When we woke up at Eagle Crag trail head, we were greeted with some pretty awesome views. We couldn’t see anything last night, but we enjoyed our morning coffee and tea overlooking the Zion valley. After packing up we started our drive back to Zion NP, but we had to abruptly stop after passing an adorable organic fruit/veggie stand near the park entrance. For $7 we got 2 bags of peaches, 2 huge zucchinis, some squash and an onion. All locally grown. After our fresh food snag, we headed towards the park entrance through the town of Springdale, UT.
Pulling up to Zion midday we knew it would be crowded. I mean, this is a destination park for folks. Don’t ask me why. Driving through town of Springdale there are flashing billboards telling us the park’s lots are full, and to park in town. Fine, I’ll pay $22 to park in town for the day and walk in. Come to find out our paid parking was directly next to the pedestrian entrance, and this park is very well set up to handle foot traffic. This makes me happy. I really wasn’t feeling like getting into a shuttle bus just yet.
Once inside, we have to ride the park’s shuttle system to get to our destination of Angles Landing. This is a very sought after hike at the park, just trailing in popularity to the Narrows. Basically, it’s a 5 mile up and back trail that is straight up to a razor-thin ridgeline to a peak that was so high, it was thought only angles could land there. Well that and like, a thousand tourist a day. No matter. Kristi is determined to get to the top and I’m determined to get as far up as I can. I’m not afraid of heights, I’m just afraid of falling (thanks Britt…) The last .25 miles are slick rock with a single chain to help hikers crawl up. Now this would be fine in solitary circumstance, but when you throw in hordes of people not really equipped to hike like, elderly folks, children, and the obese, it gets tricky. Everyone thinks they can do this hike. So what happens is that these people who are physically unable or scared shitless grab on to the chain in fear and get in situations where they can’t pass. People going up and down are in a ruthless battle to grip the chain and jockey for position. Then throw in very able hikers trying to fly by these terrified or out of shape folks. Now you have a recipe for people to fall and die. A park ranger told us he’s had 4 experiences just with himself, where people were on their hands and knees crying, unable to get down. Nine people have fallen and died. So, there’s your backstory.
Kristi is fearless and that gives me confidence. We easily hike up the beginning portion of the trail including Walter’s Wiggles. I love this name. A park manager back in the day with a last name of Walter designed this hike and paved the beginning portion which included 21 short and steep switchbacks. Hence the wiggle name. With all this foot traffic it’s probably a good thing this section is paved. The slick rock fares well with heavy use, but vegetated mountain sides deteriorate quickly.
Once we were past the wiggles, we started the technical spur of Angels landing. I did a small section of the slick rock/chain shitshow. But, once I got to a cool vantage point looking out at the top of the trail, I decided to call it quits. Throngs of people could be seen summiting, and it did not look fun to me. At all. Kristi pushes on ahead and passes tons of families with crying children on her way to the top. I have to admit me sitting on an overlook made lots of hikers get off track. They’d see me, and hike towards me thinking they reached the top. I started trying to cut people off as I saw them hiking to me, “this isn’t the top! I promise!” Oh well, not my problem I suppose. Many other people had the same idea as me and decided this was high enough and turned around. Once Kristi was done, we quickly descend and decided to cool off in the Virgin River below. Nothing like stripping off your nasty clothes and dipping into a cold ass river after a decent hike. Our swimming conjures over other people to swim with us. Look at us. Trend starters. As we wait for the shuttle back to the visitor center, sopping wet, we stop and chat with a park employee. Kristi really wants to see a condor, and we’re trying to figure out where to go. The employee tells us there is a stop named Big Bend that has a nest visible, and sometimes you can see the adults coming and going from the nest on a rack face. Score! We cross the road and get a bus headed the opposite direction to try and see Big Bend.
Once there, we didn’t see shit. I didn’t have my binoculars and the weather was starting to turn for the worse. We gave it 15 minutes, then caught a bus going back to the visitor center. We wanted to do maybe one more hike to finish off the day, but the heavens opened and it began to downpour. Screw it, let’s just go back and head out.
Walking out of the park I noticed a sign that said, “laundry and showers available.” Having been many days since our last shower, we inquired. $5 for 5 minutes. We take the bait, shower off, and decide to grab food at the Zion Brewery next door so no one gets hangry. The alcohol rules are so weird here, I know I’ve said that before… But 4% beer on tap just doesn’t have the same pizazz. You can’t drink a %4 IPA and expect it to be good. I tried, it wasn’t.
Clean and back in the car, we head towards our next destination of Paige Arizona. I had scoped out a BLM site online while we had service and steered the truck south. Hey, maybe we can get some real alcohol while in Arizona because Utah sucks so hard! Kristi and I are excited about this prospect. As we drive, we notice the landscape change from red rock desert to whitish yellow desert.
