 11:40. The hike up seems to be about 80% Coconino Sandstone and only about 20% limestone. It seemed like we’d never got out of the sandstone. We encountered many day hikers going down and passed a few going up. We were happy that we had done most of our hiking early. There was a couple who were hiking up in jeans. Norm said under those circumstances, he would be tempted to hike in his underwear to get out of jeans. We were motivated by thoughts of cool Coke at the Hermit’s Rest snack bar this time. We arrived at the rim at 2:08, an elapsed time of 2:28 which we thought compared pretty favorably to the 2:10 it took to go down. We had our Coke, took the shuttle back to the car and drove down to Phoenix, with a stop in Flagstaff for a salad bar at the Sizzler.

Canyonlands, Needles District and Arches, Utah

May 18 – 26, 2010

Resources

• Utah’s Incredible Backcountry Trails by David Day, Rincon Publishing, Orem UT
• Canyonlands National Park Favorite Jeep Roads & Hiking Trails by David Day, Rincon Publishing, Orem UT
• Needles District Trails Illustrated Map, National Geographic
• NPS Website - http://www.nps.gov/cany/index.htm
• NPS Map - http://www.nps.gov/cany/planyourvisit/upload/tripmap.pdf

Fly and Drive to Canyonlands – Flew to Denver. This meant more miles to drive but due to flight schedules, it meant we could arrive at Cayonlands over an hour sooner. Flight was only about 30% full out of Detroit and only about 60% full out of Chicago. By the time Jerry and Norm got to baggage claim, John already had all the bags gathered up. Luckily, Norm caught the bag of hiking sticks disappearing in the ski carousel out of the corner of his eye. Fortunately for us, Alamo allowed us to select a nice big Chrysler mini-van for the price of a full sized car. This made it so much easier to get stuff in and out of our packs when in camp. Renting the car through Costco gave us a 15% discount but much more valuable, it gave us a second driver free, saving us about 200 dollars. We arrived in Moab by mid afternoon so we had an early supper (Pasta Jay’s), bought butane (Gear Heads), and bottled water. Then there was still about 80 miles to go to get to the actual national park. We stayed at the private camp ground just outside the park, Needles Outpost. We had a reservation and they had a site literally with our name on it. We slept under the stars.

Campsite EC1, Chesler Park and the Joint Trail – We got our actual permit at the visitor’s center. The system at Canyonlands is you get a reservation for your campsites and use areas but you do not get your actual permit in the mail, like you do at the Grand Canyon. You get your permit at the visitor center before starting your hike. We parked the car at the Elephant Hill parking lot. We planned to hike out to EC1 and leave our packs, and then hike unencumbered around Chesler Park. We would hike on to the Colorado the next day, so we had to carry an extra gallon of water over those first few miles to EC1.

We reached EC1, dropped our packs, hung our food, made up day packs and were hiking again by 11:00. Between the parking lot and Chesler Park, there are many ups and downs. It was nice to do some of it without the packs. We enjoyed seeing and pointing out all the various shapes of sandstone which look like something, animals or people. To get to Chesler Park, go until you are at King Kong’s foot and turn left to go up and over. Jerry saw aliens everywhere, every day.

Once in Chesler Park we followed the signs to the Joint Trail. As we descended, three young ladies told us that people go in but no one comes out. Sounded ominous. The Joint Trail; what fun. So narrow, and it gets deeper and deeper.

At the West end we enjoyed Cairn Temple. More cairns in one place than we’ve ever seen. Taller and more elaborate. They actually confuse the route a bit. When you get to Cairn Temple make a 90 degree turn (right if you’re going west. Left if you’re going east).

After the Joint Trail we followed the signs towards Druid Arch, watching the map. The signs at trail intersections in Cayonlands are the best we have experienced in our 20 years of hiking; clear, consicse with distances. The trail descends into a water shed which leads out to Druid Arch. We had planned to make DA optional, so we talked it over at that point. We decided we had enough day left and maybe enough energy but we did not have enough water, and no filter to clean the water near the Arch. We followed the water shed in the opposite direction and it took us right back to EC1. We were happy enough to be done for the day and found shade in which to rest before dinner. Slept under the stars.

