Chinle Trail, Zion National Park

 

We joined Mark and Bobbie for another Zion hike, this time on the Chinle Trail. It begins near Anasazi, a subdivision of luxury homes in Springdale about 3 miles from the park entrance. The first mile or so of the trail circles around the houses before coming to the actual trailhead in the Zion Wilderness.

Mark and Bobbie had hiked this trail before as an out and back, turning around at an arroyo with some interesting rock formations, which makes it about 8 miles round trip. They suggested we take two cars and leave one at Coal Pits Wash, a few miles before Springdale. That way we could make a loop out of it instead, which they said would only be about 6 miles. While looking at the sign and map at the trailhead, though, it appeared that it would be much longer than 6 miles, so we gave ourselves the option to just make it an out and back hike if we didn’t feel up to the loop.

Other then some initial climbing, the trail was mostly level, so it was actually an easy hike, at least for the first five or six miles! We passed through a petrified wood forest, where the trail gets its name, as Chinle is a Triassic shale that contains shards of petrified wood.

Jim has pretty much become addicted to the trail app he has on his cell phone. Of all days he left it at home on the charger, but Mark thought it was a good idea and had installed the same app on his iPhone just the day before. Not being familiar with the app yet, although he thought he started the track at the trailhead, when he checked our distance somewhere along the way, it said we had come over 90 miles! Bobbie does walk pretty fast, but not quite that fast.

Sometimes two heads aren’t better than one. Jim couldn’t figure it out, either, so we just continued on.

After a quick snack, we went off the trail and into a really cool arroyo.

It was after this when things started to get a bit dicey. Mark and Bobbie had never done this as a loop, but Mark was confident we were heading in the right direction. There were some tricky spots that involved rock scrambling, but we followed some horse hoof prints, figuring that if the horse could make it, so could we. And by this time, we were way past the turn around point, so we were committed to making the loop.

Jim and I were pretty confident the horse didn’t go this way, and found an easier path.

After walking much farther than anyone thought we should have, we finally came to Coal Pits Wash. At least that’s what our intrepid guides kept telling us!

Bobbie getting a snack out of Mark’s backpack. I think even he was getting tired from all the worrying about whether or not we would get off the trail before dark.

But that didn’t keep us from stopping to take more photos.

Rocks with a sprinkling of powdered sugar.

Not much farther to go. It was a good feeling to hear the sound of traffic, and see our car right where we left it.

We ended up hiking for five hours, and although we aren’t sure of our distance, we guessed it had to be at least eight or nine miles. Since there wasn’t a lot of elevation change, though, we weren’t nearly as tired as we thought we would be. Great scenery and great company, what more could we ask for in a hike?

Mark beat me to the post about this hike, so if you haven’t read todays Box Canyon Blog yet, be sure to check it out for some more photos and Mark’s humorous take on the day.

And if you think all we do is hike, we have also been mountain bike shopping the past few days. Bit the bullet today and bought a couple new full suspension bikes in St. George. When we got back we took about a five mile ride next door on the BLM roads, and it was great fun. Since we have no plans to go back to south Texas where we got a lot of use out of our road bikes, we figured we may as well break down and go back to mountain biking. At least we can ride them anywhere, and we spend most of our time on dirt roads anyway. Now we’ve got to clean up our old bikes, take pictures, and post them on Craigslist. We have to sell them in the next three weeks because we have no way to carry four bikes, so wish us luck.

On another note, our sewer hose developed a leak so we ordered a new one from Amazon. At least the giant box it came in has given the cats some entertainment. They are about a year old now and all grown up but as rotten as ever.

Elvis

And Sophie.

Pa’rus Trail, Zion NP

 

The Pa’rus is probably our favorite trail in Zion for a pleasant, easy walk along the Virgin River. 3.6 miles round trip, paved and the only trail in the park that allows dogs and bicycles. Sunday afternoon was very quiet except for a few photographers along the river waiting for the sun to go down.

Pa’rus is a Pauite word literally translated to mean bubbling, tumbling waters. There are several spots along the trail that have easy river access.

