:: October 07, 2005 ::
On a clear day, you can see forever - Utah Trip
I had no idea Utah was so beautiful, and I only saw
half of it in 5 days.I moved out to Denver, Co at the beginning of Sept.
I've been staying with my friend Mike, who has also
just moved out here. I'm still in transition, looking
for permanent housing and a new job. But, while I'm
free from restrictions, I thought I'd take a little
road trip out to Utah and see some of the national
parks I missed on my epic road trip last year.First, I popped up to Ft. Collins to see a free
music/bike festival, called the Tour de Fat, held at
the New Belgium Brewery. The instructions were to wear
a costume, it didn't say what. So, Mike and I just put
on whatever looked crazy and showed up very
underdressed. The bikes that people brought were all
modified in some way, and there was a place to ride a
few of them. All interesting, but not very practical.I ended up borrowing most of Mike's camping equipment,
and drove all night through Colorado's I-70 on my own.
It rained the whole 5 hours! My windsheild wipers were
never off the highest setting. But, in the end, I made
it out to Zion National Park. It was too late to do
the 'narrows hike', so I climbed up to Angel's
Landing, the last part being a 36 in. wide ridge walk
with 1000ft drops on both sides. Great views of the
Virgin river carving out the canyon below.The next day, I made it out early to start the hike.
The first mile is paved, but the vally gets too narrow
to put a path in, so the river becomes your path. I
ended up hiking 4 miles upstream to a waterfall that
had no apparent source. The side slot canyons are
sometimes just cracks in the rock, and that was where
this water was coming from. I was the only one I saw
to get this far back in the canyon. All that rain from
the day before meant the river was pretty high, but I
never had to swim. I spent nearly all day in the cold
water, and I ended up getting a slight cold the next
day. But, I met two guys from my university, JMU, and
they were out doing a road trip as well. They told me
plenty of places to see next time. One that I can pass
on is Havasupie Indian Reservation at the south end of
the grand canyon. It's supposed to be one of the nices
waterfalls in the area. Next Time!!Bryce Canyon was next, and I ended up walking along
the Navajo loop trail. I met a couple from Liverpool.
Small world. Bryce has some interesting Hoodoo's or
weathered tower columns.It was then off to Escalante/Grand Staircase National
Monument, the newest one in the US. Lake Powel has
been receeding due to a long drought, so many new
hikes have opened up since they first damned the
Colorado river. I found two awsome slot canyons called
Spooky and Peekaboo. Spooky was so narrow, that I had
to drop my backpack and come back for it later. Later
meant 2 hours because I tried to wander around the
desert, and it can get very disorientating coming in
and out of the canyons. But, I made it back in time to
drive out to see Coyote Gulch. I couldn't climb down
into this canyon, it's 150 ft canyon walls are a
little too much for me, but there is a hike down there
that I would like to do in the future.I quickly drove through Capitol Reef NP, which
probably had more to offer than I saw. They did have a
honesty orchard. You picked your own apples, weighed
them, and then depositied the money in a little drop
box.I drove back to Aspen to meet Mike. We are planning a
hike called the Maroon Bells, but we are unsure of the
12,000 ft passes, which can fill with snow very early
in the season. So, it's either this weekend, or next
summer. But first, we did 2 small hikes to 2
waterfalls. We only found 1 of the waterfalls, but it
was worth it. It's called Hanging Lake, and it
reminded me of waterfalls in Thailand, just with cold
water. Our second waterfall was hard to get to. 8
miles of really really bad rocky roads. But, the
Subaru made it. We walked for 5 miles, but found no
waterfall. Some horses found us and started walking
towards us. No stampeed, but they just checked us out
and went along their way. We decided to sleep out side
with no tent, just mats and sleeping bags. It was
clear all night and we woke up with frost on the
outside of our bags.It started raining before we could do our third
planned hike at the Devil's Causeway, and we were both
pretty tired. Mike had to go back to Ft. Collins to
pick up his wallet that he lost at some point. Someone
returned it with all the contents to the police, so
there are still good people in this world.Now it's back to getting a job. I seem to keep puting
this off longer and longer, but it has to be done,
right?So, for all of you wanting to see the pictures, here
they are...Utah and Colorado pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/senecar/sets/1091231/Tour De Fat pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/senecar/sets/1091219/I can feel that it's different out here in Colorado.
The spirit of people is much higher, because everyone
seems to be into some kind of activity, usually
associated with the outdoors. I can say that I fit
that mold as well. Anytime work or relationship
problems arise, the mountains are a short drive away
to go clear your head. It is that good out here!--
My favorite quotes along the way:'On a clear day, you can see forever'
'Damn the potatoes, Full speed ahead'
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.: Ben Hansen :: 2:53 PM [+] 0 comments
Hanging Lake, just off of I-70. It's about an hour hike up a pretty steep trail, but if you saw this at the end, it's all worth it.
.: Ben Hansen :: 12:12 PM [+] 0 comments
Nice shot from Tour de Fat
.: Ben Hansen :: 12:08 PM [+] 0 comments
:: Current Location : Breckenridge, Colorado :.
