Fairyland and Navajo Loops Bryce National Park

I had only been to Bryce National Park once before and never had done any hiking, so I thought I'd take a short excursion to the Park and do a little exploring. I decided in the morning I wanted to do a "strenuous" hike, and in the afternoon I'd do something a little more Moderate/Easy.

When I looked on line for some interesting hikes to do, Fairyland Loop Trail looked like a good one to try out in the morning. It starts out at Fairyland Point which is located before actually reaching the entrance station on a road that comes in from the left.

I arrived at the trail head at 7:12am and started on my way. One thing that is very visually appealing about hiking in Bryce is that the trails are so easily defined and can be easily spotted from a ways away.

I rapidly began losing elevation as I dropped from the rim into the canyon amongst the hoodoos. On my way down, I spotted a doe and her fawn just up the trail a few yards. As they saw me coming they left in a hurry down the trail.

The sun still hadn't risen above the canyon walls but the hoodoos seemed to glow despite being in the shadows. I crossed several dry river beds which were probably very active rivers in flash flood situations. I also crossed one section of the trail that had been moved and reblazed just over to the side due to a massive rock fall.

I made a short excursion of about 200 yards to see the Tower Bridge - a natural bridge with a tower like rock jutting out behind it. Soon after, the trail took me into what is known as the "Bryce Amphitheater." Beautiful views of amazing rock formations were visible all around me!

Shortly after Tower Bridge and entering the Amphitheater, I started gaining back all of that elevation I lost on my way into the canyon. I knew I would eventually have to start climbing to meet up with the Rim Trail, which is what I took to get back to the trail head.

I reached the Rim Trail and took it back to Fairyland Point, noticing the Bryce Lodge and a few other buildings along the way. A sign indicated that I would be on the Rim Trail for 2.5 miles. It was a relatively flat 2.5 miles with views of the trail I had just been on across the canyon.

I made it back to the trail head at 9:44 after 8 miles of hiking. It was a very picturesque hike that I hope to do again!

In the afternoon, I did the Navajo Loop which was absolutely amazing! From what I've read, it is the most popular hike in the park, and for good reason. The beginning of the trail takes you 550 feet down steep switchbacks through "Wall Street." From the Canyon Rim looking down, Wall Street looks like a dark abyss which actually seems inviting when standing in the hot sun! This portion is definitely the highlight of the hike.

Soon after leaving Wall Street, there is an option for a short excursion to 2 bridges, a cool formation just up a small side canyon. I got a picture there and then headed up the trail to the rim again, a 550 vertical foot hike.

After 1.3 miles, I made it back to the top. This was a REALLY pretty hike!

The Narrows, Zion NP

I had been through the narrows twice before, but the last time had been about 5 years earlier...so it was time to go again!

I got to the Chamberlain's Ranch trail head at 9:55 and started on my way. I remembered in the past trip with my brother-in-law Jeff, we spent about 15 minutes at the beginning trying to figure out how to get across the river without getting our feet wet, as the first couple of miles of the hike is along the river bank and not in it...Anyway, after all that time trying to figure out how to keep our feet dry, I still managed to make an ill-advised jump and got a foot wet anyway. Needless to say, this time I just went right in and forded the stream.

I came to the cabin at 10:46 after about 3 miles. Soon after this, the trail entered the river and I was on my way. For the next few miles, the canyon walls continued to creep in closer and closer all the while getting higher and higher. At 12:31 I encountered the first stretch of narrows. I also noticed that many new obstacles and mini waterfalls had formed since the last time I went on the hike.

At 1:45 and after about 8 miles I encountered the waterfall, North Fork Falls. This is easily bypassed by a notch on the left side of the trail, which, if you didn't know it was there, would be easy to miss. The falls are about 20 feet high and the force of the water coming down is enough to make it nearly impossible to hike back to the base of the waterfall once down.

I encountered the confluence with Deep Creek at 2:57 after about another mile of hiking. Deep Creek has about as much water flow as North Fork so from this point on, I would be hiking in twice the volume of water, with the canyon walls much more narrow than they had been before - meaning the current would be stronger and the depth of the river, deeper.
Over the next 3 miles, many campsites are found, each numbered from 1 to 12. Also, a smaller stream, Kolob Creek, adds a little more water flow to the river. It was here I camped on my overnight trip with Jeff. It's a perfect place to filter some water!

From here, the hike becomes more difficult. The rocks are more slippery, the water deeper, swimming becomes the only way to make it through certain points (depending on the water level that year) and you're just plain more tired...

I came to the Grotto, a cave like structure carved out over the years by water flow through the canyon, at 4:01, and to Big Springs about an hour later at 5:05. Big Springs marks the 11.5 mile mark and is a pretty place for some pictures. It was here that I first encountered the day hikers coming up from the bottom (Temple of Sinawava). Also, after Big Springs was the only swimming spot I found.

