Sheep Creek and Swamp Canyon Connector Trail Loop, Bryce Canyon National Park

August 16, 2016

The Sheep Creek, Swamp Canyon Connector Trail loop, which also uses the Under the Rim Trail, is a moderate 4.5 mile hike with about 700 feet of elevation gain/loss. Below is my trip report:

I got to Bryce Canyon National Park from the town of Hurricane, Utah by going north on I15 until I got to Cedar City. Once there, I took Hwy 14 East for about 40 miles until it ends at Hwy 89. I went North (left) on Hwy 89 for about 20 miles until a sign indicated a turn off for Bryce Canyon on Hwy 12. I took Hwy 12 East (right) for about 13 miles until I came to Hwy 63. Hwy 63 heads south through the town of Bryce Canyon before reaching the National Park in just a few miles.

I arrived at the Swamp Canyon parking area which is about at mile 6 in Bryce Canyon at about 10:15am.

The Swamp Canyon parking area. The Trailhead is to the left of this picture.

There were quite a few cars in the area with most of the people enjoying the view from the view point. The trailhead is located at the south end of the parking area and, after getting my gear together, I got started about 10:30. The trailhead is well marked by two signs and the trail is very well defined to start.

The Trailhead

 The trail starts by descending gradually for the first .2 of a mile until it gets to the first trail junction.

The Sheep Creek/Swamp Canyon connector trail junction. 

One of the signs at the junction. The National Park service is sponsoring a challenge to help promote exercise. The gold circular disk is placed along certain points of the trail. If you take your picture by it and show the picture to a ranger at the Visitor's Center, you receive a small prize. 

The other sign at the junction.

As you can see from the pictures above the Sheep Creek trail veers off to the right and the Swamp Canyon trail heads off to the left. You can go either way and you'll return via the oppostie trail, since the trail is a loop. I opted to complete the hike by going clockwise, that is taking the Sheep Creek trail first and returning via the Swamp Canyon trail. I would recommend going that way as the elevation gain is more gradual returning up the Swamp Canyon trail.

For the first .8 of a mile, the Sheep Creek trail parallels the road, which can be seen to the left.

The trail winds through the pine trees while, if you look closely, you can see a red car on the road off in the distance to the left

After about .82 miles from the trailhead, the trail turns right and heads East. It is at this point that it turns from a single trail to a 4-wheel drive track until it starts descending. While descending, after about 1.5 miles from the trailhead, a small sign indicates that you are in Bryce Canyon Wilderness.

The descent is at a mild grade and toward the bottom of the descent, the trail cris-crosses a small dry wash multiple times where it is slightly difficult at times to spot.

The trail as it crosses a dry wash. In this picture the trail is off to the left of the wash.

Once past the wash, the trail widens and passes through scrub oak, pine trees, and sage brush until it comes to a sign indicating the direction to the Sheep Creek back country camp site. Don't follow this trail, as it just takes you to the camp site.

The sign indicating the trail to the back country Sheep Creek camp site. It was closed when I did this hike due to bear activity.

Very near to the camp site sign and 2.4 miles from the trailhead is a sign indicating the Under the Rim trail junction with the Sheep Canyon trail.

Here is a good picture looking at the junction of the Under the Rim trail. Here you'll take a right where the rocks help highlight the Under the Rim trail. 

Follow the Under the Rim trail to the right and soon it starts a gradual ascent to reach a small pass which runs between the Sheep Creek and Swamp Canyon trails. As it is ascending, the trail has a short sandy section. Typically it is much harder for me to hike in sand than on a hard packed trail, but the sand wasn't too deep and the hiking, not too difficult.

The sandy portion of the Under the Rim trail.

A look at the pass between the Sheep Creek trail and the Swamp Canyon trail.

Once ontop of the small pass, the trail descends again until it comes to a tree fall that is blocking the way.

The trail is blocked by a tree fall.

It is easily bypassed by just walking right up to the intersections of the trees and climbing over them, where the main trail will once again be visible. I mention this because there is also another "trail" which goes off to the left. I took this trail for about 20 yards until it fizzled out into sage brush. So I backtracked and got right up to where the trail used to go before the tree fall and saw the main trail. Soon you come to a sign for another back country camp site - the Right Fork Swamp Canyon camp site. If you continue on the mail trail just a little farther, you'll come to the sign indicating the Swamp Canyon connector trail.

