After the March trip, I decided that traveling alone was too expensive and somewhat dangerous. I had to be extra cautious to make sure that I could drive to the next stop and eventually, get home. I figured that if I advertised my first travelogue, my friends would be more inclined to come along. The web page generated some interest. However, finding somebody with a similar traveling style was difficult. Most people do not stop to take five pictures of one flower. Most people do not hike at the same pace that I do. A number of reasons ruled out most of my colleagues.
I ended up recruiting Andy, a hiker from the MIT Club of Northern California. I met him for lunch and found out that he was not only from MIT, but also from Brooklyn Tech and the Hampshire College math camp. It was pure coincidence that I recruited somebody from my high school, summer program and college -- we were never at any of those places at the same time. Naturally, he was the perfect candidate.
Capitol Reef
May 27: We rented a Chrysler Sebring convertible from Salt Lake City. The V6 was a piece of junk. Anyway, Andy soon discovered that my U-turn meter had started ticking. There were major road constructions in SLC for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Many freeways and ramps were closed. So it was not difficult to end up making U-turns.
Taking I-15, U.S. 50 and Utah 24, we arrived at Torrey, just outside of Capitol Reef National Park. We checked in at Austin's Chuck Wagon Lodge in Torrey and headed to Capitol Reef. The park is at about 5300 feet above the sea level. Its main feature is a 100 mile long waterpocket fold -- a wrinkle on the Earth's crust formed during the uplifting of the Colorado Plateau. However, Capitol Reef has only about 20 miles of paved road parallel to this waterpocket fold, called the Scenic Drive. Utah 24 runs along the Fremont river, which is roughly orthogonal to the waterpocket fold. There are a few very long unpaved roads that we did not venture into.
We toured the visitor center where we looked up the sunset time. We decided to visit the sites along Utah 24 during the afternoon and those along the Scenic Drive the next morning. After stopping at a few vista points, we headed up the Rim Overlook trail. We set a time cap so that we could go to Sunset point at sunset. This trail was marked sparsely with cairns. We stopped often along the way to look at the canyons, the Hickman Bridge and other rock formations. Not knowing when the Rim Overlook trail became the Navajo Knobs trail, we hit our time cap and headed back to the trail head. Overall, we hiked about 4 miles and gained 1000 feet in elevation, very slowly.
We stopped by the Fremont Petroglyphs. As you can see from the slide, part of the rock face fell off, leaving a large gap in the middle of the petroglyph. Across the road were a few fawns. I managed to catch a photo of one while the rest fled.
We arrived at Panoramic Point before sunset. Not having read the map correctly, we did not continue on the dirt road to Sunset Point. We saw that the sunset and the view did not look promising. So we ended the day's activities.
May 28: We drove down the Scenic Drive to the end, and then a few miles of unpaved road into Capitol Gorge. Along this road were some amazing red rocks. They were eroded with little holes and looked like giant sponges. Very contrasty lighting and grey skies dulled many photos. Nevertheless, I salvaged one shot and turned it into the background for this web page. We continued into Capitol Gorge on foot. Seeing no end and with limited time, we ended with a climb up to the tanks -- waterholes in the rocks, like bathtubs. This was an easy 2-mile walk with a 40-foot climb.
A the sky turned darker, we quickly drove back up the Scenic Drive to Grand Wash. After a short drive on dirt, we saw a sign with an arrow pointing to Cassidy Arch. We could not see it. We continued on the dirt road to the Grand Wash trailhead. Originally, we planned to hike up to the arch, supposedly one of the famous Butch Cassidy's favorite hide outs. At the parking lot, a fellow hiker told us that he was drenched by a sudden down pour. Ignoring him, we took a few steps into the trail. When we felt some drizzle, we quickly retraced our steps back to the car. We finally found the arch on the way out. After snapping a few shots, we exited the park as lightning began to strike. Throughout the afternoon, I wanted to photograph a lightning strike during this storm. But I was never at right time and place.
On the way to Tropic
After lunch, we headed south on Utah 12 toward Bryce Canyon National Park. Utah 12 was a very scenic drive, even in groomy weather. Along the way, we entered and exited the Dixie National Forest and the Escalante Grand Staircase National Monument a few times. We stopped at several vista points and photographed the stormy landscape. We took a 20 minute rest stop at Calf Creek Recreation Area. From above, Calf Creek looked like a narrow slot in the midst of very green rolling hills.
I woke up Andy and talked him into a short detour to Kodachrome Basin State Park. (We were both shooting Fuji film exclusively). This is a rather small park with a high concentration of red sandstone formations. We visited the Shakespeare Arch (1/4 mile) and hiked the Grand Parade Trail (1 mile). The latter actually took us more than two hours. We took several short detours and set up various shots.