We never tire of looking at this scenery.

Yesterday was cold and cloudy, but Mark and Bobbie took us on a power walk to show us the BLM land just east of the RV park. There are miles of roads for hiking and mountain biking, and the dogs can run free there. On a sunny day we will go back and take some photos. The views are breathtaking. Too bad the road is in poor shape, as it would be a great place to camp.

Zion River Resort and First Zion Hike

 

We’re glad Box Canyon Mark and Bobbie suggested we spend November at the Zion River Resort. Yes, it’s an RV park and the sites are closer than we care for, but the landscaping is lovely, we are parked on gravel instead of dirt, there is green grass and the trees are showing their autumn colors. We even have the Virgin River right behind our site. Plus Zion National Park with all it’s splendor less than 15 miles away.

From November through March the park offers very discounted Snowbird rates. We are paying $460 (plus electric) for the month for our back-in riverside site, which normally rents for $1100 during the busy season. Hard to believe anyone pays prices like that! The one downside is there is no Verizon signal here (the brochure says AT&T works), but the park does have WiFi. So far it’s working fairly well, but will most likely slow down if more people arrive.

Yesterday our guides took us north of Virgin to the Kolob Terrace section of Zion National Park.

Bobbie suggested a 7 mile hike, with not a lot of elevation gain or loss. Having hiked with Mark and Bobbie last year in Ouray, CO, we had a feeling her opinion of not much elevation change was going to be different from ours. And according to Jim’s phone app, we hiked 6.5 miles round trip, but dropped 1,200’ on the way down. Which meant 1,200’ of climbing to get back to the car. But we’re not complaining! It was a great hike with our group consisting of Jim and I, Debbie, our buddy Boonie, who is dispersed camping nearby, and Mark and Bobbie.

The first portion of the trail was a level walk through a pine forest. Then came the white/gray rock.

We even crossed a small stream

Hey, this is Zion, so where’s the red rock? We didn’t have to walk too much farther to find it. So which way do we go now?

Down, down, down. Just pick a path on the slick rock and try to follow the cairns.

We had our lunch next to some amazing balanced rocks poised on tripods.

We’ll see if Mark’s photos came out better than ours.

Then it was time for the climb back up. We worked up a pretty good sweat.

Contemplating…

And yes, it seemed much steeper than it did going down. But with the scenery and the chit chat we were soon back at the trailhead.

After being awed by Yosemite this past summer, we wondered if Zion would still be our favorite national park. I think we both vote yes. And boy, did that long shower in the RV park’s restroom feel good! (Sorry, Boonie, couldn’t resist.)

Valley Of Fire State Park, NV (Part Two)

 

We stopped for lunch at the picnic area near the White Domes trailhead. At least a dozen of these little antelope ground squirrels descended upon us looking for a handout. Jim might have accidentally dropped some of his sandwich.

We then took the 1.2 mile White Domes loop, a very nice hike through some colorful rock formations and another slot canyon.

Here I saw a dinosaur getting ready to attack a seated monkey with a lampshade on it’s head. Jim and Debbie were doubting my sanity at that point.

Next we stopped at Arch Rock, but we saw many other unnamed arches in the park.

That was followed by a climb up to look at the petroglyphs on Atlatl Rock.

Our last stop of the day was the short trail to Elephant Rock. This one was a real stretch of the imagination, in my opinion.

A runaway bride, and the best dressed hiker we’ve ever seen.

Just as we were getting back into the car, I looked up and saw this iconic silhouette. For a split second I thought I was hallucinating.

We always joke about big horn sheep, since Debbie has never seen one on a hike. Jim and I had a close encounter with one in Canyonlands a few years ago, but haven’t seen any since, so this was quite a treat. And just when we thought those little squirrels were the extent of our wildlife sighting in Valley of Fire. What a nice ending to a great day in the park. The entire family was there!

Hope you’re not tired of red rocks, since we’re on our way to visit with the Box Canyon bunch, and spend the entire month of November near Zion National Park.