All Fired up!
As Pat Benatar's song goes, we're "All Fired Up" for next week's Grand Canyon rim to rim hike!  Her song is a fitting accompaniment to the goblet squat video below.  Fred and I needed elevation training, so we went to Palm Springs, my old stomping grounds, and hiked the Skyline Trail for a gain of 4,700 feet, the same Bright Angel Trail gain on the south rim of the Grand Canyon. 

​We encountered too much snow at 8,000 feet in the Pine Valley Mountains just to the north of St. George, preventing a good elevation gain.  My last post, Grand Canyon Rim to Rim In One Day:  Training in St. George, Utah, explains how we got creative with emulating distance and elevation.  We did great on the Skyline; we're now ready for the big hike!

New goal:  hike to the tram this October with some of our hiking buddies.  Oh, the nostalgia and the beauty of this mountain!
I'm grateful that I can still be hiking it 31 years later - let's say that the Advil this time was very helpful!

La Verkin Creek Trail to Kolob Arch - Zion NP
This long hike features attributes found in Zion National Park's main canyon, including an arch, sandstone cliffs and a river but without the throngs of people.  It's in the northern Kolob Canyons section, has a spur trail to impressive Kolob Arch, and also meets up with the Hop Valley Trail, a route to the main Zion Canyon.  We hiked 7 miles in to Kolob Arch and back for a total of 14 miles, the same distance as Grand Canyon's North Kaibab Trail.  It drops down from the parking lot at Lee Pass Trailhead into the La Verkin Creek drainage.  The same mileage as our Skyline Trail hike, but not nearly the same elevation gain.  

We've got one more training hike on Zion's West Rim Trail this week with Lindy and Jeff, and then we should be good to go for the Grand Canyon.  We are lucky to have such inspirational places, some of the most beautiful on Earth, in which to train!

Strengthening exercise for powerful hill climbing:  Goblet Squats 
I have found that since I started doing CrossFit and working on strengthening my legs, I have more stability and power for steeper hiking.  Goblet squats can be done with a kettlebell as well as two dumbbells, each resting on your shoulders.
Strengthens your core (trunk) muscles, glutes and hips.  Points to remember:

• Feet hip-to shoulder-width apart with toes pointed slightly outwards.
• Hold dumbbell or kettlebell at your chest with your elbows pointing down.
• Pull in and "zip" up your abdominals, raise  your sternum up, squeeze shoulder blades together.
• Look forward:  inhale as you squat, holding weight against chest - don't lean forward - keep trunk upright.
• Lower hips to below knee level, then squeeze your glutes as you push to stand through your mid-feet and heels.
• Keep your knees tracking over your toes.
• Exhale, repeat and know you are that much stronger to climb hills!

​​The First Cactus to Clouds Challenge - October 1993
Summit of Mt. San Jacinto, 10,804'.
From left to right:  Sue Birnbaum, (don't remember his name), Roger Keezer, Maria Keezer, Ray Wilson, and Vickie Kearney seated in the middle.

​On May 23, we will be walking Grand Canyon from its north rim to its south rim in one day - again.  Fred and I first hiked this 23 years ago, to celebrate birthday #40 for both of us.  We hiked it on our 50th.  We talked about doing it for our 60th, but it wasn't until our friend Robin asked us to go that we got our motivation to train for rim to rim #3.  Jeff will do it too, and Lindy will train with us but when it comes to the big day, she has generously offered to drop us off at the north rim and drive all the way around to the south rim to pick us up.

Since January, Fred, Jeff, Lindy, Robin and I have been hiking the most challenging trails near St. George, Utah and in Zion National park.  Creative planning like linking trails together ensures optimal distance and elevation training.  We need to be able to cover 23 miles and a 4,500' gain for rim to rim.  Just when your legs are tired from descending 14 miles on North Kaibab Trail, you face the biggest challenge:  climbing up Bright Angel Trail for another 9.4 miles.  And temperatures on the climb out can be hot, which was the case when we did this hike 23 years ago.  We ended up soaking our hats in streams on the way up to cool off.  Fred drank 9 liters of water!  The next day, we hiked back to the north rim.

Some of Our Training Hikes

• Snow Canyon south to north
• Wittwer Canyon/Land Hill - Santa Clara River Reserve
• Zion NP - West Rim Trail
• Red Mountain Traverse in Red Mountain Wilderness
• Zion NP Kolob Canyons section - LaVerkin Creek Trail to Kolob Arch
• Suicidal Tendencies Trail, Barrel Roll Trail and Ivins "badlands"

Planned training:  Skyline Trail in Palm Springs, a portion of Cactus to Clouds hike, a 10,300-foot gain challenge that Ray Wilson and I created in 1993.