We found some Sego lilies cupping the left over rain water from the storm. I decided to pull out the macrophotography gear. Extension tube and strobe, it was a three handed job. The little tripod was useless since it would have been impossible to frame and focus accurately with it. We also spent quite a bit of time trying to photograph the sunset and the full moon.
We left Kodachrome after dark and shortly after, arrived at the Pioneer Village in Tropic. Our cabin was tiny with two wobbly beds. But it was cheap! Hot water, Andy?
Bryce Canyon National Park
May 29: We could have hiked across the canyon from Tropic to the rim. But instead, we drove up to the visitor center and started hiking from Sunset point, at exactly 8000 feet above the sea level according to the Sunset point sign. The sight of acres of golden hoodoos -- spires formed from the erosion of fins was truly amazing.
We took some pictures and started hiking downward. Andy planned our hiking routes for Bryce Canyon. I had read about the numerous trails and was uncertain which ones were most scenic. So Andy happily chose to start with the Navajo Loop trail. Midway down the steep descent, a park ranger advised us that the Peekaboo Loop was particularly photogenic.
So instead of returning to the rim along the Navajo Loop, we forked off to the Peekaboo Loop. This three mile loop had the advertised good views. We especially enjoyed the Wall of Windows. We had only one problem: no food. The long detour began to starve us half way through. So rather than returning via the Queen's Garden trail (1.7 miles), we marched up Wall Street (0.6 mile), the other half of the Navajo Loop.
We had a new problem. By short-circuiting the planned route, we were forced to descend and ascend the Navajo loop a second time to visit the Queen's Garden. This turns a 6 mile hike into a two-section 7.3 mile hike. The extra mile probably had minimal impact. But instead of 1400 feet of climbing, it became 1900 feet.
We hiked down to the Queen's Garden trail after lunch. This trail was worth the extra effort. The connector from it to the Navajo Loop was unfortunately less than scenic. Still feeling energetic, I speed-walked up the Navajo Loop trail and ran the final 300 feet to the rim.
Andy joined me at the top a few minutes later. We drove off to see the various view points in the park. At 7:45, we arrived at the Lodge to find a long line at the restaurant. So instead of eating then, we made a reservation for 9pm. We headed back to the rim, visiting Paria View, Bryce Point and Rainbow Point, looking for the perfect spot to watch the sunset.
I thought the sunset was the ultimate touristy cliché. Surely a nice sunset would be romantic if she were there. She would be romantic, not the sunset. But who and where was she anyway? Nevertheless, I hoped for an ultra-dramatic sunset, one that screamed "shoot me!" Maybe I would catch some nice colors and sell a photograph to some romantic fool. Maybe I just wanted the sunset to surprise me, to show me that it was beyond clichés.
We hiked along the rim from Inspiration Point towards Bryce Point. Our legs had built up too much character (quoting my friend %khc) from the afternoon's extra climbing. They were not going to walk the extra 3-miles to please the eyes. We walked out on top of a fin, about 2 feet wide at its narrowest, where I pretended to have lost the car key. (Sorry, Andy). There was no dramatic sunset. But wait, there was a rising full moon! Hooray for another romantic and touristy cliché!
We hurried back to the Lodge for the most nightmarish dinner. Then we returned to our little cabin in Tropic.
Zion National Park
May 30: We thought about waking up at 4am for sunrise. But instead, we left the Lodge at around 8:30 and drove straight to Zion. Red surface on the road was the first signature of the park. We stopped at Checkerboard Mesa for a few pictures. Then we encountered a minor traffic jam into the famous tunnel. On this Sunday morning, the traffic control allowed only one-way driving where packs of vehicles enter and exit the tunnel alternately. After several long easy switchbacks, we turned north onto Zion Canyon Scenic Drive.
We stopped to view the Court of the Patriarchs. Then we stopped at the fast food joint near the lodge to bag our lunch and get our legs ready. We drove to the Weeping Rock where we encountered a large number of other tourists and a parking headache.
The Weeping Rock is a dripping alcove. There was water dripping out of cracks on the face of a rock, called the Weeping Rock. After a short but steep walk up to this rock, we hiked up to the Hidden Canyon.
The Hidden Canyon trail traverses along the cliff face of a rock. Our legs were not fully awake and the sun was oven hot. We struggled a bit to get up to the Hidden Canyon. It was a seemingly endless canyon 750 feet above the main canyon. It was about 10 feet wide, with boulders, water holes, wild flowers and various plants. The trail was not officially maintained. The scenery was not spectacular. But it offered shading from the sun; and much fun scrambling over and around large rocks. Eventually we run into a boulder about 15 feet tall, blocking the canyon. I tried to climb it but soon realized that I would not balance well with my backpack. Andy eventually scaled the rock without his pack. He came down reporting no scenery, and no end to the canyon. We stood around and witnessed several hikers climbing up and down this boulder using every tree limb, every foothold, every strap on a pack and every feature of their bodies such as body height. Eventually we saw a few teenagers come down the boulder, almost without using their hands. But since we had no incentive to continue on this trail, we turned around.
