A Belated TR: Southern Utah in May
Oct 23, 2014 8:56:36 GMT -5
Post by rpcv on Oct 23, 2014 8:56:36 GMT -5
This is going to be a long post. I had intended to post this over on the Backpacker Forums when we returned from our trip in May, but the uncertainty of the forum change made me delay and now it is October. Anyway, my husband, a friend, and I spent two weeks in southern Utah in May. We spent the first week hiking and exploring and the second week on a cycling trip that didn't go quite as planned (more on that later).
After spending the night in St. George, Utah, we drove to Whitehouse Campground, east of Kanab, where we spent a couple of nights. As far as car campgrounds go, it is one of the prettiest I've stayed in and it was quiet. You do have to haul your own water in, but that wasn't a big deal. We arrived in the afternoon and it was hot, especially after the cool spring we had in Maryland. We hiked down the Paria River at a ridiculously slow pace because we kept stopping to take a ton of pictures.
There are a lot more pictures from the trip on my blog under the tag "Utah."
Looking upstream on the Paria River towards Whitehouse Campground.
Evening Primrose (Oenothera pallida). By chance, we timed our trip just right: All of the spring wildflowers were in bloom in the desert.
The next day, we drove over to the Wire Pass trailhead on House Rock Road so we could hike Buckskin Gulch. I had tried to get a permit for the Wave, but didn't have any luck with the lottery. We decided we would rather hike the slot canyon vs. driving back to Kanab and trying for the daily lottery for a Wave permit. Buckskin Gulch is one of the longest slot canyons in the world. We didn't hike nearly all of it - again, photography interfered with our pace. It was stunning, just absolutely amazing. My pictures don't do justice to the sheer size of the place. It is incredible to stand there, touching both walls of the canyon and look up at them extending over 400 feet above you, blocking most of the sunlight.
If you look closely, you can see a debris pile just above the triangles that was at least 25 feet in the air.
In the shadows in Buckskin Gulch.
On the third day of our trip, we stopped for a short hike to The Toadstools before driving back to St. George for a guided canyoneering trip. The Toadstools...well, the pictures really speak for themselves.
Red Toadstools
White Toadstools
Red sandstone over soft, white mudstone near the Toadstools
Sego Lily (Calochortus nutalli) - The Utah state flower.
More photos in the next post.
After spending the night in St. George, Utah, we drove to Whitehouse Campground, east of Kanab, where we spent a couple of nights. As far as car campgrounds go, it is one of the prettiest I've stayed in and it was quiet. You do have to haul your own water in, but that wasn't a big deal. We arrived in the afternoon and it was hot, especially after the cool spring we had in Maryland. We hiked down the Paria River at a ridiculously slow pace because we kept stopping to take a ton of pictures.
There are a lot more pictures from the trip on my blog under the tag "Utah."
Looking upstream on the Paria River towards Whitehouse Campground.
Evening Primrose (Oenothera pallida). By chance, we timed our trip just right: All of the spring wildflowers were in bloom in the desert.
The next day, we drove over to the Wire Pass trailhead on House Rock Road so we could hike Buckskin Gulch. I had tried to get a permit for the Wave, but didn't have any luck with the lottery. We decided we would rather hike the slot canyon vs. driving back to Kanab and trying for the daily lottery for a Wave permit. Buckskin Gulch is one of the longest slot canyons in the world. We didn't hike nearly all of it - again, photography interfered with our pace. It was stunning, just absolutely amazing. My pictures don't do justice to the sheer size of the place. It is incredible to stand there, touching both walls of the canyon and look up at them extending over 400 feet above you, blocking most of the sunlight.
If you look closely, you can see a debris pile just above the triangles that was at least 25 feet in the air.
In the shadows in Buckskin Gulch.
On the third day of our trip, we stopped for a short hike to The Toadstools before driving back to St. George for a guided canyoneering trip. The Toadstools...well, the pictures really speak for themselves.
Red Toadstools
White Toadstools
Red sandstone over soft, white mudstone near the Toadstools
Sego Lily (Calochortus nutalli) - The Utah state flower.
More photos in the next post.
