27 | October | 2015

Horseshoe Bend near Page – click to enlarge

Fall and Spring are the best times to explore our neighboring state’s hiking opportunities. And yes technically Horseshoe Bend, 5 miles from Glen Canyon Dam, is in Arizona, but it was the only photo taken in Arizona this week that didn’t have rainy weather. Monument Valley was totally in dark wet clouds when we drove thru the Navajo Nation’s Monument Valley Park so that picturesque desert treasure was less that photogenic as you can see on the left of Totem spire. We never even got out of the truck for that entire loop.

The rest of the week we spent hiking 7 trails in Utah in a semi-circle from Comb Wash to Boulder, Utah. The occasion was a Father/Daughter trip for Mike (my Durango hiking partner) and Stacie with her husband Cary and me along for support. Cary had a professional interest in this part of the Southwest, since his tour company features guided trips in the area thru Off the Beaten Path tours, so Cary pretty much set the itinerary.

It was great because several of the hikes were not ones that Mike or I had experienced and seeing things like this remote Procession petroglyph panel was pretty special.

And visiting the heavily visited trails in Zion National Park, like the Narrows water hike or Angel’s Landing, were places we don’t normally take on. But hiking 6 miles in water on a cloudy day at 62 degrees lessened the normal throngs down to a trickle of only a hundred or so.

We opted out of traversing the final leg of Angel’s Landing hike, which scales a sandstone fin with chain grab rails, due to heavy downpours and thunderstorms. Pictured is the easy part of the hike to the middle

saddle. A “commons” photo from Wikipedia, of the rib is shown below, as it was too wet to bring out a camera and shoot up.

We were satisfied to make it as far as we did although we did see a father with a child-seat backpack coming down from the very top. His wife must not have been along on this hike.

Good company, good food and good hikes made for a very fast week.