We drove from our home in Hurricane just past the small town of Virgin on hwy 9 - a route we travel frequently on our way to Zion National Park. The parking area is on the north side of the street just east of the signed bridge that crosses Coalpits Wash. There were a couple of tents set up in the parking area and we encoutered a couple of people that had apparently camped there the night before.
The trail starts on the north side of the parking area just through the Zion National Park boundary fence. The wash itself lies in the southwest portion of Zion Nationl Park. As we got out of the car and gathered our gear, we were graciously welcomed to the area by unbearable biting gnats and flies. It quickly became apparent that standing in one spot for too long was a very bad idea as it gave time for the gnats and flies to catch up and start in on their lunch buffet - us! I will know for next time to bring plenty of bug spray!
We went through the fence and started on the well used trail. The beginning of the trail follows a small almost stagnant looking stream - Coalpits Wash - on the left and soon opens up and winds through sage brush and crosses several small but steep washes.
Not quite a mile into our trek, we came to some power lines overhead. About another mile after the power lines, and about 1.7 miles from the trail head, we came to a sign marking campsite 6. It was at this point where we made a navigational error and started following Scoggins Wash, which comes in from the right, and which the trail follows. Instead, we realized later, we should have headed toward campsite 6, crossed the little stream, and followed it to the left.
Regardless, as we headed up Scoggins Wash, the views of The West Temple were spectacular! It was fun to see this prominent land mark of Zion National Park from a different vantage point then normal.
Scoggins Wash was completely void of water which seemed strange to me since I had read of several small pools throughout the canyon. At one point, we came to a 6 foot dry fall that required a little fun climbing up a not-so-steady tree branch.
After about 3 miles from campsite 6 (and the confluence of Coalpits and Scoggins Washes) we came to a well defined trail that crossed Scoggins Wash and several small washes that connected to Scoggins Wash.
Realizing now that we were for sure not in Coalpits Wash, I told Liz that I was "about 85% sure" (yes, I'm a nerdy stats guy) that we were in Scoggins Wash. We decided to backtrack a bit and take the trail we found to the east for a little bit. Not long after we started on this newly found trail, it started up hill and turned hard south. I told Liz that I had a feeling that we had found the Chinle Trail.
So we turned around, recrossed Scoggins Wash and decided to follow the trail to the west for a little bit. There was a lot of petrified wood in this area. When I pulled out the map (for short period of time so as to not get completely eaten by the hungry gnats that were still all around us) I found that this made sense as the Chinle Trail was shown crossing through a petrified forest just south of where we were.
After following the Chinle Trail west for a short while, we decided we better turn around and head back. On our way back, I spotted a sign labeled "Old Scoggins Stock Trail" which I had seen earlier on our map. The posted sign was neither close to the trail or Scoggins Wash, but rather was back almost in some thick sage brush and it was a stroke of luck that I even spotted it at all! As we headed back out the same way we had come in, we were welcomed by cloud cover and a slight rain drop or two which made the warm day, much more pleasant. We made it back to the parking area and our car after about 10 miles.
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