10 lbs lighter

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.

This is what we decended to get back to the wash

I had to call Trevor a yellow bellied...just to get him to pick up this skeleton.

Lindsay and Dallin (he just was accepted into the Peace Corp)

First Overlook

A cool formation

Pictograph and Petroglyph Panel near the end.

Snow Canyon Slots

EVAN's SLOTS!!

Disclaimer: Excuse the poor quality pictures. My Rebel XTI was on a setting it should not have been!

To officially kick off our spring break, Even, Gregg Lindsay(well Lindsay sold out) and myself (also Evans wife Janessa and my brother Trevor) decided to do some hiking this week. Evan, acting as our guide, drove to the trailhead. We started the hike at about 9:00 AM. The hike began with a brisk walk across the high desert(near the Ledges Golf Course). We quickly saw signs of development and unfortunately I did not see any survey stakes to pull up (I dont actually do this for it is a crime but the thought of doing pulling them up is a good one!!!). Soon we left the desert and entered a maze of slickrock. As we dropped down into the slickrock Evan pointed out a mini slot canyon. We entered the canyon and at first I wasnt very impressed. It wasnt extremly narrow, nor did it have high cliffs, perhaps only 15 feet to the top. As we hiked further in, me leading, Janessa pointed out some faded petroglyphs that I missed. This was interesting! The petroglyphs appeared to be very old and it was cool that they were in a narrow slot.



We soon left the slot and began to hike across the slickrock. The weathering of the slickrock was very scenic and we often paused in awe at what mother nature had accomplished over thousands of years.


After around 2 miles of easy scrambling we arrived at the end of the trail. Below us was a 500ft or so drop off straight into Snow Canyon State Park. This was the climatic moment of the hike. For several minutes there was not much talking as all the intrepid hikers sat pondering what we saw in front of us. It was a very good, semi spiritual moment.


On the hike back we continued to enjoy the slickrock formations and even had another surprise, another panel of petroglyphs in another slot. This time we had some initial difficulty finding the canyon and also finding an easy way to drop into it, but our perserverance paid off as Janessa found a simple scramble under a ledge of slickrock. This second panel was more well known and sadly more desecrated. People had outlined and colored in the petroglyphs with chalk. While it does make them easier to see know, the long term damage of such is not worth the temporary visual aide.

All and all this was a fun, easy hike with scenic beauty and archeological value!