Loose Ends

I lived in Zion for only 3 months one fall (the best time to be there), but i took advantage of the opportunity. I was lucky enough to be there when the federal government was shut down for a week under Bill Clinton due to being unable to resolve a gap in the budget. That meant the the National Park system was also shut down. As a result, the public was not allowed inside the park, meaning the people who worked and lived inside the boundaries had the whole place to themselves for a week and were basically off work too since there was no business going on. No traffic, no speeding tickets, nothing off limits, no permits; that was a fantastic period of protected anarchy. I spent many of those days systematically exploring the canyons of the upper east side of the park. By the time my season was over i had only about 5 left that were unexplored.

Just for the sake of starting rumors, i'm making the claim that the ancestors of the Mayans got their ideas for pyramid building after passing through Zion on their way down to Mexico.

Another reason i like the upper east canyon is my preference for white sandstone. Besides the clean purity and rarity of the stuff there is also some element of it that makes me feel like i'm in a futuristic science fiction movie... far into the future when mankind lives underground and has forgotten about the surface... i have no idea why. It also lends itself well to moonlight hiking. Under the glare of a full moon you can hike for miles through white canyonscapes with no flashlight. It is a surreal and recommended experience.

The sheep look much farther away because i only had my wide angle lens with me.

For this day's hike i decided to try a loop and knock out two canyons at once. On the north side of the road shortly past the entrance station are two canyons that look on the map like there is a possible traverse between the backs of them. Additionally, the larger canyon has several small connector canyons that make "H" shapes on the map. Those looked interesting too.

This was canyon where i fell. I had hoped to make it back to the "T" intersection in the back.

In order not to get boring i'll just go over the highlights. I ran into a group of bighorn sheep while going to investigate what looked like a possible water source. I surprised them, and they surprised me, running from their bedding behind some brush to the safety of steep rock slopes above. Continuing on i found a skeletized sheep in a narrow part of the canyon. There were tracks everywhere so i think i was on a major crossing route for the animals to get to the south side of the park lands. That told me it was also likely that i could hike all the way out of the canyon up to the forested highlands if i wanted. I didn't want to.

The white pass and pyramid after making it up the slope.

I checked out one of those H canyons. It was fairly narrow but had a series of points where you have to climb up piles of choke stones. Eventually i got to one that i couldn't get up without some help. Returning from that point was when i fell. I had to jump off one of those ledges, and when i did one of my shoelaces got snagged on a broken branch sticking out of the rocks. It was about an 8 foot drop, and snagging one foot momentarily gave me forward rotational speed. I was rotating forward and to the left, away from my snagged foot. Luckily it broke free, but not before my landing was completely ruined. I hit the side of the canyon with my forearm, which then bounced me back off in the opposite direction with some new rotational speed to the right. I landed hard on my right elbow and knee on a big pile of soft sand. Then my backpack slammed down on top of me a split second later. I was very fortunate to have landed in the sand instead of a pile of rocks. Eight months later and i still have the remnants of a huge 8 inch abrasion scar on my arm.

The view from the pass looking down the other side. About a 90 degree panorama.

Zion was beginning to be far more dangerous for me than Alaska. I didn't hurt anything but my skin, so i decided to go ahead and try to get over a "pass" between two mesas. Getting up to the pass was challenging and a little scary, but fun scary. The pass was a really cool all-rock landscape with very steep sides on either end like a hyperbolic saddle. I hope the pictures get the point across.

In Zion you can follow tiny "sidewalks" where there are discontinuities in the layers of sand. These little paths can take you places you would think were unreachable, but sometimes they pinch off in undesirable places.

Dropping my lens cap and watching it roll and skip until it disappeared helped me make up my mind to go ahead and try to find a way down. I needed that cap back.

The far side of the pass was questionably steep with mystery zones not visible from the top. I remembered suddenly those non-visible variables that can completely ruin a descent. However, in Zion there is often another way. It turned out that the hardest part the whole way down was the last 10 feet! All in all i thought it was a very cool little hike.

During the hike i'd been watching and hearing thunderstorms build up, and since it was still early when i got back to the car i decided it might be worth it to try and make it to the west side of the park for some sunset pictures. It took about an hour of driving but i did make it in time to the Kolob Terrace.

Looking off the Kolob Terrace.


I was hoping the sun would illuminate these clouds and rocks just as it set.

I have a favorite area over there where i've never seen anybody else. Zion has some old areas of private land inside the park boundaries and i've always wondered if the area is off limits because you have to cross a fence to get there. This time at the end of the road i met some rangers doing some kind of studies. I told them where i was going and they didn't seem to know themselves if there was anything wrong with the area, so i guess there isn't.



A fast 25 minutes later and i was there. The place was still as pristine as it had been last time i visited. A few dead trees but also a few small new ones. Sunset was not what i was hoping it would be but i did get to see some cool lightning. Once again, i didn't make it back to the car until after dark. By this time i at least was becoming familiar with which restaurants were still open after 10pm.