We get to our chosen camp site and cross the Arizona border. We only know this because my GPS tells me… There is an old cattle corral here, some cool rock features, and an abundance of absolutely nothing. Nothing except one other minivan with what definitely looks like people doing drugs. Kristi feels uneasy, but we’re fine. They are messed up and we have a shotgun. We’ll win that fight every time! We settle in and collect firewood and the minivan eventually drives off. Sweet sweet solitude…
Out of nowhere a damn rockslide happens. I seriously think it’s thunder at first, but, no clouds anywhere. Sounded exactly like the glacier falling off. Tons of crumbly rock makes this rockslide hypothesis totally legit so I’m sticking to it. After our rockslide and some intense wood gathering, we have a hot and windy fire while listening to our new podcast Lore. Wait have I mentioned Lore yet? I don’t think so… So, while we were waiting for our canyoneering trip to start at Red Canyon, the girl behind the counter at the gas station told us about a podcast she’s obsessed with. Aaron Mahnke does 20 minute bits about old legends and present day folklore that occurs worldwide. Each podcast tackles a relatively bitesize folklore tale, goes over the history of it, and any pertaining details he can find. It’s pretty fun and only slightly scary. We both end up enjoying this podcast and instantly become hooked. From here on out, our cocktail hours were now podcast Lore cocktail hours. Kristi downloads as many episodes as possible so we always have something to listen to while at camp now.
As we’re drinking coffee/tea the next morning and doing our normal breakfast routine, Kristi stumbles on a bull snake attempting to eat something in a burrow! What fun! We pull out the chairs, grab our breakfast, and proceed to watch him wrangle his prey for the next 20 minutes. He eventually comes up empty handed. Poor guy.
After the snake watch 2019, we leave the BLM property and head to a visitor center to get our bearings. We passed one last night a few miles back, but it was too late to stop. As we arrive this morning, we see that it’s closed! At 9AM on a Wednesday. The hours are so bizarre, and they are closed multiple weekdays. The opposite of luck. At least we can fill water and use an actual toilet. We leave and head into Paige, AZ to see what we can find. As we get into civilization, the first thing we come to is the Lake Powell Dam. I don’t like the idea of dams in general, so we’re not too enthralled with this human structure. We wander into the visitor center, grab a few pics, and try to talk to someone who may know about where we want to go. Bear’s Ears.
The people in the center were seriously not helpful. I’m sorry, but if I’m a National Park employee at a place directly next door to another park or monument, I’m going to have at least some knowledge of the place. Just on principle. I know it’s not your direct place of work but shit. It’s literally right down the road. Don’t tell me you have no clue and you’ve never been there. She tells us to go back to the BLM visitor office. The closed one we already stopped at. Yeah, that’s helpful. We leave and decide to do our own research online. We find a cute coffee shop, buy caffeine and get studying.
We ask the barista if she’s been to Bear’s Ears or knows what’s fun to do there. Again. Less than an hour away and she has never been there. Interesting… Regardless we found some cool stuff to do and we’re ready to explore. Our first stop within Bears Ears National Monument is a 17 mile driving tour known as the Valley of the Gods. I’ve heard really good things about this location so I’m excited!
Valley of the Gods was ok. I guess if we wanted to camp here it would be slightly better. There are cool rock structures, and the rock and sand is super red. But honestly that’s it. Hard pass. We finish up the drive and head to our next destination, Bullet Canyon.
Driving to Bullet Canyon meant we had to get up Cedar Mesa. I did not know what this meant until I was faced with an incredibly steep wall with switchbacks carved in it. This would have been fine if.
- There was enough room for 2 cars to exist on the driving ledge at one time
- There wasn’t a MASSIVE storm bearing down on us.
This was horrifying. I was doing everything I could to keep my cool, but this drive was hilariously dangerous with the impending storm. Kristi of course is taking photos while hanging out of the damn window. Typical.
Once up the mesa wall, we are greeted with what we call “high desert.” What does this mean? I have no clue. But it’s relatively cool, there are more trees, and it’s high up. PS this whole place is called Cedar Mesa because the locals thought the most prevalent tree here was cedar. It isn’t. It’s Juniper. I’m going to call it Juniper Mesa.
A few miles along the main park road brings us to our destination of Bullet Canyon. We’re going to be hiking here tomorrow to visit two Native American Kiva’s left by the Anasazi. They are a little more than 6 miles down a canyon, only accessible by hiking. Knowing we don’t have enough time to visit tonight, we find a spot overlooking the canyon, start a fire, cook some amazing roadside veggies for dinner, and listen to Lore with cocktails. As we wait, the weather starts to look menacing, and provides an intense light show of lightning. Not a bad night if you ask me.
Oh, I should also mentioned that we learned about “the crust” while here. It’s long lived cyanobateria colonies that live atop the soil out in these parts. It acts as a glue to hold sediment together, but is very fragile to foot traffic. We admire the crust here, and do our best to protect it from our feet.
PS this tailhead allows car camping for $5 per person for the week. So $10 for the week for both of us, plus there are pretty decent pit toilets here and tons of firewood. I totally recommend staying here if you’re visiting this awesome property!