EC1 to the Colorado River – The plan was to hike through the Lower Red Canyon down to the Colorado River, then down the river to the Confluence with the Green, then to take a trail described in a book up to the rim and hike on jeep trails back to the car, a 3 day loop. We had to retrace some of yesterday’s steps but this time with full packs. Go to King Kong’s foot but turn right, not left. Follow the sign to Devil’s Kitchen, Jeep Camp. At one point we had to take our packs off and carry them as we were all bent over, to get under a very low spot. Since we had the packs off and it was shady, we took our first break there.

Second stop was right at Devil’s Kitchen, after about 2.5 hours. The perfect break spot. Completely flat and level sandstone under the shade of a big tree. We then walked a half mile of jeep road which lead us to the first open meadow and a trail that lead directly to a vertical face. The trail hugged the edge as it worked its way up to the top of the first graben (long, narrow butte), then descended into the next meadow. Basically, the rest of the day was repeating this three more times. In the three final grabens, it looks like you might get to walk through rather than over but alas, due to chock stones and pour offs in the creek beds, the trail always goes over. The final descent not only takes you back down the final graben but includes the whole descent to the level of the Colorado River. We called this stretch the stairs. You can see the nice level trail at the bottom of a very long time as you pick your way down.

The trail is as rugged as any marked trail in the Grand Canyon but is reasonably easy to follow. Near the leveling off point we took a break in the limited shade of a tree and a slanted boulder. We later took a longer break in the shade of a large sandstone overhang. At that point we were also waiting for the sun to get lower in the sky to minimize our exposure at our river camp site. The final hour is mostly loose sand. The trail actually leads you away from the mouth of the water shed and back east towards the confluence. We were not sure where we would be able to get through the Tamarisk to reach the river. We concluded that going east wasn’t helpful, so we backtracked and found a path down into the water shed, which leads to a wonderful sandy beach campsite.

The river bottom is firm and does not drop off quickly, so it was a great spot for a dip and a shave. The water is silty so we let it settle out in the bucket. We filtered Colorado River water for three days and eventually clogged one of our two filters. There was a party of canoes across the river at Spanish Bottom, waiting to be picked up by the jet boat.

Upstream to the Confluence – Norm had been inspired, over 20 years ago, to visit Canyonlands, by the passage in J.W. Powell’s journal about reaching the confluence of the Green and the Colorado. He wanted to get to the actual confluence or at least to an overlook. This would be the day that goal would finally be achieved. The walk began on a clear, firm trail. Eventually the trail gets harder to follow in the overgrowth. It then gets braided, i.e. multiple parallel trails. We saw the jet boat picking up canoes and saw the warning sign about Cataract Canyon. As the trail reaches the actual confluence, it pretty much disappears. The rock falls extend all the way to the Tamies and the going gets more and more difficult and scratchier. Either crawl through the bushes or climb over the rocks. We tried both. At the confluence there is no break in the Tamies.

 We had a permit to camp in the Needles North use area so we had to continue at least a mile east of the confluence. When we could see the Slide across the river (around the bend), we finally crashed through the undergrowth and found an open flat spot for camping with access to the river.

All the time we worked our way east, we were looking up the rock wall to find a trail which was supposed to take us to the “rim” the next day. This trail is clearly described and mapped in the Utah’s Incredible Backcountry Trails book noted above. The description was written for someone starting above and coming down to the river but it indicates the trail is well cairned even down near the river. We were looking to the right to find this trail for the next day and looking to the left to find a break in the Tamies so we could get water and camp that evening. The campsite we found was right at the base of a very steep watershed. Norm hoped this was the watershed with the trail. He climbed up a hundred feet or so but did not find any cairns. Even at 100 feet the watershed had cliffed out on the left and looked like it could easily cliff out on the right a little higher up. He climbed back down. We had lunch, got some fresh water, rested and then Norm and Jerry went back west, to find that trail up to the “rim”. We walked back to within a third of a mile of the confluence and found no cairns and no trail that we believed would be safe or climbable with packs. The book indicated that the foot of the mystery trail was .9 miles from the confluence, but we wanted to exhaust all possibilities. We returned to camp. That night we ate freeze dried shepherd’s pie from Backpacker’s Pantry. It was very spicy and only John wanted seconds. Norm and Jerry were happy to let him have as much as he wanted. At this point, Norm’s longtime aspiration to “get to the confluence” was looking pretty dismal; no trail up, lousy campsite, lousy dinner. Tramping through the underbrush resulted in dozens (seemed like hundreds) of seeds being lodged in our socks and boots. It literally required at least 30 minutes per foot to rid ourselves of these embedded seeds.

