Southern Utah Day HIkes: May 2009

RED REEF TRAIL

The wife and her sisters planned on taking their mother to lunch and movie for mothers day today. As I heard their plans my mind instantly began to think how the mouse could play (you know when the cats away the mice will play) Originally I planned on a fishing trip somewhere but when that fell through I quickly came up with alternate plans. I called Cory Darwin and asked if he wanted to go on a hike and of course he said yes. We set out in the late afternoon and drove to the red reef trailhead/cottonwood wash trailhead.

Quickly we dropped into the wash which led to a fantasy world of unique redrock erosion. Many hikes I enjoy but would never rehike due to the vast amount of other unhiked hikes. I can honestly say I would return to this place. The formations we saw were indescribable, the solitude magnificent and both of these are in largely due to cottonwood canyon wilderness area designation.

I am so thankful for wilderness areas. Having such a designation keeps out many who would treat such a fragile area like it was their off road playground. Not having to hear the sounds, nor eat the dust of atv's, rhinos, etc makes the experience even better. The area we explored was pristine and much of that is due to not allowing mechanized vehicles in the area. I compare wilderness to the fishing regulations at Kolob Reservior. There are many places bait fisherman can fish in Southern Utah, in fact most are open to such fisherman. Kolob on the other hand is one of the few places where a fly fisherman can get away from the masses of stationary fisherman and practice his sport. Also due to such regulations Kolob also lacks the all night partiers because they oddly enough are also bait fisherman. Not all bait fisherman are partiers but for some reason drunkards are all bait fisherman :} Like Kolob, there needs to be some places where seekers of solitude can find such. Where people can leave civilization behind and not have to worry about stumbling across environmental destruction, and sound pollution from the same partiers who would be at Kolob if there were not any regulations. For me these areas are often called wilderness and things worth while one must work to find. I do feel sorry for those off road enthusiasts who follow the rules they truly are the losers in the whole wilderness debate.

Sorry about my little rant but back to the trail. The icing on the cake was when we saw, actually almost stepped on, a huge king snake and then finally found an elusive and famous Red Cliffs Desert Reserve Tortoise. We did an saw all of this in 2 hours hiking and 15 minutes driving from Hurricane!

Also thank you Cory for the photos! I arrived minus memory card thus didnt take any pics. Also check out the Cory Reese (my bro's say he looks like Steve-O so check it out for yourself) blog at coryreese.blogspot.com

SERENITY NOW LOOP

I have posted several times about my chastisement from the Dr. about my quasi-obesity. Well Im glad to report that I have lost over ten pounds in two weeks, unfortunately there goes at least partially my, "I need to go hiking so I can lose weight excuse."

Sunday morning before church, I decided to see some of GOD's handiwork. I set out with Trevor, Micah, Lindsey W. and her lil bro Dallin. We decided to tackle the White Rocks, White Rim, White something loop. We met outside of Snow Canyon State Park north entrance at an early 8:30 AM. I had a map and trail description from St. George Serendipity but basically it was a backcountry find your own route challenge. The hike was great, the vistas from above Snow Canyon amazing, and the wildflowers abundant.