Strengthening for Hill Climbing - Walking Lunge with Overhead Weight
Climbing out of the Grand Canyon requires strong glutes!  The most important function of your gluteus medius during hiking is to stabilize your pelvis to keep it level while standing on one leg (stance phase of walking).  The stronger they are, the better protection for your knees, and the more efficiently they work, the less energy you waste.  Walking lunges challenge your glute and core strength.  Holding a weight over your head adds more challenge to your core musculature including abdominals and back extensors, as well as your shoulder girdle stabilizers (rhomboids, trapezius, serratus).  Good training for scrambling hikes where you have to use hands to propel up rocks.
Action:
Hold dumbell or kettlebell overhead with elbow straight, next to your ear. Or, you could hold the weight in a "goblet" position next to your chest.  Take a large step forward, that knee should not go ahead of your foot.  Opposite knee taps the ground.  Squeeze glute on stance leg to raise to lunge with opposite leg.

Snow Canyon from Bottom to Top and Then Some:  Berm Trail to Joan's Bones (12 miles RT,  ~1600' net gain)
Berm Trail → Padre' Canyon Trail → Red Sands Trail → West Rim Trail → Lava Flow Trail → Whiterocks Trail →Joan's Bones → car at Whiterocks Trailhead.   
Living near Utah's Snow Canyon State Park sure has its advantages.  Each time I hike in this Navajo Sandstone paradise, I love it more.  We started near where we live, caught the berm trail and walked to the Whiterocks Trail on the north side of the park, then walked east to almost the top of Joan's Bones.  This route features gorgeous pools in cross bedded sandstone, soaring orange and red towers, petrified sand dunes, and pristine white sandstone slickrock strewn with black basalt boulders. 
Joan's Bones hike is on AllTrails (misspelled as "Jones Bones").

Ivins and Santa Clara, Utah:  Suicidal Tendencies Trail and the "Badlands."
The "badlands" is my nickname for the landscape west of Land Hill in Ivins, and east of the Beaver Dam Mountains because it reminds me of South Dakota's badlands.   A spectacular view of this formidable-looking red and white striped land cracked by crooked canyons and washes and plateaus with well-established biological soils can be savored from the top of Land Hill.  We hiked Wittwer Canyon, a major tributary that washes into Santa Clara River. 
Fred and I put together a 10-mile hike that linked the petroglyph trails on Land Hill to cross the Santa Clara River, to wander through the "badlands" to find a way to link to the Barrel Roll Trail in the Cove Wash Trails.
​In just one hike, Fred and I saw all the "cool stuff on this trail," (see photos below) and then some.  A conglomerate boulder hanging on the steep wall under Land Hill looks like it has embedded dinosaur tracks.  I called the local paleontologist; stay tuned!​

We're fortunate to have Colorado Plateau hiking to the east of us and Mojave Desert hiking to the west.  One day we hiked the 11-mile Suicidal Tendencies, a popular mountain bike trail with scary drop-offs.  The more we hike this part of Utah, the more we find to explore.  Not only are the views magnificent - black lava flows blend with red and orange cliffs, signs of past cultures and geological events adds a lot character to this part of southern Utah. My next post (rim to rim training, part 2) will highlight another Zion hike and Red Mountain Traverse.

 
​The fascinating rock art on the Tempi'po'op Trail (Anasazi Valley Trail) in Ivins, Utah, made by the Virgin Ancestral Puebloan and Southern Paiute cultures hundreds and possibly thousands of years ago can be discovered for more than two miles along the cliffs of Land Hill, overlooking the Santa Clara River.  Additionally, many more petroglyphs are pecked into huge boulders and sheer walls beneath Land Hill, next to  the river.  Each time I explore this part of the Santa Clara River Reserve, I find new petroglyphs. ​

On a recent wander, I discovered two intriguing petroglyph sites that I had previously passed by. ​

Although this petroglyph doesn't have head gear or ornamental adornment, it does have other features of Fremont rock art:  splayed fingers and earrings or "hairbobs."  The serpentine figure to its left, ending at its leg resembles the "rattlesnake" petroglyph located just below on a boulder facing Land Hill's cliffs.

