Bryce, Zion, and Grand Gulch, 11-3-92

This report describes the second half of my trip to the desert southwest in November 1992 including visits to Bryce, Zion, and Grand Gulch. I started planning this trip after I was laid off from my job as a geologist at the Homestake Gold Mine in South Dakota.

The traditional two weeks of vacation I was likely to get in my next job was looking meager for outdoor adventures I had in mind. I decided to take a block of time off to travel and explore areas I’d not visited. In late October/early November going to the mountains wasn’t practical, so I looked at the desert southwest. The first part of this three week trip went to Arches, Humphreys Peak, and the Grand Canyon, and is described Here. I had also made plans to visit my friend Tod at Zion or Grand Gulch. 

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The previous day I finished a hike at the Grand Canyon and drove to Bryce Canyon NP and got a room at the Best Western. Bryce was a favorite of my folks who visited the park on their post retirement travels, but this would be my first trip. I was up early and out on the trail by 8AM after a luxurious breakfast at the hotel.

Fairyland Trail at Bryce.

My first hike was the 8 mile Fairyland Loop, which started near the Lodge. The weather was cold (~30F) and windy, but the trail was in perfect condition and took 3:40 to hike, with lots of time for photography. Right off the bat, the park reminded me of the Badlands, Bryce is really just badlands terrain, but marketed more appealingly. The Bryce rocks were mostly limestones and more coherent and more colorful than the sediments. The Bryce Hoodoos seemed bolder than the Badlands Spires. I was mostly hiking in the ‘pink cliffs” area, but the colors all looked orange to me. Bryce has a lot higher NPS profile than Badlands, but I felt the two parks were equally deserving of attention from hikers. There are few loop hikes in the Badlands, maybe having more loop hikes is another leg up for Bryce. Due to the cold, I only saw one other hiker. 

Fairyland Trail at Bryce.

I then went to the Visitor Center and saw their interpretive slide show. Despite the empty trails, the VC was packed. It looked like there was only one party in the CG when I checked in. At 8,000’ elevation I was expecting some cold camping. The park was really pushing winter use, and I wondered if the skiing would really get good enough to make it a worthwhile destination.

Queens Garden Trail at Bryce.

In the afternoon, I hiked the 2.9 mile Navajo-Queens Garden Loop. This was another great loop and looked more travelled compared to Fairyland. Much of the walking was on the rim, making it was easy to understand why my folks so enjoyed the scenery. I met two hikers from London on the loop.

Wall Street at Bryce.

The evening was cold enough to freeze my rinse water as I was cleaning up after dinner. But the skies were clear, and the wind had finally stopped.

Bryce Campground, Fairyland (7.9) and Navajo-Queens Garden (2.9) loops

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Very cold overnight. The VC had a low of 11F. I had just kept crawling deeper into my sleeping bag as the night wore on. I was planning to hike the Riggs Spring Loop at the south end of the park road. I drove with one boot on, hoping to warm up my left foot, and hoping not to have to shift much with the boot off. 

Wall Street from above.

Riggs Spring Trail wasn’t signed at the start, that part of the loop was considered part of the Under the Rim Trail. But once I got on track I was hiking like crazy, trying to stay warm. This loop wasn’t as scenic as what I’d hiked the previous day in the main canyon. But it was a pretty woods walk. I started to warm up about halfway through, and even sweat a little on the climbs. All three campsites I passed lacked water sources. In the cold, I had the entire loop to myself, any other hikers were likely in the main canyon.

Next, I drove to Zion National Park to meet my friend Tod and his friend Jeff. I got to the park in time for a quick tour of the visitor center before it closed. Tod and Jeff were not yet in the campground, so I picked out a day hike in case they didn’t show.

Zion Campground, Riggs Spring Loop, 8.8 miles

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Zion Canyon from Angels Landing.

Tod and Jeff had arrived at the campground after I had gone to bed. In the morning we debated some hikes at the VC, and finally decided on Angels Landing. The route started as a paved trail that switchbacked up a steep rock face. But just after the intersection with the West Rim Trail it becomes a walk up a narrow stone fin. In some places there were steps carved into the sandstone or metal chains for hikers to hang onto. I thought this might have been the coolest NPS trail I’d ever seen. The overlook is spectacular, it is just opposite Zion Canyon from the Great White Throne, with long views up and down the canyon. The resident chipmunks were habituated to people. They would scramble up Tod’s hand and wrist and he’d try to fling them off onto the rocks. 

