Day 6-8: East Rim, Hidden Canyon, Deertrap Mountain, Kolob finger canyon+Red Rock

OwenM

OwenM

Joined
Oct 26, 2000
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Day 6:
Started up the East Rim Trail from Weeping Rock trailhead, played around in Hidden Canyon, and the accessible section of Echo Canyon's slot system, traversed Echo Canyon to the plateau beyond, visited Stave Spring, and hiked across desert scrub on the plateau to camp on the edge of Deertrap Mountain overlooking Zion Canyon. I find slot canyons, and the idea of exploring them, pretty exciting, and am going to solo some easy ones on my next trip, along with taking a 3 day canyoneering course.

Deer near the trailhead:
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Foliage just before switchbacks up to the Hidden Canyon trail, and an exposed section of trail leading around to the canyon:
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Zoomed in view of the cable works on Cable Mountain that were used to lower lumber into the main canyon to avoid several days' trip by wagon to the canyon mouth:
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Same pic zoomed out:
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Echo Canyon. I love this place, and pics don't do it any justice at all:
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Looking back into Echo Canyon:
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Then into the scrub.
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I had this image in my mind of Stave Spring being a pool with a spring bubbling, but they have the spring rocked over with a pipe for the water to come out...
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I like my water filtering system:)
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Looking back across the scrub. That was a miserable section to hike, with unrelenting sun whose path the trail followed so that it was right in my face the whole time. Sunglasses weren't enough. Now I know why cowboys wear those broad-brimmed hats!
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This is from where I made camp on the edge of Deertrap Mountain, just as the sun went below the horizon:
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Day 7:
Headed out an hour before sunrise.

Bighorn sheep in Echo Canyon! This is zoomed in all the way, so the quality sucks.
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Having hiked out, I returned to Kolob Canyons to explore a finger canyon that had looked interesting when I did La Verkin Creek that first day.
I was headed to campsite #3 afterwards, but it began to rain, then turn to snow, so I made camp at campsite #1 instead, since noone was using it.
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This was my objective for the day. I wanted to follow the water back to see if there was a waterfall or something, but it got dark really early in that canyon, even though it was broad daylight upon exiting.
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If you don't like the weather, just wait a minute...
4:20pm
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4:22pm
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4:52pm
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4:52pm
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5:22pm
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5:23pm Serious wind with debris and snow.
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5:59pm..except for the brush flattened by the wind, and some leftover snow, it's like nothing happened.
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Day 8: Kolob to Red Rock-Lost Creek, Ice Box Canyon
The following morning, after spending quite some time de-icing the windshield, I headed back to Las Vegas, and to Red Rock National Recreation Area. Did Lost Creek trail, and then Ice Box Canyon.
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Lost Creek was a nice(short!) little trail.
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The waterfall at the end was dry...
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Then came the return to my nemesis, Ice Box Canyon. This is where I thought I broke my ankle, and tore a bunch of ligaments this past March on the last day of my vacation. I started to climb up into a side canyon, and rappel out, since I had my stuff with me for that very purpose, but decided against it. Last time I left this canyon I got wheeled around the airport in a wheelchair, and couldn't hike for 4 months...
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Waterfall at the end of the canyon, almost dry:
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Side canyon:
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I climbed the webbing, and started to replace it, but this is where I decided not to push my luck on my last day.
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The site of the late unpleasantness. It was a bigger fall than I remembered taking(jumping onto boulder on the right-landing on one foot on the rocks beneath it).
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Day 9 I got to visit an REI store for the first time, and then flew home.
All in all, I got in about 85 miles of hiking, saw some spectacular sights, did some fun new things, had a wonderful time, and am psyched for my next trip and some canyoneering.
The end :D
 
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Holy Smoke
Unbelievable scenery!
That was one hell of an adventure.
Thanks very much for sharing your trip with us.
Time to look at all these pictures again.
 
Wonderful pics. Thanks for taking time to bring this to the forum so we could enjoy a bit of it!
 
Wow. That looks like the hike of a life time. Solo no less. Seems like you do these tough hikes regularly. Totally amazed.
 
Wow, epic trip! I have only seen a few of those locations in Zion, I need to spend more time there!
 
That was an epic trip Owen! Thanks for taking the time to lay out the whole adventure...very scenic. My wife really enjoyed it and said it would be a great trip to take. You'll have to take some time and hit some "lessons learned".

ROCK6
 
ROCK6 said:
That was an epic trip Owen! Thanks for taking the time to lay out the whole adventure...very scenic. My wife really enjoyed it and said it would be a great trip to take. You'll have to take some time and hit some "lessons learned".

ROCK6
Click to expand...
Glad y'all enjoyed it. Maybe I'll do a gear and coulda/woulda/shoulda list, but I did pretty good on the preparation and planning.
PPPPPPP;)
 
HornyToad said:
Seems like you do these tough hikes regularly.
Click to expand...
I do a lot of dayhikes and overnighters that help me critique myself and my gear, so I don't build up any unrealistic expectations of myself, or have any surprises from untested equipment. Helps to see how long recovery takes, too.
I think that aided my planning a lot, so that I was able to have a good time without overdoing it, and didn't hesitate to drop an optional hike that was very long at the end(would have put me over 100 miles for the week) when I realized my body was showing signs of being unhappy. One thing I haven't been able to practice is back-to-back days with high mileage, so I was looking out for signs that I'd pushed too much.
 
OwenM said:
Glad y'all enjoyed it. Maybe I'll do a gear and coulda/woulda/shoulda list, but I did pretty good on the preparation and planning.
PPPPPPP;)
Click to expand...

Please compile and post a list of your gear. I went through the postings and wrote down what you had and what I saw. Based on it you had no cooking gear and all you ate was Reeses Pieces. :eek:
 
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OwenM said:
Glad y'all enjoyed it. Maybe I'll do a gear and coulda/woulda/shoulda list, but I did pretty good on the preparation and planning.
PPPPPPP;)
Click to expand...

Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance...couldn't agree more!

ROCK6
 
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