Is a Snake Biting the Figure with the Drooping Hands?
The second amazing petroglyph I found is on top of Land Hill along the Een'oog Trail, on the cliffs above the Santa Clara River.
It's totally repatinated, blends into the rock, so it's easily missed (see above).  Its drooping arms, termed "pendant" by scientists, round head, hair bobs, long rectangular or slightly trapezoidal (wider at the shoulders), and feet and hands pointing down match the description I found of the Anasazi Basketmaker culture - 500 BC - 800 AD.  The term "Anasazi" has now been replaced by "Ancestral Puebloan."

A serpentine-like line winds its way from the left side of the figure to the figure's leg.  

These “representational” styles are typically associated with Fremont and Western Puebloan cultures (ca. 2,000-750 years ago) in southeastern Nevada, Utah, and the Colorado Plateau. These semi-horticultural groups made rock art that featured  human-like forms portrayed by trapezoidal, rectangular, or triangular body shapes. These were often portrayed with bodily decoration such as headgear, jewelry, or decorated clothing.  

In my research, I found the Classic Vernal-Style (a sub-set of Fremont Style) Anthropomorph has large heads and trapezoidal torsos with well-defined extremities.  The Fremont style tends to have round earbobs and arms and hands held down, commonly with splayed fingers.

In western Utah, there is an intermix of Great Basin Curvilinear and Fremont styles.

Ancestral Puebloan farmers lived in the Land Hill area in permanent settlements ~ 1,000 years ago.  The Santa Clara River gave them a good water supply to irrigate their crops.  During A.D. 700 - 1100, population on Land Hill thrived, but then around 1200 A.D., population decreased possibly due to changing climatic conditions.

I found an old corn cob in a grassy area beneath the cliffs next to the river (see photo below).  Every kernel had been removed.  It couldn't have survived hundreds of years!  Or could it have been exhumed after the record-setting rains of 2022-2023 that caused a major landslide at an area close to it?  

References
Bureau of Land Management.  Land Hill Heritage Site.
Malotki, Ekkehart.  The Rock Art of Arizona:  Art for LIfe's Sake.  From website:  Bradshaw Foundation.
Mangum, M.E. 2018.  Lithics and Mobility at Land Hill and Hidden Hills:  A Study of the Stone Tools and Debitage at Sites in the Santa Clara River Basin and on the Shivwits Plateau.  Brigham Young University ProQuest Dissertations Publishing,  2018. 28107515.
National Park Service.  Reading Rock Markings.
​Schaafsma, P.  1971.  The Rock Art of Utah.
Schaafsma, P.  1980.  Indian Rock Art of the Southwest.
​Scotter, T. Bowen , N.  2017.  The Rock Art of Utah.
​The Nevada Rock Art Foundation - Styles and Themes
​Willis, J.C., Hayden, J.M.  2015.  Geologic Map of the Santa Clara Quadrangle, Washington County, Utah.

Our New Year's Day Hike
Fred and I have a tradition of hiking on New Years Day.  For 2024, we took friends to the top of Red Mountain and across its beautiful plateau to a high point dubbed "On Top of the World" by our friend Dan.  From here, you stand 1,400 feet over an outstanding view of Snow Canyon's petrified yellow sand dunes and orange ridges, black basalt flows from northern volcanoes near Veyo.  It's worth the orange sand trudge on the top to get there.  This short, five-mile hike packs in a good variety of terrain.  The first mile climbs steeply through a cliff band requiring some fun Class 3 (un-roped using hands to climb) maneuvers, gaining 1,300 feet.  The next 1.5 miles initially descends through a beautiful juniper woodland bowl where Gunsight Pass can be reached to the southeast. You will trek through sand, washes, over slick rock then climb to a sandy saddle where our "On Top of the World" high point can finally be seen.   Then it's a matter of making a ~0.5-mile beeline to it across relatively level terrain, traversing minor washes, dodging cacti and prickly shrubs. 

​When you top-off onto Red Mountain's plateau, you initially follow the north/south Red Mountain Primitive Trail for ~1.2 miles, then a short jaunt off of it to the northeast to reach On Top of the World, elevation 4,765'.  Red Mountain Primitive Trail's northern trailhead is located just north of Diamond Cinder Cone on Utah Highway 18.

