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ilanaramaPart 1
We drove up Cottonwood Canyon road to the Hackberry Canyon trailhead, and since there was still daylight left we hiked up for a couple of miles, then turned around when the canyon started to widen and get less interesting.
The Friday before we left on this trip, my friends Thom and Marian, who live in Minnesota, stopped by our house on the return leg of their own trip in this area. They had raved over the Yellow Rock hike, so that would be our first stop the next day. The trailhead parking lot, on the opposite side of the road from the trail, had a rough dirt road leading back into the hills, so we drove between the hills and saw an excellent site...which was, alas, taken by another camper. But we continued on and found an isolated basin that looked like the moon! From there, the road went up very steeply; a sign said it was suitable for ATVs only, so we figured we wouldn't be bothered there (and we weren't).
(The gently curving sandstone dome in the background of the second picture is the Yellow Rock!)
Next morning we packed up and moved out to the main parking lot, where another couple was also getting ready for this hike - they were from Germany and this was their fourth time on this trail! The trail began with a steep but solid climb to a notch:
The first photo is of the steep ascent; the second is looking back toward the Cottonwood Canyon road. The curving road in the upper right that disappears between two small cliffs is the road to our campsite, which is just out of site behind the cliffs. If you look above it and to the right you can see a bit of the road's ATV-only continuation.
When we crested the notch, the trail continued to the base of the incredibly aesthetic sandstone dome above. We definitely understood why it was a repeat trip for the Germans, and why Thom and Marian had raved about it so much - it was beautiful!
Another view back to the valley, from higher up:
We then drove down to hike the Paria Box which was a bit disappointing as the "box" part was very short and not particularly spectacular. Also there were a lot of cows. We did find some nifty caves, though:
After that, we drove back down Cottonwood Canyon toward the highway. We stopped at the parking area we'd seen on our map for the "Hoodoo Forest" (or "Toadstool Hoodoos"), though it was not exactly a parking lot - we needed our 4WD to get there! The first 1/2 mile was a boring flat trail...then we got to the edge!
The downclimb was a bit marginal, mostly scrambling through bits of trail and lots of rock, but soon we came to some very cool formations like stinkhorn mushrooms, soft white stems and hard red caps. We wandered (carefully) through the crazy scenery.
Then back to the van, which we drove to a side road near the mouth of the canyon where we'd camped on previous trips. It was very windy! But we'd left our sunshower in the sun while we hiked so we had warm water, and despite the wind we both showered. I'd had a beer as soon as we'd got in the van, and some snacks, so after the shower was feeling super relaxed! Also, since we were fairly close to highway 89 - we could see the lights of big trucks from our campsite - we actually had cell-phone internet access for the first time in a while, so we could catch up on our email and the news.
In the morning we went back out to the highway and headed west again. We'd noted a spot called Catstair Canyon on the map, marked as a slot canyon, and the information we'd found suggested that you couldn't go through it all the way without gear, but there were two accesses that almost met in the middle. First we went to the east access, just south of and parallel to the highway, where there was some rock art (mostly vandalized and written over with people's initials) and a nice cave. We continued upcanyon until a 20' climb we decided not to do. Then we went to the west entrance which immediately tightened up into a nice slot with very pretty rock.
But the big draw here is the "old car riprap" of a bunch of classic cars all smashed together and tied with cable, wedged into the side of the canyon to support the highway!
We continued down a few easy drops through the very nice canyon until we hit a downclimb that looked like more than we wanted to try, then turned around and got back in the van to head to our next destination.
We drove up Cottonwood Canyon road to the Hackberry Canyon trailhead, and since there was still daylight left we hiked up for a couple of miles, then turned around when the canyon started to widen and get less interesting.
The Friday before we left on this trip, my friends Thom and Marian, who live in Minnesota, stopped by our house on the return leg of their own trip in this area. They had raved over the Yellow Rock hike, so that would be our first stop the next day. The trailhead parking lot, on the opposite side of the road from the trail, had a rough dirt road leading back into the hills, so we drove between the hills and saw an excellent site...which was, alas, taken by another camper. But we continued on and found an isolated basin that looked like the moon! From there, the road went up very steeply; a sign said it was suitable for ATVs only, so we figured we wouldn't be bothered there (and we weren't).
(The gently curving sandstone dome in the background of the second picture is the Yellow Rock!)
Next morning we packed up and moved out to the main parking lot, where another couple was also getting ready for this hike - they were from Germany and this was their fourth time on this trail! The trail began with a steep but solid climb to a notch:
The first photo is of the steep ascent; the second is looking back toward the Cottonwood Canyon road. The curving road in the upper right that disappears between two small cliffs is the road to our campsite, which is just out of site behind the cliffs. If you look above it and to the right you can see a bit of the road's ATV-only continuation.
When we crested the notch, the trail continued to the base of the incredibly aesthetic sandstone dome above. We definitely understood why it was a repeat trip for the Germans, and why Thom and Marian had raved about it so much - it was beautiful!
Another view back to the valley, from higher up:
We then drove down to hike the Paria Box which was a bit disappointing as the "box" part was very short and not particularly spectacular. Also there were a lot of cows. We did find some nifty caves, though:
After that, we drove back down Cottonwood Canyon toward the highway. We stopped at the parking area we'd seen on our map for the "Hoodoo Forest" (or "Toadstool Hoodoos"), though it was not exactly a parking lot - we needed our 4WD to get there! The first 1/2 mile was a boring flat trail...then we got to the edge!
The downclimb was a bit marginal, mostly scrambling through bits of trail and lots of rock, but soon we came to some very cool formations like stinkhorn mushrooms, soft white stems and hard red caps. We wandered (carefully) through the crazy scenery.
Then back to the van, which we drove to a side road near the mouth of the canyon where we'd camped on previous trips. It was very windy! But we'd left our sunshower in the sun while we hiked so we had warm water, and despite the wind we both showered. I'd had a beer as soon as we'd got in the van, and some snacks, so after the shower was feeling super relaxed! Also, since we were fairly close to highway 89 - we could see the lights of big trucks from our campsite - we actually had cell-phone internet access for the first time in a while, so we could catch up on our email and the news.
In the morning we went back out to the highway and headed west again. We'd noted a spot called Catstair Canyon on the map, marked as a slot canyon, and the information we'd found suggested that you couldn't go through it all the way without gear, but there were two accesses that almost met in the middle. First we went to the east access, just south of and parallel to the highway, where there was some rock art (mostly vandalized and written over with people's initials) and a nice cave. We continued upcanyon until a 20' climb we decided not to do. Then we went to the west entrance which immediately tightened up into a nice slot with very pretty rock.
But the big draw here is the "old car riprap" of a bunch of classic cars all smashed together and tied with cable, wedged into the side of the canyon to support the highway!
We continued down a few easy drops through the very nice canyon until we hit a downclimb that looked like more than we wanted to try, then turned around and got back in the van to head to our next destination.
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Date: 2022-05-09 02:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-05-09 02:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-05-09 07:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-05-09 10:59 pm (UTC)You're totally right, deserts are all different. The Utah desert really contains a lot of different types of desert, I think, depending on latitude and elevation. I do have some photos of flowers coming up, but mostly the attraction here for me is the amazing variety of rock formations.