Valley of Fire

VALLEY OF FIRE STATE PARK

Disclaimer: Sorry about the photo quality, I was messing with my settings on my camera a couple weeks ago and never reset them!

When I was a young buck my scout troop went camping at a place called Valley of Fire State Park (VOFSP) in Nevada. This was one of my favorite camping trips of all time. We played night games and during the day played the best game of steal the flag in history. While I had an enjoyable time as a teen, I did not enjoy the park for the same reasons as I do as an adult. VOFSP is an oddity. As you drive in the middle of the Mojave Desert one must wonder what amazing geological thing can exist out here, but quickly the rather bland desert turns into a whimsical red/white/yellow slickrock playground. Often the colors change dramatically from red to white, or sometimes the change is more gradual with a mixture of colors. Perhaps the most unique thing about VOFSP is not the colors, but rather the shapes of the rocks. The weathering of the sandstone is amazing leaving holes, caves, arches, and eery looking faces in perhaps a greater concentration than any other place I have ever visited. Anyone with an imagination will enjoy spotting rocks that "look like..."

Danica, Kylee, and Rachel making a funny face under arch rock.

Danica was the most timid of the Reeses children when it came to exploring and climbing the slickrock. So I was shocked when she wanted to go exploring with me. The picture below was an odd thing found. It was a small cavern with lots of openings and natural bridges or... something

Marie holding Emma (above)

Cory taking a typical Cory shot! At least this time he wasnt lying down in the middle of the road. Fortunetely he has not yet been struck by a speeding car.

One of the most impressive vistas was the Fire Canyon Overlook. It was amazing how the red and white color change was so abrupt.

Marjory Kay really wanted to go on a hike so we hike the White Dome loop. This was a fun/easy trail that had a little bit of fun for everyone. There was scrambling, slot canyons and arches to explore and photograph all in a 1 1/2 mile hike.

One of my favorite parts of VOFSP is rock art record left by ancient inhabitants. Even in such a desolate, out of the way place, ancient civilizations found the place to be sacred as proven by the record of petroglyphs. The first picture is of the famous atlatl rock. I have a better pic of the atlatl that I will find later, but if you look at the very top you can barely see the atlatl.

Perhaps the most fun hike that the Reese children did was the hike to Mouses Tank. Mouse was a renegade Paiute who plagued the early settlers. He would hide in this canyon when the early white settlers searched for him. The reason the kids liked the canyon so much was the amount of lizards they found and unsuccessfully attempted to catch. I think Jackson counted over 20. I enjoyed the hike because in half a mile hundreds of rock art was easily found. My favorite one was a panel that included a desert tortoise.

Even pregnant, Renee is still HOT!!

A petroglyph of a desert tortoise (below, middle of picture)

Anasazi Ridge

Anasazi Ridge

I have been desirious to look at the petroglyphs located above the Santa Clara river for several months, but either due to weather, or lack of time I have not been able to go. Saturday I decided I would find them. As my wife and I drove towards St. George to run errands, I asked if she cared if we went on a little adventure. Luckily for me I am married to someone who understands me! She told me I had an hour, I would like to remind any reader she is over 6 months pregnant and hiking is not high on her list of things to do right now. As we hiked along there were several indicaters of rock art left by the Anasazi who lived in the area, and we found several panels on the top of the rocks. These petroglyphs are a little strange compared to the others I have seen. Traditionally they are carved on a verticle rock, most of these ones were carved on the top of horizontal rocks. After an hour my time was up and we decided it was time to turn around. As we began hiking back the same route, I heard voices coming below us. The voices were stationary so I assumed they must be looking at something. We hiked toward the voices and found the best panels of the entire hike. One shaman figure on one rock, and on another rock two very large goats with what appears to possibly be a mountain lion following them. Finally after my hour was well up, I thanked my beautiful wife for coming with me. I told her that finding these sites is like a pirate finding his treasure.

There is quite a bit of photographic potential here. On a clear day with the sun shining on the red cliffs behind it could be quite amazing.

The mountain goats are actually quite large the bodies are at least 1 ft x 2 ft. I dont know for sure but it looks like a mountain lion following them at the bottom right.

I wish we knew what this meant! A calendar? A map of some sort?
Amendment-Upon further research a similar pictograph I have seen was thought to be a blanket here is the link www.redrockadventure.com/rock_art/indian_blanket_pictograph.htm

Monument Valley Trip

ROAD TRIP

Over the summer I went on what basically amounted to a field trip for teachers. It was a memorable trip, but one with several missed opportunities. One of these opportunities was Monument Valley. We drove to within view of the monoliths but that was it. After the trip I decided to return someday. The ole wife, cory (bro-in-law) Jackson (nephew), Trevor(bro) and made the trip, this time to actually explore Monument Valley. The trip was a quick two dayer and we covered a lot of ground. We were up by sunrise and didnt put our heads down till well after sunset. Our first stop was the Betatakin ruins of Navajo National Monument. Unfortunately for us the rangers werent willing to hike with us down to the ruins and without the guides you are not allowed down to them. Fortunately for us they wouldnt go because it would have been a long cold, hike into the snow filled valley! In fact just hiking to the overlook young Jackson slipped on ice and threw a fit that could have awoken a hibernating grizzly. NNM is surely a place I will return to.
Monument Valley, while being a little commercialized, was an amazing location. The driving tour around the weathered landforms was well worth the time, and the two hikes that are allowed without a tour guide we found ourselves without any human company as we hiked around one of the "mittens." Day 2 of our trip we decided to head further south, and made our way to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Being at over 7000 ft it was frigid but at the same time was exhilarating. The air was clean and crisp and visibility was amazing. In fact we were able to see the Arizona Strips Mount Trumball from the South Rim. I would recommend a trip to the South Rim for everyone living in the southwestern United States. It is only a 4-5 hour drive from Southern Utah. I know the North Rim is much closer but going to the South Rim is a completely different experience from that of the North Rim.