​It's a fun little scramble to the cairned top, using your hands a few times to climb easy rocks, overlooking Padre Canyon and Tuacahn Center for the Arts to the southeast.  Once you summit, the rugged terrain drops steeply below with a breathtaking view of Snow Canyon, with a few smooth slick rock benches above it that look interesting to explore or camp in.

Can't think of a better way to celebrate the New Year:  friends and the reward of finding our own way to a seldom-visited summit in one of the most beautiful places in the southwest.  Great "medicine" for the soul, body and mind.

Our Trip - Badwater Basin, Artist's Palette Peak, Sheephead Mountain
On August 20, 2023, Tropical Storm Hilary dumped a year's worth of rainfall on Death Valley National Park, transforming famous Badwater Basin into a spectacular sight: a huge turquoise-colored, salt-rimmed lake reflecting massive mountains on both sides.  This rare occurrence is reminiscent of Pleistocene Lake Manly, a deep ice-age body of water that once filled this basin and dried up about 10,000 years ago.  Although not as deep and extensive as its predecessor, it was still an amazing sight to see, especially at sunset.  Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America, is normally a salt flat cut into hexagons, and freeze/thaw hummocks - soft yet crunchy to walk on.  Fred and I had hurried from Shoshone Village, a 45-minute drive to the southeast, to get there by sunset.  There were a few other photographers, their mirror-images appearing unbroken in the still, shallow, and salty water.  It was so quiet and remote that we could hear their conversations.  

​For the past three years, we have stayed and hiked in the Death Valley National Park area during the Christmas holiday.  In 2021, we hiked Pahrump Point out of Chicago Valley in the Nopah mountains with our friend Scott.  In 2022, Fred and I hiked the awesome Pyramid Peak in the Funeral Mountains, and in 2023 we got to experience the magic of Badwater Basin's reflections and also hike Artists Palette Peak and Sheephead Mountain in the Ibex Wilderness. Hikes are challenging in Death Valley, a rough and rocky place - remote, stoic and mysterious.  That's why we love it.  A land that has experienced a lot of turmoil, yet stands defiant.

How Long will Badwater Basin's Lake Last?
The depth of the lake was about four inches where I stood after walking through thick (and sharp!) salt deposits at  the lake margins.  The evaporation rate in Death Valley is 120-150 inches per year.  I read one source that stated the depth was two feet right after the storm.  The evaporation rate is the highest in the U.S., so get out and see it soon!  The Landsat images below show relative evaporation in 10.5 weeks (images 2 and 3).  Note that the northern, smaller body of water appears to have mostly dried up already.

The obstacle in the above photo is where another Artist's Palette Peak hiker who recorded his trip on Peakbagger website turned around.  Stav Basis, in his route description of this hike advises that if you are hiking Twenty Mule Team Canyon to ascend it rather than descend it to make sure you can maneuver the Class 3+ stuff and you don't get stuck.

​The next canyon we attempted to the northwest of Twenty Mule Team Canyon had footprints in it, possibly from a group of hikers we saw at the trailhead.  We followed it, fun scrambling over easy walls, until we were diverted out of the canyon to see a steep and loose talus slope with no end in sight.  It's frustrating to know that "obstacles" like this get in your way of seeing your intended peaks and knowing there was less-steep terrain above.  But that's why off-trail route finding in Death Valley is so rewarding - you have really earned the view from the summit and the access to the peak register.

Sheephead Mountain  (13 ascents on Peakbagger - A Sierra Club Desert Peaks Section Peak)
I had been looking forward to hiking in the Ibex Wilderness, so the next day when we hiked to Sheephead Mountain, we were remote and alone, except for the occasional motorist on Highway 178, which begins at Shoshone, then heads west through two passes to turn north as it becomes Badwater Road, hugging the east side of Death Valley.  We parked in a pull-out at Salsberry Pass, about 12 miles from Shoshone.

The faint trail that headed southeast toward Sheephead soon became non-existent, so the approach was a maze of red washes and rubbly hills.  We located our daunting-looking mountain to the south.  We ascended a rotten, slippery and steep ridge of yellow scree too soon.  Once we got on top of this yellow high point, we realized it would have been easier to ascend the red ridge just to the south, leading more directly to the saddle on the final ridge to Sheephead, which looked like a tower with more loose scree slopes flanking its sides.  We didn't have the motivation in us to attempt the rock piles.  From the saddle we found an easier way down over a ridge and then dropping into a wash.  We instead walked back to the highway, crossing it and wandering on a ridge toward Salsberry Peak, seeing occasional bighorn sheep signs.