After a tiring morning with 3.5 miles of hiking and 850 feet of climbing, we abandoned the bagged lunch and went for real food at the Lodge. Parking had become almost impossible. We almost had to create our own parking space.
Our afternoon hike was going to be Angels Landing. This trail was touted in the books as strenuous, an engineering marvel, with a scary high ridge and cliffs, and wonderful views. It was listed as one of the most difficult dayhikes in the park in every publication and every web site. The lady at the Lodge's front desk advised us that we would have to pull ourselves up a 100-ft chain to the top and get down by sliding on our butts while holding on to the chain. I was worried. With a 12 pound backpack, a sore left Achilles tendon, and hot weather, I became pessimistic about this hike.
Our beautiful waitress, Flower, had just hiked to Angels Landing earlier in the week for the first time. She explained that no pulling nor sliding was needed, and that backpacks should not be a problem unless they were extremely heavy. For her hike, she hid her pack in the bushes before climbing up along the chain. Andy was going to do this hike no matter what. I decided to lighten my backpack by 3 pounds by leaving the telephoto zoom and the electronic flash in the trunk. I still carried my little tripod. I figured that if Angels Landing was too difficult, I would stop at Scout Lookout.
We started hiking at around 4pm. The trail was mostly paved; portions were brick. We walked through another narrow cool canyon, the Refrigerator Canyon. At the end of this stretch were Walter's Wiggles. Walter Ruesch was Zion's first custodian. He built this marvel of twenty-one switchbacks carved into the face of a rock. It was impossible to photograph Walter's Wiggles while on the trail. The perspective was either straight up or straight down.
After collapsing my tripod, I ran up about 70% of the switch backs. I yelled to Andy that "it's easier if you run" as I ran past him. A few seconds later, I heard a voice yelling back, "he's lying!" Then a few college-aged hikers ran passed us. My theory was that, running up a hill was easier on the legs, but more demanding on the heart and lungs, and ultimately on the brain. Thus if one was cardiovascularly in good shape, running would be more efficient than walking at a brisk pace.
Scouts Lookout was right on top of Walter's Wiggles. Andy and I continued on the West Rim trail for about one-quarter mile. Seeing no end, we turned around and started on our way to Angels Landing. This portion of the trail was unpaved. We walked along the ridge for about 100 feet before spotting the chains. My competitive nature immediately kicked in. With the backpack, sore Achilles and whatever, I scrambled up the rock, holding on to the chains most of the way up. Most parts of this trail were wide enough only for one person. But there were many spots for taking pictures and for returning hikers to pass by.
We walked through a sheer cliff to arrive at the false peak where a tree stood in the middle of the trail. The ridge was probably only wide enough to fit one person on each side of this tree. (My friend Kevin Gong has pictures of this portion of the trail from 1998). We looked up at the true peak. It seemed impossibly steep and dangerous. Narrow path with a chain, we climbed up slowly while holding on to the chains.
At the top, we had a 360-degree view of Zion Canyon. It was a challenge to photograph the canyon. It ran longitudinally. During most the day, one side of the canyon casted a hard shadow on the other side, resulting in overly contrasty scenes.
Coming down the trail seemed easier because our memories had remembered most of the trickier footholds. This five-mile round trip with 1500 feet of climbing was scenic, strenuous, an engineering marvel and all that, and sweaty palms as I type it up. Of course, rock climbers would not find it challenging.
We were too hungry to wait thirty minutes for a table at the restaurant in the Lodge. We drove out to Springdale, checked in at the Bumbleberry Inn, and had Chinese food. The hot-n-sour soup was neither hot nor sour. The pork noodles had no pork. But they were good enough.
May 31: We returned to Zion to visit the Emerald Pools. After two consecutive days of strenuous hiking, I could barely walk up this easy trail. The Emerald Pools were beginning to run dry. The air was heating up. Seeing no real photo opportunities, we finished the hike, drove to the Temple of Sinawava at the end of the Scenic Drive. We started the Riverside Walk towards the Narrows - a stretch of the Virgin River.
At the elevation of only 4000 feet above the sea level, Zion had plenty of plants and wild flowers. We stopped several times to photograph the hanging gardens and the canyon walls along the Virgin River. Crowds began to rush in. I discoverd that tourists did not ruin photos. Other photographers did. Without the need of heckling, most tourists would leave the frame of composition within two minutes. But other people with cameras and camcorders would stay in your frame until the lighting situation worsened.
A few holiday traffic jams later, we returned to SLC with a perfectly empty tank.
During this final morning of our vacation, we hiked 4 miles and climbed 300 feet. For the entire five-day trip, we hiked 29 miles and climbed 4700 feet, approximately.