SUNRISE ON THE SOUTH RIM

The WAVE!!!!

THE WAVE

When an opportunity to hike to the North Coyote Buttes aka the Wave one should do everything in your power to ensure that opportunity is not lost! Last week I found myself in this predicament. Friday afternoon Evan Cambell came to my classroom asking what I had going on Saturday. I told him I had work and I can clearly recall him saying "you have to get it off, I have permits to the Wave." With thoughts of the one of the most amazing surreal locations on earth racing through my mind I immediately began trying to arrange someone to work for me. After numerous denials I had one hope left and fortunately for me I did not lose the opportunity to make a second journey to the wave.

Leaving Hurricane at 6AM we (Lindsey Witt, Evan Cambell, Janessa Cambell and myself) drove the roughly two hours to the trail head. The road to the trailhead, deemed impassible when wet, was frozen, but the thought of returning on the same road after it became unfrozen was spoken of, but once again its the wave and one does whatever it takes even risking the potential of being stuck in the mud.

We quickly hiked the 2 1/2 miles to the wave and were the first ones there. All of us sat there stunned at the colors and uniqueness of such a god given location. What an amazing experience to be able to sit and meditiate without any distractions from the outside world. Because of our early departure we were able to enjoy the wave without any other hikers being in the proximity. Also because of our early hour we also had to experience the cold morning air prior to the sun rising over the cliffs above.

Hoping to get our blood pumping and warm up we decided to hike to two arches, a window and magnificent alcove above the wave. Thanks to the directions from Tonya and Bo's website "http://www.zionnational-park.com/coyote-buttes-paria.htm" we scrambled to the top of the slickrock mountain and found top rock arch, melody arch and window, and the alcove. Even though they are not extremely difficult to find it is still exhilarating when after hiking around semi turned around we found such places. The feeling must be somewhat comparible to finding a buried treasure!

After our "discoveries" we made it back down to the wave to find other hikers arriving. Fortunately all who made it to the wave this day all were respectful, and very friendly.

Eventually it was time to return to our car but on the way back we stopped at the mini-wave which can be found east of the wave and then began looking for the dinosaur tracks. We couldnt find the ones from Bo's directions and after giving up began our hike back. After hiking for about ten minutes I stepped on an odd impression in the sandstone and realized that I found the dinosaur tracks, probably different ones than the ones we were looking for. The reason I say this is the GPS coordinates were considerably different than the ones we had. What an amazing day! One to be remembered for years to come!

PS thanks to our fearless driver, Evan, we were able to return safely passing the impassible when wet road!

The Wave from above. The actual wave can be seen in the center-right of the photo.

What an amazing place! Only some higher power could have made something so impressive.

More Red Cliffs Desert Reserve

More Red Cliffs Desert Reserve

Ive decided that the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve (RCDR) is truly underrated! My latest trip there was one of my hiking highlights of 2008 and this time I was able to share the experience with Trevor. Without any source of information whatsoever(is this a word?), I plotted our journey up the north face of Sandstone Mountain, and then down the south side of the mountain (we are not mountain climbers, we merely found a possible way up and down without any type of technical skills other than scrambling) Once on top we were able to see LaVerkin, with an stunning view of West Temple in the background, the city of Hurricane, Leeds, Pinevalley, and as far south as Sand Hollow. After spending some time contemplating on top of the mountain we began to pick, or slide down the backside of the mountain. The best part of our trip was found tumbling down the mountain! Amazing colors, rock formations, even windows in the rocks dazzled our eyes and minds. I was nearly as impressed with the sights and colors we saw, as when I first saw the Wave in the Paria Wilderness Area. After nearly rolling our ankles on several occasion because we couldnt keep our eyes on the trail due to the beauty of the area, we were able to cross the backside of the mountain and reach the arch that I wrote about it an earlier posting. This time I had time to actually sit and enjoy the little arch.



Today was a day not soon to be forgotten for either me or Trevor! Here are some pictures.



1/2 way up the north face of Sandstone Mtn.

I have no idea how I took this picture, but it looks like Trevor is traveling through some time warp.

Overlooking LaVerkin and West Temple (ZNP)

We saw some CRAZY weathering of rocks!

Even the moss was more artistic in the RCDR

Some of the differences in color of the sandstone was similar to the Wave.

Just the icing on the cake of a perfect day

Red Cliffs Desert Reserve- Arch Trail

Due to the crazy amounts of snow the upper elevations of Southern Utah have received over the last two weeks I was left scrambling to find a new place to hike during the cold, snowy winter months and boy did I find it. In practically my back yard one can find peace, beauty and even natural free standing arches. During my research (thank you SCC for paying me to browse the internet) I found mention of a free standing arch. Basically all I found was one brief trail description and a couple pictures, but I decided that I would find this arch during my xmas break (thank you state of Utah and Washington County for giving me a two week xmas break this year!) Trevor and I made a quasi-attempt earlier this week but due to a snow/rain storm our excursion was cancelled. Luckily for me I did not give up hope but rather set out by myself on a cold December morning. Because of the lack of information of how to find this arch I found myself accidentally parking about 1-2 miles away from the trailhead, being lost for most of the time, finding myself somewhat stuck with the only option of sliding down a ten foot slab of slickrock, and scraping my knuckles up!!! But with a little determination I eventually found the needle in the haystack. While the arch isnt very large, it is still impressive, especially for southwestern Utah. It is somewhat reminiscent of delicate arch although on a much smaller scale. Once I found the arch, I also found the trail out, which was much easier and faster than my scramble down the mountain trail.