Wrap-Up of 2023 hiking - The Year of Grudge Peaks
This year we did more remote desert route-planning and finding on unmarked terrain with no trails in Utah's Zion Wilderness and San Rafael Swell, Nevada and Death Valley.  Occasionally we see cairns that let us know some other hardy souls had stood in the same place.  Walking without a trail takes more time.   As a result, we had more "grudge peaks" this year - ones where we did not make the summit.  Mummy Mountain was the most frustrating;  we were within 200 feet of the summit and ran into a deep and steep snow-filled gully with no great footing to get out of it to a narrow shelf to the top.  Scott, Fred and I will hopefully try this summit again but from the more-used trail on other side of the mountain.  Other "grudges" this year were Hepworth in Zion, and Bearing Peak in Lake Mead National Park.  Moapa's knife's edge we're not sure we would attempt again.  Successful summits included Shelly Baldy in the Tushars, Mt. Kimball in Tucson, Jackson Peak near Boise, and Burger Peak in Pine Valley Mountains.  And, the summit of Angels Landing was sweet because we got to hike it with my sis and bro-in-law.

One of my favorite authors, Willa Cather famously said, "The road is all, the end is nothing."  As far as reaching summits, I would have to respectfully disagree.  The way to the summit is a great experience, but to stand on the summit after you've worked hard to climb it is even sweeter.

So, is it our age or the pursuit of more technically challenging hikes that are preventing us from reaching our goals?  I like to think it's a little of the first and mostly the last of those two reasons.  Should we focus less on goals and more on appreciating just "being out there?" - not to always define "success" as achieving a summit?  Of course, I love being out there in our American West, but my goal-driven trait wants more.  At any rate, it's been fun to try something different and work on navigation skills in more remote country.  I count myself as one of the lucky ones who gets to even consider this conundrum in the first place.

References
Fish, N.  From Indiana University.  https://sierra.sitehost.iu.edu/papers/2008/fish.html
Doermann, L.  NASA Earth Observatory.  Floodwaters Fill Badwater Basin.
Hunt, C.B., et al.  1966.  Hydrologic Basin Death Valley California.  Geological Survey Professional Paper 494-B.

An unexpected sight greeted Fred and I on our favorite local loop-hike last month in Snow Canyon State Park.  Just off Whiptail trail, suspended high in a gap between orange cliffs, an enormous American flag floated, seemingly out of place in in these walls of Navajo Sandstone.  People were lined up, taking pictures of this spectacular sight.  The flag, in the still air hung vertically, but billowed and rolled with occasional breezes, the bottom edge of it flying gracefully towards the sky.    I suppose you could ask what visitors were thinking about this huge flag in this gorgeous natural setting and you would probably get different answers, ranging from the emotion of national pride and patriotism to "Wow!  That's pretty cool!" to "Why is it hanging here?"  For me, my heart swelled because two things that I love were juxtaposed:  a symbol of my country and the land of the American West.

Strength, unity, connection, freedom - these are what the American flag is intended to signify.  The stripes represent the original 13 colonies that were seceding from the British.  The blue canton contains the stars of our 50 states.  Blue represents vigilance, perseverance, and justice.  White signifies purity and innocence, and red signifies hardiness and valor.

This proved to be a good exercise in brushing up on my flag facts, reading America's unique Declaration of Independence, and learning of the efforts going on to unify our country.  Pew and Gallup polls show that a record high number of Americans perceive the nation as divided on the most important issues.  Maybe Follow the Flag and other organizations can help us see the positive and help us remember the ideals of our country's origin.  

Our Trip
This time Fred and I decided to "leap" out of our comfort hiking zone and try something more challenging:  canyoneering!  Although Yankee Doodle Hollow is rated as a "beginner" canyoneering hike, rappelling - especially the first drop into the canyon - was a challenge for us.  This brief foray into these beautifully-polished and sinuous narrows rated as one of our favorites for 2023.  Also on my list of favorites is the "Subway" - Left Fork of North Creek in spectacular Zion National Park, another journey into rock carved by water. 

My friend Brian from CrossFit Dixie has been canyoneering in this area of southern Utah, including Zion.  He invited me on previous canyoneering trips but I was always too intimidated to go.   He guided us on this short foray, setting up the ropes on the rappel anchors and instructing us on how to control the rope in our rappel device.  He got us all set up with our harnesses and locking carabiners.

