Myatt's Hikes: November 2012

15 Nov 2012

With the weather warm enough for me to attempt a longer hike, I thought I'd give Coalpits wash an attempt. I had wanted to do Coalpits for some time to check out the oil ruins left from a failed drilling attempt many years ago.

The trail head is located just across the bridge spanning the small Coalpits wash, just on the east side of the bridge. The bridge is signed, and there is a small parking area on the north side of the highway. A NPS fence leads to a wooden hikers gate and a trail sign.

I started on my way 5 minutes before 9:00. With the temperature in the 40's, my hands were freezing and I would look forward to the section of trail that was exposed to the sun. I thought about how I would be thinking the exact opposite had I been attempting this hike in the middle of summer!

The well-defined trail was covered with leaves from the overhead trees. After about a half mile, the trail crosses two small but steep ravines and wanders under power lines. A third small ravine is crossed and a small post sign is passed indicating that I was entering the Zion Wilderness area.

Campsite 6. This is where you leave the trail and head across the wash on the left.

After 1.75 miles, I came to the confluence of Scoggins and Coalpits washes. The first time I attempted this hike about 4 months ago, I ventured to the right, following the main trail. Unfortunately, a few miles later, I realized that this was Scoggins Wash that I had followed. The confluence is marked with a campsite marker, number 6. When you come to this marker, cut across the wash and head up the wash on the left where the bigger water flow is coming from.

Round, prickly balls of death that kept attaching themselves to my socks.

From here, the views of Cougar Mountain ahead shortly open up and it seems like an insermountable task to get there. But that's where the trail takes you - until it curves right along it's south wall. At this point there are a couple of options.There isn't much of a trail so you can make your way up the river itself, which would be slow going, or try to find the faint game trails up on the benches. For the most part, I followed deer tracks since I figured they would probably know the easiest way through the brush. I ended up stopping what seemed like every 50 steps to pull round prickly balls of death out of my socks. (Yes, the name I gave them is a little overly dramatic but, after a while, it was a pain in the behind to pull them out of my socks. I would get pricked in my ankles about 10 times before I finally cried 'uncle' and stopped to pull them out, only to get pricked in each finger as I pulled them out).

When the trail brought me back to the river, some of the pools were frozen over and in some spots, heavy frost lined the river bank. There were many small picturesque waterfalls along the way as well. After about 3.5 miles, the wash turns into a mini canyon of sorts with rock walls enclosing the river course. I hadn't gotten my feet wet yet, so I bushwhacked my way onto the rim, just about 30 feet above the river, and made my way around the narrow reed filled river that way. Since coming back from my hike, I've heard that "coalpits spring" is found coming out of the rock in this short portion of the hike and that it results in a mini hanging gardens. Next time I will have to hike up the river to check it out.

The cairn marking the Chinle Trail junction.

Just past this part, and 3.8 miles from the trail head, the Chinle Trail comes in from the right. It is well marked by a large cairn on the river bank and another large cairn and small post sign off the river.

The next interesting landmark that I was supposed to come to (5.5 miles from the trail head) was the oil ruins. I was expecting to see something like the cable works at Cable Mountain, but on my way up the wash, I actually missed the ruins.

The falls before the hanging gardens.

I continued up the wash and after 7.9 miles came to some really pretty falls that winded around beneath some spectacular hanging gardens. Just past the hanging gardens was another waterfall preceded by a small pool. To get up the waterfall (about 6 feet tall) I had to get my feet wet for the first time before climbing up the mossy rocks.

I made it up and quickly came to another 6 foot waterfall that I bypassed by climbing up the wall on the right. After 8.2 miles I came to a fork in the wash. Since I left my map at my house, I wasn't sure which one was Coalpits. Water flowed from both forks. I decided to follow the one on the right, which had less water flowing from it. With time running out to make it back to a dinner appointment, I knew I wouldn't have much longer to explore. I went up the wash for a few hundred yards and it looked as though the wash was extremely overgrown with brush, so I decided to turn around. (Upon looking at my map when I got home, I realized that Coalpits actually was the the one on the left and ended not much farther up stream).