After 2 more miles filled with deep water and slippery rocks, I encountered Orderville Canyon coming in from the east (left). I should say here that I was happy to have brought my hiking pole to use as a depth check for the river. Although it was actually clear this hike and I could see the bottom for much of the hike (the previous 2 hikes it was a muddy brown color with no visibility), there were portions where the water was too deep to see the bottom. So I poked and prodded along with my hiking pole to determine if I'd be swimming.

Not long after, I made it back to Riverside walk and the shuttle stop for the Temple of Sinawava at 8:25 and after 16 miles of hiking!

Pine Valley Mountains

I got invited to do a little hiking this morning! The plan was for a couple people to drive up to the Oak Grove campground and begin their hike there, and the rest of us to travel to Pine Valley and park our car there. Then we would meet in the middle, exchange car keys, and continue on.

It was a perfect Saturday morning - a rare Saturday off for me from work! I was picked up at 4:45am at my house and we picked up a couple of other people and continued on to the town of pine valley. Once in Pine Valley we got to main street, took a left and followed main street until we came to a thin brown sign off to the right side of the road that indicated that we needed to turn right onto a dirt road to find the Forsythe Canyon Trail head.

We had planned to take the Forsythe Canyon trail (#3021 on maps) because it offers better views into St. George. From there we skirted around Burger and Signal Peaks, through Further Water, and ended up taking the Oak Grove Trail (# 3030 on maps) back to the Oak Grove Campground.

There was a crisp, cool feel in the air when we arrived at the trail head at 6:02. We got all our gear together and got on our way at 6:06. The trail head is marked by a big sign and the Forsythe Canyon trail is well maintained and easy to follow. As we started out, I took out my camera to take a picture of the trail head and realized that my batteries were just about dead. The two pictures I was able to take both came out blurry.

The first 2 miles of the trail is very pretty with about a half dozen river crossings - most just rock hopping, but there was an occasional makeshift log bridge. The rivers were beautiful as was the greenery surrounding them.

After 2 miles, we started gaining elevation at a steady pace. It was here that my GPS let me know that it was running out of batteries, and with my spare batteries in a different pack, I knew this would be a technically deficient hike...

We continued the gradual incline over the next 3 miles until we came to a sign indicating that the Blake-Gubler trail veered off to the right of the main trail. We continued on the main trail, passing Burger peak and coming to a cliff band that offered some great views of St. George. It was here that John and I (who had broken off from the main group) encountered Jeff and Kevin who had started from Oak Grove.

We chatted for a couple of minutes and then went on our way, exchanging keys to our cars. As we neared Signal Peak, I could feel it calling my name, begging me to hike it...So I asked John if he minded if I ran up to the summit or if he wanted to come along. (we hadn't originally planned to summit signal peak) He was a little hesitant due to the major uphill portion of the hike that we had just finished, but decided to come along.

My main concern was that I knew we had to be fast so our party that was behind us didn't pass us and not realize we were behind them. Although some of them were experienced hikers, the trail in this area is very hard to find in places and I knew I should be with them to help them. So we rushed up to the summit, signed the summit register which is found in a red can on the far west side of the summit, and headed back down.

On the way down from the summit, I was actually a little nervous as well, that we wouldn't be able to find the main trail because it was so faint. We ended up timing it perfectly as we saw the rest of our group hiking along the main trail below us as we descended. We joined up with them and continued toward the beautiful meadow at Further Water.

Further Water is a large, breathtaking meadow nestled between pine forests on both sides. Both times I've been there, I can't help but wonder if a bear is watching us from the safe cover of the pines. The meadow has a creek running through it and is dotted with green, bulb-shaped plants that grow in clusters and offer a beautiful contrast to the light yellow-green grassy meadow.

At the end of the meadow, the trail crosses the stream on the right side and continues up the hill. We continued on for another mile until we came to a second, smaller meadow. Not far past the second meadow, we came to a sign indicating Brown's Point trail to the left. What was not mentioned, save for someone writing it on the sign in pen, was that the trail to the Oak Grove campground was off to the right up the drainage.

We started up the drainage and encountered large snow banks. Jeff had shown us a cut on his hand earlier where he had fallen on one of these snow banks so we knew we needed to be careful. Not too long after starting up the main drainage, a second drainage comes in from the left, and we took it to get to the saddle. The last few hundred feet were severely up hill and took their toll on several in our group, but once to the saddle, we were rewarded with amazing views into Hurricane and Zion National Park.

From here, it was literally all down hill. 3 miles of knee crushing, steep down hill. I took it slower down the trail, trying to take it as easy as I could on my knees, which always seem to suffer the most on hikes.

We made it back to the car at 12:14 and waited about 55 minutes for the rest of our group to make it down. Overall it took 6 hours and 8 minutes and was about 12 miles long, including our excursion up to Signal Peak summit.