Brian's friend Jorey, who had never rappelled before, joined us.  The joy on his face when he completed the first long rappel into the canyon and overcame his fear of heights was priceless.  He was so afraid to take the initial "leap" into the void.  Fred and I had learned climbing techniques on a guided Grand Teton hike, but I was still pretty nervous. 

​Canyon Origins
Not sure how this canyon got its name.  Was it named by miners in the area, or Mormon Leeds settlers?  Yankee Doodle Hollow Creek originates from the highlands under the cliffs of the Pine Valley Mountains.

This area of southwestern Utah is complicated geologically-speaking, with uplifts, gravity slides, compressional structures (uplift), extensional structures (faults), and more.  One look at the Geologic Map of St. George area and you might agree.  So many rock units from Permian time (300 million years ago) until present.

Although a shorter and shallower canyon compared to legendary Zion canyons, Yankee Doodle Hollow still has the pretty curved and smooth cross-bedded walls of spectacular Navajo Sandstone - one of nature's works of art.  You don't have to get a permit or arrange for shuttles between canyon entry and exit points, like you have to do in Zion.

After we had completed all of the down-climbs we did a Class 3 steep slick rock scramble out of the canyon, slightly rubber-stained from many climbing shoes, as it opened up to the left.  The Class 2 path up to the rim was discernible.  If you keep going past this exit point, you continue walking down Yankee Doodle Hollow, you intersect with Heath Wash, where you would take a left (north) onto Heath Trail, which takes you back to FR031. 

Fun stuff!  Glad Brian finally got me out there.  Hopefully we can do more canyoneering....but Fred and I always default to the above-ground adventures!

A portion of the​ ​GEOLOGIC MAP OF THE ST. GEORGE AND EAST PART OF THE CLOVER MOUNTAINS 30' X 60' QUADRANGLES, WASHINGTON AND IRON COUNTIES, UTAH by Biek, R.F., et al.
The pink rock unit at top-center of photo is Pine Valley Mountains (quartz monzonite laccolith).
The Jurassic Navajo Sandstone is the light-green unit that presents as a kind of semi-circle around the base of Pine Valley Mountains, a ​much older unit, that is the main rock seen in Zion National Park.
The City of St. George is located at the bottom of the map.

Reference
Biek, R.F.  2010. Geologic Map of the St. George and East Part of the Clover Mountains 30' x 60' quadrangles, Washington and Iron Counties, Utah.  Utah Geological Survey.

This ultra-popular journey through Zion National Park's Left Fork of North Creek to the "Subway" and all of its gorgeous and calming water cascades - one after the other - exceeded my expectations and turned out to be a favorite hike for 2023.  Having scored a permit only two weeks before, we were able to park in the Left Fork Trailhead parking lot (you have to put a permit tag on your dashboard), descend from Kolob Terrace to travel this stream to a magical world of green pools, red waterfalls and a tunnel of fern-covered sandstone walls.  It takes about three miles of boulder-hopping and clear stream wading to get to the spectacular stuff, but it's so well worth it.

I went with three friends who knew the route, and other friends who were seeing Subway for the first time also.  The pathway up the Left Fork is pretty straight forward:  it heads up-canyon, and around a major waterfall in about 3.5 miles from the trailhead.  Much time is spent walking in the crystal-clear water.

Less-Traveled Kolob Terrace:  Beautiful Forests, Wondrous Canyons and Colorful Sandstone Peaks
Compared to Zion Canyon, which received a record number of visitors - five million in 2021 - Kolob Terrace, Zion's west section, is a much-less visited area of Zion National Park.  It's accessed via Kolob Terrace Road that ultimately ends at the Kolob Reservoir at an elevation of 8,100 feet - a marvelous place to see in autumn with the blue water and yellow cottonwood trees.  A good list of adventures is posted in Joe Braun's Hikes in the Kolob Terrace.  Kolob Terrace is also a great place for star-gazing and astrophotography.  Zion NP became certified as an International Dark Sky Park in 2021.

Das Boot is another classic Zion canyon on Kolob Terrace.  It involves dark, convoluted narrows and long swims.  If you prefer to be above the land instead of below, there are knolls named Spendlove, Cave and Tinaja to climb.

​Peak time on the Subway hike for fall color is late October/early November to capture the bright red and yellow leaves that fall in the round potholes and decorate the deep red sandstone cascades.  Looking down into the Left Fork from the rim, yellow cottonwood trees line the bottom water course.

