Trip report for Southern Utah -
Early May, 2001
Link to detailed trip report
Link to more trip photos. (Probably of more interest to friends and family.)
The beauty of Southern Utah is staggering. Deep canyons, fantastic rock formations, golden eagles, peregrine falcons, and Ansazi ruins. Frogs singing by desert springs under a full moon, their calls of love echoing up and down the canyon like strange Gregorian chants. There is everything a soul seeking solitude and beauty in the wilderness could desire. Enough of superlatives. The following pictures will do much more than my prose.
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Mark taking in a quintessential Utah Canyon.
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A wider but no less impressive canyon.
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We climbed up to a narrow ledge to check out a perfect square kiva. If you look closely you can just see me in front of the kiva. High up on this ledge I got a brief sense of what it might be like to live like the Anasazi.
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A beautiful two level ruin. Acutally it's three levels if you count the sunken round kiva in the forground. The exposed timbers and twigs are part of the kiva's roof.
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Removal of any artifacts is strictly forbidden. Some visitors have collected pottery fragments and other arifacts and placed them near the ruins for all to see. This is a nice example of the black and white geometric patterned Anasazi pottery.
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Mark and Peter negotiating a slot.
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This is one of hundreds of fantastic rock formations we saw during the trip.
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Day 1 at 9:00 AM. My usual luck with weather. Not what one expects in Southern Utah in May.
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Day 1 at 2:00 PM. Mark and Peter are waiting out a squall of snow and sleet under an overhang. We are discussing whether to hike 2 miles back to the car for the tent. We finally decided not to get the tent but to blame me if the tarp is not sufficient shelter.
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Alan and Peter warming up with a bit of hot chocolate and a splash of spirits. We never did use the tarp and slept out in the open every night of the trip.
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Our water supply: a lush, spring-fed desert oasis. It was near here that we camped and listened to the frogs singing under a full moon.
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Adventure Alan getting a close look at particulary nice pictograph. This one is of a breech birth.
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Possibly my favorite ruins of the trip. A 100% intact round kiva and dwelling.
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A neat slickrock staircase. Part of our route out of the canyon.
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Mark and Peter heading down a slickrock route into another canyon.
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Getting deeper into the canyon on a steep sandstone face.
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Peter at the bottom of a deep slickrock basin.
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The pool below an enormous pouroff, fed from the basin in the photo above.
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Further down canyon. A natural arch, hoodoos and spires.
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Ruins in a seldom visited side canyon.
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Mid day: Peter next to a deep, spring-fed slickrock pool.
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A familar sight of desert blooms below the towering rock of the canyon walls.
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Mark settling in for some relaxation after a long hot hike up the dusty canyon.
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Peter waking up. I've just told him that coffee is ready. Not a bad view to start your day with.
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Packing up the last morning. The day's water is in the 2 Platys in the foreground. The dark amorphous shape at my feet is a GoLite Breeze pack (yet to be stuffed).
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Mark tackling a bit of class 3 on his way to the canyon rim.
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The intrepid crew showing a bit of skin in the parking lot after the trip. Mark and I are demonstating impressive farmer tans.
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