Now What? – John was optimistic that given different lighting and a good night’s rest we would find the trail noted in the book. Norm wasn’t so sure and started discussing the real possibility of backtracking the two days. We did not have a freeze dried dinner for the extra night but we had plenty of snacks. We decided that the energy and time required to climb the watershed right next to the camping spot was unlikely to get us to the rim and would just wear us down and delay the other options. We walked back west carefully examining every possible route up. John said it best when he said, “I haven’t seen anything that doesn’t scare me to death.” We could see many ways to get high above the beach but all seemed to cliff out at some point where it would be too steep to climb, even if we pulled the packs up with John’s rope. We searched the most diligently at .9 miles from the confluence, but no trail revealed itself. As we had just about reached the confluence we saw several cairns in a rock fall. Norm started to get optimistic. We had just such a moment in Merlin’s Abyss several years before. One minute things looked bleak and the next minute life was good again. We climbed high above the last cairn that we could see and the cairns just ran out. Even the ones we found did not lead to each other or define a trail. We reluctantly started back to our beach at the foot of Red Lake Canyon. Our objective was to reach the beach, refuel, fill up with fresh water, and then late in the day, climb the “stairs” back up over the 4^th graben.

We reached the beach in good time. As we relaxed, people from a group of 25 trickled through our camp. They had started at Elephant Hill and come via the jeep roads. Their destination was Brown Betty Rapids. From there they would be transported via jet boat to a few more destinations. They all seemed very serious. We were little help regarding how to proceed down river. We suggested there must be a trail along the river just as there was one going up river. They left us and found various paths out of the watershed in search of their trail. None came back so we assume they found their trail.

We left camp at 5:30 and at 6:30 we had reached the bottom of the steps. The whole hour was walking in loose sand. It took another 1:15 hour to get to the top and back down to a level spot to camp. Since we had no freeze dried food, we didn’t fire up the stoves, but rather had tuna or chicken from envelopes.

Back to the Car – We climbed over the remaining grabens, took the jeep trail towards Devil’s Kitchen and then cut north on a one-way jeep trail.

We found it hard to believe that vehicles could negotiate the rough terrain and exposed rocks on the jeep trails. We had a chance to watch several overcome the obstacles of a section about half a mile from the parking lot. Jerry thought it looked like fun. A Jeep had an inverted decal which said “If you can read this flip us over”. Norm said he liked it. The passenger said it used to be funny until they got onto these roads.

We encountered some rangers and explained that we had deviated from our plan and thus our permit because we could not find that trail at the confluence. They apologized that we had not been warned about that trail. They explained the importance of staying on the permits and the plans that make that possible. One said, “Based on your experience, if there had been a trail, you guys would have found it.” If anyone who reads this blog has taken a trail that runs from the confluence overlook in the Needles District directly down to the river, up or down, I would be most curious to hear more about the trail. Please comment. I have provided details from the book to the park service and have written to the publisher describing our experience. (I was feeling sort of intimidated since I knew J.W. Powell had climbed from the river with only one arm. He did it on the North side of the rivers though.)

We drove the car back to Needles Outpost by 12:30 and set up camp again. We enjoyed the traditional ice cream and soda, and hot showers. It was extremely windy, to the extent that we could not even see the nearby rock outcroppings. We set up the tents and Jerry slept in the van.