The hike begins in a volcanic rock flow for ~ 0.5 miles from trailhead to rim, and in fact, it's important to note these black volcanic rocks on the rim when you get down into the creek, so you have a mental picture of the place you came down, and you don't pass it up on the way back out of the water.  The 400' descent from the rim is steep and slippery in a few places.

As you hike upstream, negotiating many pools, boulders and rocks, you occasionally catch glimpses of the magnificent Navajo Sandstone formations on the plateau above.  We didn't pause too long because we had four miles of relatively slow hiking and the day was short.

Amazing Place!
And then you reach the almost supernatural world of the "Subway".  Hanging ferns thrive on the dripping curved walls and round-sculpted lime green pools appear with water continuously pouring in and out.  How did this stream sculpt this almost perfect tunnel?  Crimson sandstone, polished by continuous water flow is slippery, I saw a few other hikers take minor tumbles.  A few in our party waded through the cold deeper pools at the end of this section to a small waterfall.

A few climbers with full wetsuits were descending from the Subway top down route which involves rappelling and deep water swims - the canyoneering route that begins further upstream.  Sounds like a worthy goal for a future hike!

Finding the point at which the trail leaves the canyon to ascend steeply to the rim was not difficult.  I had the waypoint recorded on my GPS, so I knew we were getting close.  Signs mark the way out of the stream, but it's best to remember the scene you memorized on the way in:  the black volcanic rocks next to the orange sandstone on the rim.

References
Biek, R.F., et al.  2010.  Geologic Map of the St. George and East Part of the Clover Mountains 30' x 60' quadrangles, Washington and Iron Counties, Utah.  Utah Geological Survey.

​Beeline Route Out and Back

• Descend from Egypt Trailhead to base of bowl:  0 - 0.7 miles
• Cross Egypt Bench to Escalante River:  0.7 - 3.8 miles
• Neon Canyon to Golden Cathedral:  3.8 - 5.0 miles

The reward for three miles of sand trudging interspersed with short beds of slickrock through open country with little shade except from the occasional juniper or pinyon pine is the brilliant and glowing red, orange and purple soaring Neon Canyon  walls.  The grand finale of this hike is the huge skylights and manganese-stained grotto walls of Golden Cathedral at the end of Neon, reflected in a pool beneath.

​Now I can see how Neon Canyon got its name.  The colors are intense.  Canyoneers rappel through the opening, getting access from a trail on its west rim.  Stav is Lost website has a good canyoneering trip description of Neon Canyon.

Fred and I got close to this remote marvel a few weeks before, but we heard thunder and saw clouds building when we got near Neon's opening, so we nixed the plan of going up this narrow canyon and headed back to the trailhead via Beeline Trail.  On that hike, we checked out the huge petroglyph panel along the Escalante River, approaching from the Fence Canyon route.

From the trailhead, identify Point 5270, a round dome to the east.  That is your landmark to hike toward, as Neon Canyon is just to its left.   The terrain that spreads before you is "Egypt," an elevated bench above the Escalante River, which flows right in front of Point 5270.  The "Standard" Golden Cathedral Trail aims toward and travels along the north rim of Fence Canyon on the left in image below.  The Beeline Trail goes in a more or less straight line toward Point 5270.   A map of our GPS tracks hiking the Standard/Beeline loop is on my last post Neon Canyon/Escalante River Petroglyphs Hiking Directions.​  

The canyon walls at Neon's opening and all the way through are stunning; trees growing against them seem small in scale.  A path leads through a garden of wildflowers in September.   A trail on the left side of the first bend in the canyon takes you above Neon's west rim and to the beginning of the canyoneering route.

After a walk in the cool shade of Neon, reach Golden Cathedral in a little over a mile.  We saw evidence of a recent flash flood in the fresh carved sand on the stream banks.  The pool reflects the three skylights above.

We stayed for awhile, appreciating the serenity, until the sun started to fill the canyon, shining on part of the grotto.  The best time to photograph Golden Cathedral is before the sun hits it, so you don't get too much contrast.  The reflected light from the upper Neon through the skylights is what gives the glow to these beautiful walls.

With every Escalante visit, our to-do list grows exponentially in this land of remarkable personality.  There's so much out there to explore!

This prominent gap in the Red Hills has one of the most abundant collections of American West petroglyphs, including the most unusual of all - the Zipper Glyph.

