Impressions

I know I am late with my blogging about this hike, but the views were good, the trail was even better – so I still decided to share. It all started as usual  – Adrian sent a message about the coming hike and several individuals as well as their dogs decided to celebrate Easter by challenging their muscles and getting more in touch with nature.

We drove Kolob Terrace Road to the first top valley and parked the cars by a sandy path on the right, leading through the fields towards very pretty looking rocks:

Upon reaching the rocks we climbed up on a path done at some point by Mr. Lee who owns the land and lots of lands around. He has done it for his cows to lead them from one valley to another. As if someone mentioned that he had to blast the path in the rocks:

I wonder if the poor cows see the beauty around them or they just are sad of the lack of food in this desert…

Then we descended down to the valley downstairs and walked along a stream:

The dogs had a blast in that stream , especially in the bath tubs which were supposed for the cows to drink…

Not long after this dam we had to climb up – literally, on a steep slope on a slick rock:

The view on my stop to catch a breath:

There on the top there was a surprise – I love surprises and who doesn’t. It was a pond with water and swamp plants in it:

We had our lunch here and the dogs had their fun. the view to the other side, the one we started from:

That is it, we went down with no adventures. The celebration was over, life is simple.

Adrian led us, a bunch of locals, again to some interesting hike. It was the beginning of June, wonderful weather!  By wonderful I mean – not hot, light cloudy skies, best for hiking. One could never wish for more in this desert…

We started in the upper part of our park and went up the Pastel canyon:

Crows saw us off:

And desert flowers met us on the way:

The canyon got thinner and narrower:

We needed to use ropes twice:

We had to sneak through thick bushes and climb slippery sandy slopes:

But we reached the top where the canyon joins East Rim Trail:

Some of the last hard climb on the top:

And there we had lunch. From that point there was no climbing any more, mostly descending, very lightly, very nicely, at first on a nice forest path:

With abundance of flowers here and there:

Then the forest opened up and disappeared in the back… but the flowers were still there:

Doesn’t it look like a path to Eden?

From there we could see our end point in the distance in the bottom of this canyon. But to reach that point – oh, it was a rather long walk – around and around the edges of canyons of which there is no lack in this country:

Thanks God there were different interesting flowers on the way:

Adrian says we walked totally 5 miles, but to me it seems we walked very long miles. Here is the finish line, with a cold bottle of beer (thanks to one of our fellow hikers):

…………the end……….

If you want to see our flowers at their best  -May is the time to come. After that everything  more or less fades till October, though there is always some plant in bloom. But not in abundance. What else can you expect in a desert…So here are our roses:

Evenings are saturated with Honeysuckle smells…

Here are the flowers that come from seeds every spring by themselves, I guess they are called volunteers. But we don’t know their more particular name:

Finally – my husband’s favorites, the dragons as he calls them, they sit in front of our windows, catching insects:

If you enter Zion National Park from the West entrance, after crossing the Virgin river you find yourself doing switchbacks, back and forth until you reach a much higher level and can really enjoy the big picture of Zion mountains. There are some pockets by the road there for you not to slow the other traffic. And then you reach a tunnel which was exploded and created around 1928. Before that people would send mail or logs for houses on a cable connecting the top part of the area to the bottom of the canyon. Therefore one of the mountains here is called Cable mountain. So this tunnel was of great help for locals as well as travelers. Its length is 1.1 mi and it is pretty narrow. It has two lanes for sedan cars, but once those houses on wheels try to get through – they stop the traffic on one side. So sometimes when lots of people who can’t part with their houses travel here, there is a wait period before you can enter the tunnel. It is not so bad if you don’t rush because the views are magnificent. And then the tunnel has three holes-windows in the rock that are supposed to ventilate and give some light. But don’t plan to stop your car and look around through them. Once you get from the tunnel – there is a parking for a really cute trail – Canyon Overlook. I highly recommend it to everyone, it is only 1 mi round trip and is very diverse. But this time we decided to drive further from the tunnel and check the slot canyon on the right from the road. When it rains that canyon becomes a force of nature full of water. But as it is a desert here and it rarely rains, it is mostly a dry exotic path on the bottom of imaginary river with real fantastic walls:

The passage is sometime very narrow and those types of formations are called slot canyons.

At some places the canyon is so dark, gloomy and still have some water in deeper pools, that you have to find your way out to the top top and walk around those unpleasant places:

But then they open up again and there you can see trees growing and turning into fall colors:

It is usually much cooler in those slots than in the area around. Here and there you can notice the signs of the force of water when it rains:

Water and wind have created different forms in slots, arches being one of them.

There is a feeling of being a dust in the vastness of our Mother Nature:

Meanwhile on the high up walls winds are sculpting another arch. I am not sure how many millions of years it takes them to finish their job:

Those little maples are not the regular ones we are used to. And I am sure they are not the sugar maples, ether. They grow in the bottom of the canyon by this imaginary stream and have the form more like bushes, than trees. But nothing can beat their redness in autumn:

Once you get enough of slot canyons you can look for a less vertical slope towards the road and climb you way to there, to your car parked in one of the pockets. The other side of the road has also several interesting trails, which are not designated and are left wild for various wanderers to improvise their walks. It is usually by following the bed of a dry stream, tracking the waterways. One of such walks is called Many Pools trail. We didn’t have time to do it that day, just a little portion of it. It is late autumn and the sun is setting pretty early. Just two images of Many Pools:

For the end – a little pine that grows in a sandstone rock as seen from the road on this same Eastern part of Zion NP:

As you may see we were using our ski sticks for support in the water as well as gaining more speed on the even path.

Squirrels are spread out all over that path. They are not afraid of people and some are pretty fat. Which leads to a thought that maybe not all visitors sustain from feeding them which is forbidden…

Here is the beginning of the trail in the water. Yes, very crowded even on a regular weekday. I guess main reasons being school holidays and kids like water. But nevertheless there was enough space for everyone. No accidents, peaceful strolling up and down the river, with some kids swimming in deeper places. We tried to find shallow passages so that our butts don’t get wet, though the water wasn’t cold at all.

This is a very popular place for taking pictures – the stream rolling down the slope is very cute and refreshing. Sometimes you can even see the canyoneering people landing down the stream in zigzags while attached to ropes. This is also the place where the barefooted hikers finish their hike into the canyon.

But on that particular day the crowds proceeded further. And it was beautiful, but not as beautiful as getting far more deeper into the narrows of the canyon as you will see.

As seen in the pictures the sun was especially bright, which is usual here, but because it was July, not September, there was practically very little shade, it was beating us or caressing us (depending on perception), and a hot wind was blowing all through the canyon. So at that point I gave up, as never before, my body refused to walk further…way too hot even in the water. Thanks God my husband proceeded and he took those beautiful pictures of the narrows:

Isn’t it like in a fairy tale? And yes, there are no crowds any more, only the strongest can get a glimpse of the best views -fair like in fairy tales…

The view on the way back:

My sole advice for travelers in summer – try to start you day as early as you can. There is some though very little morning coolness, freshness. Try to capture and use it.

The end.