As I write this now, a month or more later, it's raining again. Although, the golden rule of Utah is to never complain about rain. We always need it. Perhaps we were jumping the gun on spring, but by late March, it should be getting nicer, right?
Karen, Vicky and I loaded up Karen's pop-up camper for a trip down to southern Utah/ Northern Arizona on a week that admittedly didn't have a great weather forceast. Ok, it looked downright miserable for March. Global cooling, anyone?
We drove down I-15 with fresh snow on the ground as far as we could see. Uh-oh. It took hours of driving to see the dirt again. But, the scenery of southern Utah was beautiful anyway, especially with fresh snow on the mountains. Our mission for the trip was to score a permit for The Wave, a rock formation just east of Kanab in the Coyote Buttes area.
To that effect, we pulled the camper out of town and near the Wave area, and managed to find an amazing campsite nestled in the hills above the gravel road leading to all sorts of amazing hiking areas. Although in retrospect perhaps everyone else was too smart to go camping this early in the season? Maybe I'm giving them too much credit. But I'm happy to report that we towed, set up, tore down, and got home again with the camper without breaking anything. Always a plus.
Each morning, we drive back into Kanab to put in our application for the next day's Wave permits. Along with 95 other groups trying to do the same thing. They handed out 5 a day. Needless to say, we got skunked. We did actually get a permit for Coyote Buttes South, also worth visiting, but the roads were impassable when wet, and it was going to rain the next day, so that wasn't possible either.
Vicky and I almost froze to death the first night. Clearly 10 layers of clothes and all the blankets we could find in the camper hadn't been enough. Why did I not bring my down sleeping bag?!?! Karen rolled out of bed in shorts and a t-shirt under just her down blanket. Haha very funny. The next couple of nights I rolled up in my blankets a little better, piled my clothes bag on top of me, and slept like a mummy in a cocoon. Much better.
Did I mention it was cold? Anyway, and too windy to build a fire for the first couple of nights, but that's the benefit of being able to go in the camper, turn on the squeaky heater, and cook dinner on the stove.
Our first day out we spent hiking down Buckskin Gulch from the same parking lot as the lucky Wave permit holders headed out to see that. Buckskin Gulch is known as one of the longest slot canyons in the world. We went down about 5 miles of the slot, which varied from 5 feet wide to about 100, with gorgeous rock walls. At our turnaround, we napped in a patch of sunshine in the warmest spot we could find, and only left when the sun moved away completely. I swear it was the most level 10 miles I've ever done, with packed sand and easy walking.
On a rainy second day, with another failed permit attempt, we took a drive into Arizona to visit Horseshoe Bend. I figured no one would be there in the rain, but everyone else must have thought the same thing. I have to say that Horseshoe Bend is amazing in the rain. The rain itself, not so much. We kept driving, back into Utah, and escaped the showers enough to take some meandering gravel roads to see where they went. It was too cold and damp to think hiking sounded fun, but we did save a newborn baby calf which seemed to have fallen or slid down embankment by the road. Just the touch of my hand on its flank was enough to scare the feet under it, and it bounded away. We were sure that earned us some hiking karma.
The wind died down and we had a nice evening with a fire, and then some card games as the cool drove us back into the camper. Our third and final day looked like decent weather, so we drove up Long Canyon, which was a nice gravel road drive, to the trailhead for Cobra Arch. Thankfully we had a Jeep and we could basically go anywhere we wanted. Unlike the trail head for Buckskin Gulch, we were the only ones there, and we wouldn't see another person all day. It was cool as we started, then turned into a gorgeous warm day with the best weather of the trip. We started on top of a plateau looking down into Buckskin Gulch, along an old settler's trail cross country route. I can't imagine how much work that would have been, to drag covered wagons anywhere around here!
Looking at the map, we figured there might be a shorter way back across the top corner of the rocks. And indeed, we were back much more quicker to the rim than we expected. A shorter way home is the best part of any hike, right? Here's to good friends and warm fires :)
Love this! Such great memories with good friends!
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