Salt Creek Canyon – Originally, Norm had planned a narrow loop requiring us to cross over from the main Salt Creek Canyon over into the west fork. We’d camp in the west fork and have a day out of our packs to explore up around Angel Arch, camping at SC3. Then on the third day, we’d hike south in the main creek. We were now a day short and had already had enough “off trail” hiking. We changed the plan to a simple “out and back”, camping at SC3 per our permit and then retracing our steps back to the car.

We moved the car to Cathedral Butte. The sign from the paved road does not say Cathedral Butte or Salt Creek Trail. It says Beef Basin, which is well past the trail head. The road quickly crosses a creek. We could not see the bottom of the creek and the flow was substantial. Jerry took off his shoes and waded across to ensure we would not get stuck. (The warning for the Jeeps says towing bills are often $1,000. That figure got our attention.) The road is dirt and was very rutted but we did not fear getting stuck again. We encountered a first for us. There is a fence that crosses (yes crosses) the road. At first we thought we would not be able to get to the trail head. As Norm pulled closer we read the sign on the fence, “Please close after passing”. John jumped out and opened and then closed the fence/gate behind us. The trail head is about 15 miles away from the paved road.

We were hiking by 9:30. It was very cool and we all started in long pants and sweat shirts. We didn’t need to drink as much or stop as often to rest. We hiked down for about an hour before it started to level off. After reaching the bottom we encountered something unusual, a marsh in the desert, complete with cat tails.

We enjoyed looking at Kirk’s cabin but kept asking, “How did he get that buckboard down here?” And “How did he get supplies from Moab?”

The trail takes you about as close as is practical to each of the “sights” including

· Pictograph on the right

· Stream/Spring

· Kirk’s Cabin

· Kirk’s Fence

· Anasazi Ruin on the right.

Views of Kirk’s Arch on the left.

· Extensive Anasazi Ruin (Big Ruin) on the left. Getting close is a bit of chore. Getting back is even more of a challenge due to the braided trails. “Did we come this way?”

· Anasazi Ruin on the right.

· Wedding Ring Arch on the right.

· Anasazi Ruin on the left. This one has self seeding squash going all the way back to the original Anasazi squash.

· Fisheye arch on the right.

 All American Man Pictograph with Anasazi Ruin on the right. It is hard to get a picture without climbing a little bit.

· Shortcut through a crack in the rocks. Watch for cairns on a tree branch.
· Four Faces Pictograph on the right.
· Stream/Spring
· Camp SC3.

We found the description in the Canyonlands National Park Favorite Jeep Roads and Hiking Trails book to be extremely accurate and helpful.

We knew from the weather posting at the Visitor Center that it was going to get down to freezing that night. Norm carried his tent just for this occasion. Jerry wore every piece of clothing he brought and slept under the stars.

Back to the Car (again) –Jerry’s bottle had ice in it and Norm’s Camelback didn’t work because there was ice in the tube. We enjoyed our coffee and Oatmeal. We started hiking at 7:15. We expected to reach SC1/2 near Kirk’s cabin at about 1:00 but since we had already seen all the sights and taken most of the pictures we reached SC1/2 at 9:45 with one break. We took a break there and topped off our bottles at the spring and were headed back across the marsh at 11:00. We found a shady spot in a dry creek bed for lunch. We reached the car at 2:00.

We had salad and steak or pizza in Moab. We then drove up to Arches where we had a reservation in the Devil’s Garden campground. We spent about 40 minutes in the visitor center and watched the movie. The drive to the campground required about a half hour. No showers but very clean rest rooms. Skyline Arch was within an easy walk of our camp site.

Arches – John went to see the Broken Arch and Tapestry Arch

while Norm and Jerry walked the Devil’s Garden Trail which begins with the 300 foot long Landscape Arch and then passes 6-7 other arches.

This trail requires hiking boots or at least good athletic shoes. Doing it in flip-flops would be a bad idea. There is quite a bit of scrambling and walking across angled surfaces. It was great fun especially with only day packs. We completed it in about 4 hours. Few people passed us.

We spent the afternoon driving back to Denver. Just 90 minutes before we arrived back in town there was a huge hail storm near our hotel. Six inches of hail fell, breaking car windshields and totally wrecking some cars. Glad we missed all that.