View from Angels Landing.

We found that Zion was particularly wet, and so we had a full array of camping options. We decided on a hike to Kolob Arch, got our permit, drove to the trailhead, and started hiking promptly at 5:30. We camped in a side canyon in a cow pasture, but the views already had been great.

Hop Valley CS, Angels Landing 5 mi. and Hop Creek Trail 2 mi.

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Another cold night precluded an early start. I’d also had trouble with my stove (MSR Whisperlite). The jet was clogged, and we couldn’t clean it until I remembered that my cook kit had a spare. My notes describe us hiking out of the pasture and into the park, but from the map it looks like Hop Creek Trail is 100% in the park. Anyway, the difference was stark, primarily because the riparian area was lusher. I’d been afraid we’d be stepping through cowpies all day.

Tod in Beartrap Canyon.

We found a campsite just before the trail dropped into the drainage of La Verkin Creek and grabbed our day packs to head for Kolob Arch. The Arch was big, but hard to see well from the trail. The NPS was discouraging hikers from climbing near the arch to reduce erosion around it. From Kolob Arch we went upstream on La Verkin Creek to an obvious narrows. The narrows was beautiful, the orange colors of the canyon walls were bold and deep. In lovely contrast, many trees were still green.

Tod and Jeff in Beartrap Canyon.

We hiked up Beartrap Canyon to a waterfall. The canyon had recently flash flooded. 1’ diameter trees lay shattered in the creek bed with branches almost completely buried in the sand. I thought the flood might have been from the storm I saw last Saturday in Moab, and was bigger than any I’d seen in my summer working in New Mexico. I walked up to the next drainage with Jeff, then he continued a bit on his own. The colors were fantastic. A few willows and oaks wee still green, others are yellow, but they all offset the bright orange of the canyon walls. The cross beds in the Navajo sandstone lend a geometry to the walls.

We saw a little water in the canyons all day long, but nowhere was it enough to keep us from jumping across. I supposed this was still abnormally high water, but it was perfect for us hiking along the creek. There was a big pool just below Kolob Arch. There were also campsites at the trail junction, at the arch, and at the junction with Beartrap. It seemed finding a campsite wouldn’t be hard (The NPS now has 7 designated campsites in the area). We saw only one other pair of hikers.

La Verkin Creek CS, Kolob Arch and Beartrap Canyon, 10 miles

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The night was warmer than the last few, but I still slept in the tent, rather than out under the stars. Tod volunteered to hike back Hop Creek, then drive his truck up to the La Verkin TH to pick us up at the far end of the trail. It was a great way for Jeff and I to see the rest of the canyon. I felt a little guilty having Tod run the shuttle, but I think he and Jeff were starting to clash a bit after all their time together in Alaska and on the road.

La Verkin Valley opens up about a mile above the spur trail to Kolob Arch. Our best views were to the east, into the finger canyons of the Kolob. These canyons looked surprisingly glacial, with handing valleys and cirques that appeared totally isolated with vertical walls all around them. The hike out was preferable to Hop Creek, but still not spectacular. I think all the NPS-worthy terrain is in the side canyons. For more on Zion, see my trip with Jean in 1995 1995 Zion.

As it turned out, Tod had gotten a part time job on the Crested Butte Ski Patrol and needed  to head back to Gunnison. I was also thinking about heading back to Lead, to continue my job search, and finish the manuscript for my Black Hills and Badlands hiking guide, assuming I would get the contract from Cordillera Press (which I did). But I also knew I’d come a long way to hike here, and my prospects of any recent return trip were slim, so Jeff and decided to stay a bit longer and hike in Grand Gulch.

We drove to 10PM, our trip featuring interesting roads north of Medicine (Mexican?) Hat. About 10 miles out the road turned to gravel, switchbacked up a steep cliffside, and then turned back to 65 mph, straight and narrow. Probably a huge wake up call for southbound drivers. Just before the Kane (Gulch) Ranger District Office I almost hit a cow elk and calf, and then passed a large bull. I had no idea there were elk in this part of Utah. We spent another cold night sleeping in the RD parking lot.

Kane Ranger District Office, La Verkin Creek TH, 10 miles

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Grand Gulch is within the boundaries originally established for the BLM-managed Bears Ears National Monument, which has been restored by President Biden as of 2023. I’ve tried to reference this trip vs. a newer pdf map of Grand Gulch I got from their website.

Grand Gulch Trail Map.