The junction of the Under the Rim and Swamp Canyon connector trail.

After being on the Under the Rim trail for 1.1 miles (3.5 miles from the trailhead), head straight up the trail past the sign marking the junction of the Under the Rim and the Swamp Canyon connector trails.

A look at the Swamp Canyon Trail as it ascends back up to the trailhead.

The trail continues to ascend gradually for the next mile until it reaches the junction of the Sheep Creek trail which I saw at the beginning of the hike.

My GPS indicated that the hike was 4.55 miles, though I read that it was supposed to be 4.3 miles. It took me 1 hour and 50 minutes, hiking at a leisurely pace.

Here are some more pictures from the hike:

The Sheep Creek trail as it turned east and temporarily changed into a 4-wheel drive track. 

A look at the scenery while descending on the Sheep Creek trail.

This is the disk found at the junction of the Sheep Creek and Under the Rim trails that you get a small prize for taking your picture with it and showing it to a ranger at the Visitor's Center.

A look at a portion of the Under the Rim trail and a spectacular view as it gradually ascends.

Another look at the Under the Rim trail.

A small alcove along the Under the Rim trail that was used at one point by a bobcat as evidenced by the scat and tracks inside.

Clouds started rolling in towards the end of my hike. The forecast called for rain at 1:00 and right at 1:00 the heavens opened and it started to pour!

Scenery along the Swamp Canyon trail.

Grapevine, Zion National Park

August 13, 2016

The Grapevine trail is a short hike, only 1 mile in length round trip. It does have an elevation loss/gain of 400 feet and has a pretty steep grade in spots, however. Below is my trip report:

It had been a year since I had attempted a hike of any significance so I decided to get back into hiking shape with a bit of an easier hike. To get to the trail head, I took SR 9 out of the town of LaVerkin, Utah and followed it until I got to the town of Virgin. Just past the town, there is a street that comes in from the north (left) called Kolob Terrace Rd. Take a left here and head north.

The Kolob Terrace Rd/SR9 turn off (looking back toward the town of LaVerkin to the West)

The Kolob Terrace Rd will eventually take you all the way up to the Kolob Reservoir if you follow it all the way, but for the Grapevine hike, you won't need to take it that far. I didn't clock the exact distance, but after a few miles (I'd guess about 7 miles), look for a well marked, dirt parking area for the Grapevine Trailhead. It is about a half mile past the Right Fork Trailhead, but if you reach the Left Fork Trailhead you've gone too far.

The Grapevine Trailhead parking area as seen from the road.

There were 3 other cars besides mine in the parking area but I saw no other hikers at all during the 2 hours I spent on the hike. The trail head is marked with a sign and the trail starts off well-defined and fairly flat for the first 100 or so yards.

This is the trail head marker at the end of the parking area (East side)

Soon the trail comes to the edge of the canyon and looks down 400 feet to the waters of the Left Fork, which is where the trail ends up taking you. A very short time after the trail starts it's descent of the canyon's west wall, you are greeted by a sign indicating that you are entering Zion Wilderness.

This sign is posted just after the descent of the canyon has begun. In the distance and below, you can see the Left Fork river which is where you end up. The trail actually goes down to the river and then heads to the right (south) to the confluence of the Left and Right Forks.

At this point, the trail is much less defined than it was above, on the rim of the canyon. I was actually surprised at how steep the grade was in parts as well.

A look at what the trail looks like just before reaching the river.

And here's another look. The trail goes in between the holly bushes.

I quickly descended the steep trail through lava rock and prickly pear cactus and was down to the river in about .2 of a mile from the trail head, according to my GPS. The trail doesn't actually go down to the river at this point but rather turns right (South) and follows the river, staying about 10 feet above it's west bank. There are several access points to the river while the trail is just above it's west bank one of which I took to cool off a bit in the river.

Here's a shot of what the river looks like where the trail meets up with it just after the descent has ended.

I continued south on the west bank of the river, following a very faint trail which eventually completely disappeared due to some major flash floods the canyon experienced the week before. In fact, at one point the trail was blocked with debis from the before mentioned flash flood and I didn't feel like fighting through it to continue on to the confluence of the Left and Right Forks, especially when I had seen the confluence before when hiking the Right Fork hike. 

Debris blocked the trail and instead of fighting through it, I turned around at this point and headed back.

