Zion - Observation Point

The top of the white peak is Observation Point.

Observation Point is another milestone hike.....high on the East Rim of Zion, the trail ends on a slender peninsula overhanging the valley floor.....its an 8 mile/5 hour climb of 2,148 feet. I'm on a roll....lots of energy...making a long hike and sometimes 2 a day!! It's so incredibly beautiful and the trail system is amazing! More slot canyons to hike through and more views of the valley floor.. A multi-colored bee...lots of fauna and flora in the canyon...

The Moon was coming up just as I was finishing the hike.
Love that zoom...you can even see the craters on the moon!!

Free Camping near Zion

There is a really nice Free campsite about 5 miles west of Zion at mile marker 24....it's good too because the Park campgrounds are Full, crowded and expensive! This place is on BLM land right on the Virgin River...the locals call it Sandy Flats or Mosquito Flats...I haven't seen any mosquitoes..but there were some flies today.....It's a cottonwood bottom on a large sand bar.....I am very careful where I park as the sand is super soft.
I am literally about 10 feet from the bank....AND I get cell phone and Internet reception!!! It sure makes updating the Blog a lot more fun when I can do it with the sound of a rushing river and a view of red cliffs in the not too far distance.

The campground is large and mostly empty during the day with a few campers coming in the evening..........several horse trailers stopped here last night.

I think I will head south tomorrow....the North Rim of the Grand Canyon is only a few hours away....depends on the weather....I may just go on to Sedona, Arizona where my brother lives as the Full Moon drum session will be happening this weekend!

Zion - Angels Landing

Angel's Landing is a 1488 foot climb up to the summit overlooking Zion Canyon. There is a series of switchbacks on 2 faces of the cliffs. The first series look like the Great Wall of China....

The trail blends into the rock but if you look closely you will see little dots of people... Then the trail passes through Refrigerator Canyon...when I stopped, I could hear frogs inside the canyon. Then one approaches a set of 21 switchbacks named Walter's Wiggles named after the 1st Superintendent of the Park...he designed them and I think the CCC built them..still can't get a straight story on that. However I am appreciative of the trail as I would never come up here if it weren't for the easy path! Then just when you think you are at the top, you look over and you have a very narrow ridge to cross and a peak to climb! The guy standing under the pine tree is looking at other people on the ridge...there is a chain for holding on to...thank goodness!!This is NOT a time to look down!

Once on the top we acted silly and tried to pose like the Karate Kid.....heights do something to your brain......the wind was way too strong for me to lift my leg very high plus I was wearing a skirt and it wasn't very lady like.......Troy did a much better rendition.

View of the Virgin River and the road from the top. These are the 2 guys I hiked with....we all met on the trail....Troy who lives here and Tom from Germany......then Troy invited us to his house for a game of Dominoes and a locally brewed beer....Springdale Amber Ale....I whipped them in Dominoes!

Angel's Landing in the background!

Zion - The Narrows

My first morning in Zion National Park, I hiked "The Narrows" with a guy I had met in Yellowstone and who just so happened to be in the same campground I was! Hiking the Narrows means wading up the Virgin River through Navajo Sandstone walls. The water was 63°, which after 5 hours of walking in it with NO sun is COLD...my feet were numb. This is a popular hike so there are lots of folks along the way, most have rented footgear (neoprene hiking boots with ankle support) at $20....I was doing it in my Chaco sandals which were fine, but certainly offered no warmth!

Most of the time the water was anke or calf deep, but a couple times it was waist deep. I was glad to have pants that dried quickly!

We hiked a little past where Orderville Canyon meets the Virgin River.....the water got swifter and the canyon walls closed in......made you feel very small and vulnerable....this is where some hikers died a few years ago when a sudden flash flood came as there is no way to go up!The trail begins with a one mile hike along the river on a paved trail, the chance to do the Narrows opens and most people turn back.

Home maintenance

On the way to Salt Lake City the Van started running rough and the Check Engine light came on....it was a Sunday and the only shop open that had a diagnostic tool was Firestone....sooo....turns out it was #3 spark plug gone bad and caused its coil to go bad....so it was past due for the 100,000 mile tune-up.....and she was letting me know it! In order to get to the rear of the engine on a van requires taking the console out from the inside. It was like Van Anatomy class 101........am back on the road with a finely tuned home on wheels!!

Capitol Reef National Park

"A giant, sinuous wrinkle in the Earth's crust stretches for 100 miles across south-central Utah." It is a place where Indians hunted and farmed for more than a 1000 years and later where the Mormon pioneers settled.

Life is abundant along the Fremont River that passes through here and especially here in Fruita where there are productive FRUIT ORCHARDS left from the tiny Mormon community in 1880-1969. One can enter the unlocked, fenced orchards and consume as much as you like....if you want to take some with you, there are scales with a small donation box.....

There are approximately 2700 trees of cherries, apricots, peaches, pears and apples...Apples were abundant at this time and I could not believe how many were just laying on the ground...I picked 7 pounds of those as they were the most ripe! And delicious....there were several varieties of red and green ones......I am still eating on those apples!

We didn't do any real hiking here other than up to lookout points and such.

Camping in the Desert

This is probably my most favorite camping spot of the entire trip!!! Way off the beaten path, about 5 miles from a paved road.....only traffic that went by was 3 dirt bikes in 2 days.....and the weather was perfect with a half moon....I think I liked the fact that one could be so free in such an OPEN space....I had the feeling that we were the only ones on earth!...as you can see not a good source for firewood......as there were NO trees...we did have a couple sticks of wood, but mostly we burned dry cow patties!!! They burn really well.

The next morning sunrise was exquisite....putting out a really nice glow! Desert camping at its finest! Factory Butte in the distance.

Glen Canyon

We cut across the north end of Glen Canyon and Lake Powell, crossing the Colorado River just below Cataract Canyon........You can see the metal arch bridge we crossed... We are still in Red Rock country.

Natural Bridges National Monument

Natural Bridges National Monument in southern Utah can be seen by driving a 9 mile loop...there are 3 Bridges, about an hour hike from the road to each one...The Owachoma Bridge from 3 perspectives....Height is 106 feet, Span is 180 feet.
The difference in a Bridge and an Arch is that Bridges are formed by the erosive action of moving water whereas Arches are formed by other erosional forces, mainly frost action and seeping moisture as I saw in Arches National Park in east-central Utah.

The Sipapu Bridge

The Kachina Bridge.

As we were driving out, there was a rattlesnake in the road that had just been run over...it was still alive......a rock to the head put him out of his misery......I am now the owner of the 5 Rattler tail. Also is a reminder that I am back in Poisionous snake territory...makes a huge difference in the way one hikes...here you have to watch every step.....up North, like Yellowstone, there are no venemous snakes so you can walk anywhere without having to look down all the time....you just have to be constantly scanning for bears!! Not sure which one is better???