The ranger station was closed so we didn’t get any updates on water availability for our route. We’d decided on a partial loop up Kane Gulch to Grand Gulch, and then out via Bullet Canyon. We didn’t know of any ruins in Kane Gulch at the start, so we just blasted up the canyon, trying our best to stay warm. Once into Grand Gulch proper, we walked past a great adobe house (Junction Ruin?) on a cliff before spotting it. We came to regret passing it as the distance to next ruin grew.

Jeff by Arch in Grand Gulch.

However, once past the entry to Todie Canyon the ruins were more apparent. We explored three ruins, two near the creek and one a short scramble up the cliffs. There were lots of pot shards, arrow fragments, and corn cobs. Many of the adobe structures were well preserved. Enough remained to get some sense of how the people lived; they took care to build things to last, and had the time and creative spirit to show their artistry in the structures. Walking through their homes I felt like an intruder, even though they’d been gone for 700 years. It was an impression of home I rarely felt at old mines or old homesteader cabins. 

Grand Gulch, Junction (?) Ruin.

We camped near the mouth of Coyote Canyon. Much to my relief there was intermittent water all through the canyon. But I still couldn’t get my stove to work, the fuel line might have been plugged. But we were able to cook noodles on a campfire, perhaps the only time since summer camp I’d had to cook over a campfire. We retired to light cloud cover, hoping for a warmer night.

Grand Gulch.

Mouth of Coyote Canyon, Grand Gulch, Cane to Coyote, 12 miles

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A warm front came in last night and brought a light rain shower. I quickly put the cover on my pack (my old reliable Kelty Tioga frame pack) and crawled under my space blanket, all in about the time it took for the rain to stop. The temperatures didn’t go below freezing, it was nice to be warm enough to enjoy breakfast. One disadvantage of our dry campsite was putting the fire out, We poked prodded, and peed until the fire finally looked dead.

Grand Gulch Grainary.

Jeff and I took slightly different routes to Bullet Canyon. He stayed higher and saw more ruins, I stayed lower and walked through more sagebrush. There seemed to be less pottery and other artifacts as we went downstream, I wasn’t sure why, but maybe historically the canyon had been accessed from the bottom, and fewer people saw the top?

Pack in Bullett Canyon.

We had lunch at the mouth of Bullet Canyon. Someone had scorched the sagebrush here with a campfire, and that made me nervous, hoping that we’d totally quenched ours. After lunch it was an easy walk up Bullet Canyon to Perfect Kiva. From below the Kiva appears as just a stone wall. I scrambled up and was interested in a well preserved building when I looked down and saw the ladder entering a Kiva. The Kiva was about 8’ deep, and 12’ in diameter with a wood frame roof covered with 1-2” of adobe. There was a fireplace at one end and alcoves around the walls at regular intervals. 

Perfect Kiva.

Around the kiva there were several pictograph sites. Jeff said there were ruins just before the kiva (Jailhouse Ruin?), but those looked more residential to him. I wondered why the kivas were round and all the other buildings rectangular. The humanoid pictographs were also very angular. Maybe the builders saw the manmade and natural worlds differently.

Petroglyph near Perfect Kiva.

We camped just beyond the kiva in a grove of juniper with another nice campfire. I recleaned the fuel line on my stove, it cooked dinner, then fizzled again. I cleaned it one more time hoping it would be functional for breakfast. After dinner I did a brief exploration up a side canyon, I thought I saw more ruins, but the site was out of reach for me.

Perfect Kiva.

This would be my last full non-travel day of the trip. I was getting ready to head back, hopefully with a book contract in hand, finish my manuscript, and enjoy the New Year.

At Perfect Kiva.

Bullet Canyon, 4.6 miles

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We woke during the night to a gentle rain and the morning brought us another round of rain. This batch showed no sign of letting up, so we packed up and hurried up the canyon. I saw little, but the rain did let up by the Bullet Canyon Trailhead.

I left my pack at the trailhead and ran towards the Ranger Station to fetch my pickup. About 2-3 miles from the station I got a ride the rest of the way from the first car to pass. Jeff and I gathered up all our stuff and then drove to Tod’s folk’s place in Gunnison by way of Moab.

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Tod and I drove up to Crested Butte and took a nice easy ski tour toward Gothic Mountain. Crested Butte was beautiful with good Nordic skiing and even more downhill terrain. Afterwards I drove to Cheyenne, WY for the night, and got back home to Lead, SD the next day.