Last saturday I returned from the great vacation to visit John and the canyonlands. Once again I was absolutely blown away by the beauty, the apparent solitude, the adventure and granduer I found in the canyons of Utah.
We spent our first five days in Dark Canyon. Although we abandoned our technical loop plans on the second day, we still had a great time daytripping up and down the canyons. We spent our first night on the trail under a tarp during a windy and rainy thunderstorm. Welcome to the canyon! Amazingly, the night was not all that uncomfortable, once I was sure that the tarp was well staked down and was not going to blow off. The second day in the canyon, we attempted to climb up and out of Dark Canyon per our planned loop, but gave up when we discovered our packs were too heavy and our will too weak. When planning the hike I definately underestimated the difficulty of steep off-trail hiking and climbing with a 7-day comfort pack (minus tent). So instead, we hiked back up canyon to a great cottonwood wash and made camp for the next couple of nights. On the third day we hiked down canyon again and continued on to Cataract Canyon and the mighty brown Colorado River. We also did a short trip up a side canyon which involved a little climbing.
On the fourth day we spent 13.5 hours hiking and running a little up Lean-To Canyon. We accomplished our goal of going nearly all the way up canyon from the Dark - Lean-To confluence to the airstrip on top of Middle Point. This was one of the most amazing days of exploration I have ever had. We started early in the morning but were turned back after an hour of hiking when we encountered a 200 to 300 foot high dry waterfall at canyon bottom. Once again I (or maybe we) had done a poor job of planning and guidebook reading. We had missed the description which clearly stated that we should take the trail high on the canyon shelf. We backtracked to the confluence and hiked up over the obstacle. This dry waterfall / obstacle was amazing as the dry riverbed was absolutely flat like a road up until the drop off which was steeper than vertical. I took several photos, one of which is shown to the left, but no camera can adequately convey the scale and verticality of this feature.
Anyway, our high ledges detour directed us back into the bottom of the canyon where we travelled up the slickrock floor of the canyon. We passed through an absolutely gorgeous spring area with hanging gardens and large cottonwood trees. In a few locations we followed small trails or footprints up onto ledges in order to bypass some additional drops (dry waterfalls) and pools.
When it appeared that we were nearing the upper end of the canyon we struck out on a course up and out of the canyon. Using the GPS, map and compass we guesstimated our position and set out for the airstrip which was located on top of the plateau. I have to admit I was a little amazed when John spotted a plane parked in some trees near a clearing. After reconnoitering the airstrip and walking down the nearby dirt road for awhile we decided to backtrack to camp. I only wish we would have had the time and energy to run out the dirt road and continue north until we were directly above the rim of the Colorado River. Based upon the map I can just imagine that the vista from this point, near Middle Point, is awesome!
The following day we packed up and hiked out of Dark Canyon, up the "appallingly long talus slope." Although it only took 45 minutes to go up the talus slope to exit the canyon, it truly was one of the hardest hikes I have ever done. Because of the steepness of the slope and the heavy loads this climb was like ascending a rickety ladder with a gorilla on your back. My legs were shaking by the time we crested the top of the slope.
After loading up the car and finishing off the warm beer we set out with the intention of exploring the Maze in Canyonlands National Park. We stopped in Hanksville on the way back north had a greasy hamburger dinner, picked up some gas, and beer. Unfortunately, we only got a six pack. Note to self and to John: always buy two or three times as much beer as you think you will need when heading into the hot desert (also get more water!). We drove into the BLM / Glen Canyon Recreation Area land which is west of Canyonlands NP. We found a car camp spot just outside the park and spent a very cold night out, on the high plateau. It definately got below freezing as water in the water bottles froze.
The next morning we checked in at the ranger station and inquired as to our options for seeing the Maze. We were informed that we would either need a higher clearance vehicle or we would need to hike at least 14 miles just to get to the Maze. Since we only had a couple more days we decided to check out the alternatives in the BLM area just west of the park.
Our first day hike in this vast, and nearly visitorless, playground was down Bluejohn canyon, the canyon made famous by Aron Ralston's infamous day trip. Recall that Aron Ralston got his hand stuck while descending Bluejohn and spent several days waiting for a rescue before cutting off his hand with a pocketknife. This alone was enough to make us want to check out the canyon. Is that a little sick and twisted? Anyway we were not sure quite where to go to get into the upper north bluejohn canyon (and this descent would require a rappel) so we started down west bluejohn canyon. We made it through a short narrows with a little overly dramatic downclimbing on my part. It must have taken me 1/2 an hour to make a couple exposed moves on top of a dirty sloping bench before I joined John at the bottom of the slot. After this shallow slot the canyon opened up and joined with the north canyon. We continued down canyon and were soon in the infamous narrow slot canyon where Ralston spent several days. I don't have alot of experience with slot canyons, but I have to say this was an absolutely spectacular and a little technical canyon. It was extremely fun and a little challenging squeezing through and clambering over boulders in this slot where it became so dark that we had to put on our headlamps! After awhile we came to a vertical drop with a small pool below. It was obvious that this was the end of the narrows as the canyon looked like it was widening below the drop. I also knew from reading Ralston's book that this was the final rappel before the hike out in Horseshoe Canyon. Since we didn't have a shuttle to take us back to our starting point we did not put ourselves in a non-retreatable position by rappeling down the drop. We backtracked to the car. Because we got back to the car so early, around 4:30 we packed up and sped over to the Horseshoe Canyon trailhead to hike up from the other end.
Horseshoe Canyon has a large parking lot and obviously is a well-visited area due to the ancient rock art. In fact, the actual canyon is located within a satellite area of the national park. Around 5 or 5:30 pm we left the car and ran down into the canyon hoping to see as much of the rock art as we could before it got dark. This was a brilliant idea, because we had the entire canyon to ourselves. Before long we found the first of a couple of major rock art or pictograph sites. At the Great Gallery I was blown away by how extensive and varied the art was. We pondered the meanings behind the rock art as the entire canyon bottom faded into shadows. It was a truly mystical and a little bit haunting to be so near to such old and strange figures. Some of the art figures were reportedly created up to 4,000 years ago! We hiked out of the canyon in the dark under a cloudless and absolutely star-filled sky.
After a night car camping at the Horeseshoe Canyon parking lot we drove over to the Angel Point trailhead at the Dirty Devil River. Here we descended down slickrock into a large canyon with a truly dirty river. The Dirty Devil was so full of sediment that later in the day it clogged my filter even before I had pumped 1/5 of a quart of water! We hiked up a couple of canyons, including Robbers Roost. Unfortunately, this was not the place to wear shorts, due to the abundance of sharp prickly bushes, not all of which were the famed blackbush. There were also huge prickly pear cacti groves and all manner of sharp sticks, branches and weeds. The sun and the heat were somewhat relentless and our water supplies were extremely limited (due to our poor re-supply in Hanksville two days before!). So we hightailed it back up the canyon walls where the car and a 2.5 hour waterless drive awaited. As noted above, I attempted to filter water at the Dirty Devil as I knew that we would not have enough water for the drive back to civ. Unfortunately, filters were not made for 50% sediment / 50% water!
Once we were at the car the Jimi Hendrix was set on high volume and we set out for the long and bumpy ride back to the paved highway. By 1 AM we were back in Denver raiding the Gallagher kitchen and taking full advantage of the water and beer supplies.
I can't wait to go back!
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