photos from Slickhorn Canyon backpack

[ilanarama]

I've uploaded a dozen photos from our backpack trip last weekend to our flickr page; click on the teaser to see them all.



Incidentally, the couple hiking with us are 73 and 76 years old. This was not a trivial hike - the daily distances were relatively short, but there were no trails over much of this terrain, and we had to take packs off and pass them through a hole in a boulder jumble once on the way down, and then hand them up and scramble up a short cliff on the way up (a different side canyon). Also, we saw a rattlesnake on the way out - and yes, there's a photo in the set of it, and no, we didn't get bitten.

Comments

[aubrem.livejournal.com]

oh, gorgeous pics! I've never really backpacked - did you camp out? What is the kiva - an ancient ruin? Anasazi? The petroglyphs are fascinating. Are there still bighorn sheep about or are they all gone?

Sorry about all the questions. : /

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Yes, we camped out two nights - we hiked in one side canyon and camped at the confluence with the main stem of the canyon; then the next day we dayhiked up the canyon to where the ruins were, then back to our camp, packed up, and hiked another few miles to where a second side canyon joined it, and camped there; the third day we hiked out and drove back home. I wish I had a photo of our camp the first night, because it was beautiful, under a huge juniper tree, but none of them came out.

The kiva is part of an Anasazi ruin. It's a below-ground ceremonial room, and amazingly enough this one is entirely intact. The ladder is not original - the original was taken to the Edge of the Cedars museum in Blanding, UT - but the wooden roof beams are.

There are still desert bighorn, but we didn't see any.

[geoviki.livejournal.com]

Utterly gorgeous! Even the snake. Glad you saw him before he saw you.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

I was the first person up that scrambly section of trail, and I heard the rattle off to my right and immediately went left! I didn't see it, though - I was looking off toward the trees farther off, thinking it was a big snake far away instead of, as it turned out to be, a little snake close by.

[laurelwood.livejournal.com]

Great pictures! What a gorgeous place, and woo! Rock scrambling! I don't think I'll ever have the upper body strength necessary to rock climb, but I do love the chance to clamber over/under boulders and rocks. Those petroglyphs are so cool, as is the snake!

The Pinnacles, where we were this past weekend, looks a little bit like where you were. I was thinking about you while I was there- it's probably a bit tame for you, but the scenery's beautiful (although the promised burst of wildflowers was not yet in evidence) and there's always a chance of seeing condors.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! (And I liked your photos, too - the peacock painting picture is wow!)

There wasn't any real climbing, but there was a lot of hands-and-feet scrambling. We did have one spot (I didn't upload the photo) where we had to crawl through a "rabbit hole" among boulders, sort of fun. The ruins tend to be in places where you really need to scramble - I can't imagine what it was like to live in these places. Definitely no sleepwalking allowed.

Utah has some fantastic canyons, and if you get a chance to take your family on vacation to the canyon country you ought to - it's really amazing scenery and so different from most of the rest of the US.

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

Lovely pictures. Someone's got a nice eye for composition. Did you take them?

And is that you in the blue shirt and long hair? If so, you're pretty. :-)

Liked the snake pic, too. Rattlesnakes are cool, as long as one doesn't tangle with them.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

I took some and my husband took some. The good ones are mostly his. :-)

And aw, thanks for the compliment. I didn't post the photos that make me look not-quite-so-pretty!

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

Wow. The kiva is pretty amazing, because it's so connected to the present -- it could still be in use, and buildings like it still are. And the petroglyphs are spectacular too, because they're so disconnected from the present.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

What always astonishes me when I go hiking in this part of Utah is how vanished a flourishing civilization became. Slickhorn isn't quite as full of ruins as some other places, but Grand Gulch, one canyon over, was practically a metropolis. And yet all we see of it are wall paintings and stone walls; it's hard to imagine what it was like in its day, populated and farmed.

[saramwrap.livejournal.com]

Very cool! I really want to start doing more things like that!

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

You should! It's a lot of fun. Out where you are, there is some nice hiking in western MD and of course WV.

[saramwrap.livejournal.com]

Agreed! I just haven't done it in a while!

But we just got our new tent... and it needs breaking in!

[guntar.livejournal.com]

That looks like an awesome hike. And wow at your hiking partners! I hope that I can hike like that when I'm 76.

You're very pretty in the picture of you, but what else is new?

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Aw, thanks. And yeah, it gives us hope for (our) future that we will be able to continue doing the outdoorsy things we love as we grow older. Britt's dad is in physically pretty poor shape, and my parents have never been athletic, so it's scary to look at our own parents and think of how we might age - but none of them have been active and careful of their health the way Bruce and Laura have been, so there is hope.

[frosch.livejournal.com]

thanks for the inspiration.

I've been giving some thought lately to joining the Sierra Club (there's a local chapter), but I don't know if my body could handle it.

Maybe after a few more months at the gym.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

The gym is boring! I am sure they have some easy hikes - just start out slowly. The best way to get in shape for hiking is hiking - and it's a lot more interesting to look at scenery than at other people or a tv in a gym. And yay, go you for getting in shape.

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

A very fine collection of pictures, with an impressive lack of camera-shake ont eh rattlesnake snot. ;)

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

"on the" and "shot". Gah, my typing and proofreading are getting even worse.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

I just saw 'rattlesnake snot' and you don't want to know what I was thinking.

Eww.

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

*grin* You're right: I don't want to know.

[barkley.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous pictures(except for the snake, I just squinted over that one.) That looks like a very neat hike.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Oh, it was! The cool thing about living on this side of the Rockies is that we are close enough to the desert for this kind of spring hiking, while the mountains are still too snowy. We're going to do another desert hike (not too far from this one, just a different set of canyons) in another 2 weeks!

hTree?

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