So I turned around and headed back, taking some more time to enjoy the wild life along and in the river. Had I continued on, to get to the confluence, it is .5 miles from the trail head (1 mile round trip). Over all, it was a fun hike to help me get back into shape for more hikes this summer.

One of the locals... It hard to see in this picture, but just to the left of my shadow is a small, inch long frog. There were a ton of these little guys dotting the river bank along with one or two larger frogs.

A Desert Sucker in one of the pools. This one was about 8 inches long and was one of 3 I saw, along with several minnows.

Data: Elevation at trail head: 4778 feet.

GPS Coordinates at trail head: N 37°16.452, W 113°06.005

Elevation at Left Fork river: 4357 feet.

Total hike distance: 1 mile (round trip to confluence and back)

                                                 

Lava Point Campground, Zion National Park

Although most of my posts are devoted to my many hiking adventures, I recently had the opportunity to scout out the Lava Point Campground as I am contemplating using it for the trans-Zion hike.

Basic Information:

There are 6 campsites located in a circular fashion around a dirt road available on a first-come, first-served basis. There is no charge to camp. There are nice pit toilets and trash cans, but no water. Because of the high elevation (7,850 feet) Lava Point sees a significant amount of snow in the winter months and can be a chilly place to camp in the Spring and Fall. In fact, because of the poor road conditions as the weather turns cold, it is generally only open May through September.

The information board and campground registration. As of 2016, there is no fee to camp here!

This was about as good of a picture as I could get of the campground layout.

A look at the facilities. They are located at the entrance to the campground, closest to sites #1 and #6.

Here's a shot of site #1 as seen from the road. The road continues on to the left. The dirt you see in this picture is a spot to park your car if driving to this campsite. All the sites are similar in size.

Each has a fire pit and a picnic table...

...a nice space for a tent...

...and a bear-proof trash receptacle.

Getting There:

The Campground can be accessed via the Kolob Terrace Road, located just on the east side of the town of Virgin, Utah. To get there, head north up the Kolob Terrace road from SR9 for about 25 miles until you see a signed dirt road off to the right indicating that Zion National Park and the Lava Point Campground is 1.8 miles down that road. One last point of interest is that once you are near the Lava Point Campground, you will encounter one last fork in the road. A sign indicates that the campground is off to the right, while the West Rim Trailhead is off to the left.

The SR9, Kolob Terrace Road junction, just to the east of the little town of Virgin.

Here's a look at the turn off onto the dirt road from the Kolob Terrace road. From here it's 1.8 miles to the Lava Point Campground.

And here's a look down the dirt road toward the campground.

A look at the last fork in the road before the Campground.

Camping at Lava Point as part of the Trans-Zion hike. 

The good news is that no permit or fees are required to hike the Trans-Zion hike if you camp in Lava Point. If you choose to camp in one of the other back country camp sites, both are required. The bad news is that camping at the Lava Point Campground adds about 2 miles to the total hike (it's already 38 miles...). That's because the campground is about a mile from the Wildcat Canyon trail which is the trail you are on when you break off for Lava Point. There is also 330 feet extra elevation gain and loss going back and forth from the trail to the campground.

To get to the Lava Point Campground from the Wildcat Canyon Trail, head uphill from the West Rim Trail parking area for about .7 of a mile on a dirt road until you reach a small marked trail (Barney's Trail) on the left hand side of the road that reads, "Barney's Trail. Lava Point Campground .3 mile."This small trail heads uphill through dense vegetation until it comes out at camp site #2 in the Lava Point Campground after .3 miles. Obviously to get back to the Trans-Zion hike the next morning after camping at Lava Point, just retrace your steps.

Here's a picture of the West Rim Trailhead next to the parking area. The elevation here is 7,520 feet and GPS coordinates are N 37°22.758  W 113°01.399  

After hiking about .7 miles on the dirt road from the West Rim Trailhead parking area, this is the small sign that marks "Barney's Trail" that takes you directly to Lava Point. It should be noted that you can also take the road to the campground but it will tack on about another mile. The elevation here is 7,633 and the GPS coordinates are N 37°23.181 W 113°01.784

And here's a look at where Barney's Trail enters the Lava Point Campground - right next to camp site #2. Elevation here is 7,850 feet and the GPS coordinates are N 37°23.037  W 113°01.960.