Iconic Parowan - the "Zipper Glyph"
Interpretations of this petroglyph include a solar calendar because it has 180 notches coinciding with the 180 days it takes for the sun to move between summer and winter solstices.   The Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah interprets this as the story of a great Leader during a migration where many people experienced famine, drought, water crossings, cold and ice.

Petroglyph "Heaven"
To rock art aficionados, Parowan Gap must be petroglyph heaven, not only because of its famous "Zipper Glyph", but also the amazing quality and number of petroglyphs there - rock after rock, panel after panel (90 of them!).  Some believe that this site has the most concentrated petroglyph assemblage of any in the American west.  Some of the rock carvings may be as old as 5,000 years, the majority of them made by the people of the Fremont culture.  To today's Paiute and Hopi tribes, this is a spiritual site.

The Parowan Gap is a stream-cut valley and narrows through the Red Hills, just west of Little Salt Lake, north of Cedar City, and 10 miles northwest of Parowan, Utah.  The petroglyphs are located in a dramatic V-shaped notch at the western edge of this gap, a great place for indigenous peoples to carve their petroglyphs during their migrations.

I was looking forward to seeing the Zipper Glyph in person.  With two "arms" and 180 notches, people who believe in the astroarchaeological (AKA archaeoastronomy) interpretation see this mysterious petroglyph as a solar calendar.  If you look closely at the Zipper Glyph, it resembles the notch in the Parowan Gap.  It is believed that this glyph is a map with relating equinoxes and solstices.

However, the modern Paiute Tribe of Utah had a different interpretation:  a migration of the old world to the new.  The Paiutes say that the Zipper Glyph represents a long trail of hardship in which their great Leader was killed.  The two "arms" in this case are the Leader's body shown upside down with his head at the bottom.

An interpretive sign illustrating the belief that the "Zipper Glyph" was used to chart celestial movements.

Interpretive sign that describes the Utah Paiute Tribe's interpretation of the Zipper Glyph.

Parowan is nicknamed "the Mother Town of the Southwest." It's a city that has gone through a lot of changes since it first began mining iron in the 1800's.  Now its main industries are tourism and recreation, including Brian Head, a year-round resort where we like to go skiing.  It was first called "City of Little Salt Lake," because of its proximity to Little Salt Lake, a now salty playa to its west.  It was renamed "Parowan," a native American word meaning "evil water."  This lake is a key geographic feature relating to the formation of the Parowan Gap.

Fred and I had just hiked the astonishing Cosmic Ashtray in Grand Staircase-Escalante the day before, so we were on our way home.  I had to talk him into seeing Parowan Gap; he doesn't normally want to go too far out of the way to see petroglyphs but with these he was pretty darn impressed.

On the same Grand Staircase trip, we also hiked to a huge petroglyph panel along the Escalante River in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, near the opening to Neon Canyon.  Bear paws march up out of sight on this tall rock face, a rattlesnake slithers, and Fremont-culture warriors stand as just a few petroglyph examples.  If you don't mind slogging through four miles of sand and slick rock, wading, and navigating, you can find these remote glyphs.

It's believed that the Fremont culture made most of the Parowan Gap rock carvings 700-1,500 years ago, although the area has been inhabited for thousands of years before that.  Typically the designs are abstract and geometric, although there are some lizards, snakes, and mountain sheep pecked into the Jurassic Navajo sandstone.  Many petroglyphs are located very high, out of reach on the hillside.

Check it out - you won't be disappointed!  The interpretive signs make this a nice site.  A great place to go afterwards if you are hungry is Centro Woodfired Pizzeria in downtown Cedar City.

Keep on Exploring!

The "narrows" at the west end of the Parowan Gap.  Ancient waters carved this opening in the Red Hills.

Extensive abstract petroglyphs on both sides of Gap Road, which passes through the Parowan Gap.

Interpretation of the panel above by Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, from interpretive signs at the site.

Another Parowan  Gap interpretive sign.

References:
Maldonado, F., et al.  Geologic Map of the Parowan Gap Quadrangle, Iron County, Utah.  U.S. Geological Survey.

Wilkerson, C.   2018.  Geosights:  Parowan Gap, Iron County.

Orndorff, R.L., et al.  Geology Underfoot in Southern Utah.  2020.   Mountain Press Publishing Company.

Parowan City Corportation website.
​
​Wadsworth, Rueben.  2019.  Parowan Gap day;  Interpretations and Mysteries of a Petroglyph Heaven.  Cedar City News Archives.