A Long Walk In the Park

 

On Jim’s birthday we had a very nice lunch at Café Diablo in Torrey. Unfortunately Jim and I, Suzanne and Mark suffered from some gastric distress after we ate. Bad batch of black beans, maybe? Jim and Mark were resting that evening, but the ladies decided to take a short hike at Chimney Rock to watch the sunset.

It wasn’t the best sunset we’ve ever seen, but we felt like we worked off at least a little of our dessert.

The next day Mark and Bobbie suggested a hike in one of their favorite slot canyons, one that we hadn’t done, Little Wild Horse/Bell Canyon, near Goblin Valley State Park. They didn’t mind that it was an hour and a half drive to get there, so even though driving eighty miles for an 8 mile hike isn’t my favorite thing, we decided to join the fun.

Unfortunately it was UEA weekend, where Utah public teachers attend a conference and the students, along with their extra-large LDS families, all pile in their minivans to go camping and hiking over the four day weekend. And it appeared most of them decided to go to Little Wild Horse Canyon. This may be one reason why, an article I read about the hike that makes it sound like your grandmother could do it.

Here is my favorite quote from the description: “This hike is suitable for just about everyone. If you enjoy a long walk in the park then you can probably complete this hike with little problem.”

Since the crowds were heading to Little Wild Horse, we decided to go counterclockwise and hike through Bell Canyon first, hoping Little Wild Horse would be less crowded on our way back.

A bad omen as we entered Bell Canyon?

We started off being almost alone for the first 4 miles or so, only meeting up with a woman and her daughter who needed Mark’s help in getting over a rock obstacle. As you can see, Mark is pretty handy. And with those long arms and legs he didn’t need much help getting himself up and over like the rest of us did. He was a big help, and I’m not sure Suzanne, Bobbie, or I could have made it without his assistance. Well, I’m not even sure Jim would have made it.

This certainly wasn’t your usual walk in the park.

Bell Canyon is not a real narrow slot, but the geology was interesting and the scrambling was entertaining.

In between canyons we took a break for lunch after climbing up a dirt road for what seemed like a very long time.

We began seeing lots of families and groups of kids in the wash just before entering Little Wild Horse Canyon, but at the start of the slot we were pretty much alone.

Mark and Suzanne, playing for the cameraman.

The not-so-fun part came when we were halfway through Little Wild Horse, and the crowds of families and groups with mobs of children came our way. There wasn’t much room for two people to pass, but we sucked in our guts and let them go by, and let them go by, and let them go by for what seemed like forever. Bad timing on our part. Kim, you would have climbed the walls to get out!

These aren’t the best photos, but you get the idea.

We didn’t think to take any pictures, maybe Mark or Suzanne did, but at one point where it was really narrow, kids were straddling above our heads with one foot on each side of the slot. Absolutely crazy! And we saw quite a few people carrying toddlers in those giant backpacks. Not sure how they even made it through some of the narrow parts. And to add to the fun a few people even brought their dogs.

In spite of the crowds it was a beautiful hike, though, all nine miles of it. Just a long walk in the park, with lots of playing on the jungle gym. I would highly recommend you avoid it over UEA weekend!

Horse Valley, Grafton, Bad Dump and Good News

                                                  Scene from Horse Valley Wash hike

First the good news. We drove to get propane and dump tanks Saturday and the air blew out the vents just like it’s supposed to, so it appears our vacuum leak is fixed. Parts cost around $26 and it took Jim and Chris several hours to do the work, although much of that time was spent planning. We are very happy! Here is a link to a thread on the Sportsmobile forum about how to do the work-around in case anyone out there reading this has the same problem. http://www.sportsmobileforum.com/forums/f9/climate-control-vacuum-leak-testing-11605.html

When we arrived at the Maverick station in La Verkin to dump we found it flooded by a couple inches of what we hoped was just water. That was a first for us.

I called Andre since he and Rose had gone to dump about an hour earlier. He said it was fine then, so since there was no odor we assumed someone just ran water and because the lid to the dump is locked it wouldn’t drain. Jim went inside to get the key (free but you have to leave your drivers license for collateral) and while he was in the store I made him a pair of plastic bag booties to put over his shoes, since he could not reach the submerged lock without getting his feet in. Luckily the water drained and we were able to go about our business.

Mark and Bobbie arrived on Thursday (Bobbie is recovered from her fall in Capitol Reef), so we all did a hike Friday morning. Being Utah Education Association weekend, where the kids get Thursday and Friday off, we knew we didn’t want a repeat of our nightmare hike in Little Wild Horse Canyon with the crowds a few years ago.

I was searching for off-the-beaten-track hikes near Zion and came across Horse Valley in nearby Rockville. It turned out to be a great place to be on a busy weekend, as we only ran into one other group of people with dogs on our way back.

From left: Rose, Bobbie, Laurelee, Gayle, Chris, Mark, Andre. Jim is behind the camera.

There really is no trail, you just walk up the wash or through the creek as best you can, which made it a bit challenging at times. We were happy to see water in the creek which meant there was a chance of a waterfall at the end.

We did a lot of crossing back and forth across the stream, with some of us getting wet and muddy feet.

After walking 2.3 miles we came to this beautiful waterfall where we turned around.

Here I am contemplating climbing up the rope. Not that I would ever consider doing that even if it wasn’t wet and slippery.

It was a great spot to stop for a snack and we had our choice of sun or shade.

Andre checking out a giant boulder overhead.

Don’t want this one to fall on you.

It really was a lovely canyon, especially with the golden leaves on the trees. We took too many photos, as usual.

We had never visited the ghost town of Grafton, and since we were just a couple miles away we stopped by on the way home to check it out. It was originally a Mormon settlement established in 1859 and was last occupied in the 1940s.

They picked a very scenic location.

The buildings that remain were restored by the Grafton Heritage Partnership in 1997.

The big claim to fame is that the bicycle scene from "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" was filmed here in the late 1960s.

It’s worth a stop if you’re in the area.

Today we’ll be exploring some canyons on the quieter east side of Zion.