Oil Ruins

The way back was long and my legs were showing the effects of not having been on a long hike for a couple of months. I did, however, manage to spot the oil ruins on the east side of the river, up on a bench about 15 feet above the river. They were neat to see, but again, not what I was expecting.

I got back to the car about 4:15 after 16.5 miles. The trail admittedly isn't as scenic as most of the hikes I have been on, but it did have it's interesting points. Doing this hike in the summer would be brutally hot and the fall proved to have it's downside as well with all the burrs and bristles falling off their plants and easily finding my socks. Spring would seem to be the best time to do this hike.

One of the many falls on the hike.

My hiking stick on a frozen pool.

Looking north towards Cougar Mountain.

A portion of Coalpits wash near the junction with the Chinle Trail.

A picture of the partially frozen river.

The falls before the hanging gardens.

A close up of the hanging gardens.

The first 6 foot fall. To get passed it, I climbed up the rocks just to the right of the water fall.

The second 6 foot fall. To get passed this I climbed a thin ledge on the rock to the right.

At the end of my hike. I took the right fork for a few hundred yards although Coalpits Wash continues on the left fork.

Another picture of the oil ruins.

Nov 1, 2012

With a little of Confluence Park explored last week, Liz and I thought we'd explore a bit more of it this week. The Park its self has 10 different trails in it and Liz and I would be covering five of them on this hike. We took two cars and parked one of them (our pick up car) at the Main Street Trail head in Hurricane. To get there, follow main street north from SR-9 in Hurricane until it ends in an undeveloped neighborhood at a trail head marker. The marker here is an historical marker of the early exploration of the Hurricane area by Parley P Pratt.

Parking area and trail head

Once we parked our car at the Main Street trail head, we headed to 900 North in LaVerkin, took a left, and then followed the signs to the newly developed trail head. At the trail head there are restrooms and a large sign with a map of all the trails as well as a little history on the area. The Trail head is large and the trail starts at the far end, following a dirt road. A large green gate blocks the way for motorized vehicles, but a little hikers pass allows hikers access to the trail/road.

The main dirt road is Confluence Trail. We took this road for about a third of a mile until we came to a sign post indicating that the La Verkin Creek Trail went off to the right. The La Verkin Creek trail starts out as a pretty well worn hiking trail as it takes you to the confluence of La Verkin Creek and the Virgin River. From this point though, the trail disappears and for a time we even contemplated crossing the river at this spot. Instead, we decided to follow the river bank upstream and ended up periodically finding what appeared to be faint game trails. We followed them, parallel to the Virgin River until we could see the road that we started out on (Confluence Trail). We walked back to Confluence Trail and noticed that back to the left there was an old building. We decided to back track a bit to check it out. It was the old Historic Dairy Barn. We checked it our for a little bit, then turned back around and continued on our way. About a quarter mile past the Dairy Barn, we came to the Anasazi Cave Overhang. At this point, the Cactus Cliff trail joins the Confluence Trail and the junction is signed.

Grain storage site with volcanic outcropping to the right

The next landmark we came to was the Historic Grain Storage Site, about a quarter mile past the Anasazi Cave. The granary stored grain for the turkey farm. This was the coolest part of the hike. Just off to the side of the storage site is a really cool volcanic rock formation that we spent about 30 minutes exploring.

Hydroelectric Power plant

Past the Grain Storage site, the trail continues on the river bank for about another third of a mile until you get to the Hydroelectric Power station. This power station was built in 1929 and was in operation until 1983. It was another highlight of the hike.

After checking out the old power plant, we decided to ford the river and find "Chub Trace" a .6 mile trail that would take us back to Tortoise Track, the trail that leads to our car. The current of the river was strong in spots and the water was cold, but we made it across without incident. We then bushwhacked our way for a short time until we came to the trail we were looking for, which was pretty faint.

We came to the junction with the Tortoise Track, took a left and started up the hill until we came to the Confluence View Trail which is where our car was parked.

Because we are familiar with the area, we had no problem navigating our way back to where we needed to go, even in the absence of a trail in spots. But for the most part, the trails are pretty easy to follow, especially the Confluence Trail and the Tortoise Track, which are actually jeep roads. In total, the hike was about 3.5 miles.