GoPro: The Hike to Angel's Landing

My amazing husband made this video of our hike to Angel's Landing! This video is EPIC. I believe he also did most of the videoing. This was all from day 2 of vacation, Saturday the 14th of March. Also probably our favorite hike of the trip. :) We used our Hero4 GoPro, Silver edition. No we do not have a selfie stick, we wrapped our flexible tripod around one of my hiking poles. ;)

Enjoy!

Spring Break Day 1 Video

There's something new we learned about having a GoPro over vacation: While the half-hour long video of us driving may have seemed cool at the time, it ends up to be a pain to upload, edit, and store. And before you know it, you've uploaded 10 days of footage and there's no room left on your computer! This has put us into action: operation "make all the movies fast so that my computer will run normally again!" So here you go, Day 1 of our adventure summed up into less than 2 minutes of video footage. Enjoy!

By the way, I completely stand by my decision to use the clown car song. No offense Ghillie.

Gorgeous Gorges Trip, Day 5

Spring Break, Day 5

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Cannonville to Torrey, UT

Capitol Reef National Park

This morning, we said goodbye to Cannonville and took off to finish the rest of the drive on highway 12. The first half was all what we had just seen the day before while driving to Calf Creek. In hindsight, it may have been a better idea to just stay one night in Cannonville and have finished the drive to Torrey the day before, but we didn't know that we'd only be spending half the day at Bryce Canyon. Oh well, with the hotel price so low in Cannonville, I'm sure that more than made up for the extra miles we added to our trip!

It was a beautiful day to drive the scenic highway 12! We drove up, down, and around canyons and hills. We reached our highest elevation at over 9000 feet. We saw more deer near the road, and had a jack rabbit cross the road in front of us. We stopped at a snowy scenic overlook just passed Boulder, UT to enjoy the view of snow, evergreen trees, mountains, and a lake in the distance. There were informational boards telling us about the road we were driving. Until the 1970's, the road was unpaved and impassable throughout the winter, making the drive from Boulder to Torrey over 200 miles instead of the normal 50. They finally went and paved the road, and in the 1980's everyone celebrated the completion of the newly paved highway 12! We enjoyed these kiosks telling us about the history of the area, and really wish we saw them more at scenic views!

After saying goodbye to highway 12, we took 24 to Capitol Reef National Park. It was around noon when we arrived, and we went into the visitor's center to plan out our afternoon.

Curtis had been to this park before, but didn't do any hiking and didn't remember being very impressed with the area. However, our friends Paul, Holly, and Mitchell raved about how great it was and claimed it was even better than Bryce Canyon. The standards had been set high, and we were anxious to see how this was possible. Before even entering the park, the red cliffs stood out in the distance and made me excited to hike through this beautiful area. As we got closer to the park, the mountains only got bigger and grander.

We decided to start our hike with the trail that leads up to Cohab Canyon, and then took that trail to the Frying Pan trail all the way to the Cassidy Arch. From there, we would either hike back the same way, or possibly ask someone else who had just done the short hike to Cassidy Arch to drive us back to our car. If that worked out, we would only be hiking 6 miles, but if we decided to hike the whole way back it would be 9.

The beginning of the trail to Cohab Canyon was extremely steep as it went right in to switchbacking up the side of a mountain. Once we reached the top though, the views were glorious and the trail was much easier. The hard part lasted less than a half mile, then the trail went around a cliff and into Cohab Canyon on top of the mountain.

It was incredible! The Canyon was gorgeous, with such colorful rocks, and the bright blue sky contrasted beautifully. The weather was still perfect for this hike, and I almost decided right then that I didn't want a ride back, I wanted to come back and see this canyon again!

The trail went through the canyon until it met up with a wash, then it became a slick rock trail as it neared the Frying Pan Trail. We only met one group of people on the way up, so we had this part all to ourselves.

The majority of the Frying Pan Trail is on slick rock, and it follows a ridge up and around different peaks. There were minimal trail signs in the area - the only way to know where the trail was going was by looking for the many cairns that led the way. We really enjoyed this - it had a real sense of adventure to the hike.

As you can see from the pictures, the ground looks slanted on this trail. Our trail basically picked a ridge and followed it up the slant and back down on the other side. It got steep at some parts, and the early afternoon sun was now beating down on us with little shade around. However, as we were walking, we'd see little patches of snow further off the trail in the shade that the cliffs provided. We can call it our miracle snow - we played with it a bit and put it on our heads with our hats on top to cool us down. :)

We finally made it around one last peak and started heading downhill again. Our trail intersected with the trail to Cassidy Arch, which was just another half mile away. The slick rock continued with its way of using cairns to guide you, up and down little bumps until you're standing across from the Cassidy Arch with the most beautiful backdrop surrounding it.

Where the trail led us...

Cassidy Arch!

Curtis and I both took turns standing on it and taking pictures. We then sat down across from it and had lunch. While we were there, another couple reached the arch, and we struck up a conversation with them. I'm so thankful they did show up, because we were able to get a picture together on the arch! (It would have been pretty much impossible to do an auto-timer in this instance.) ;)

We chatted some more with them, and found out that we were both doing the same trip, only in reverse order! We gave them tips about Bryce and Zion, and they shared their advice for Arches National Park. (Their advice? Arches is Disneyland, everyone goes there, it's overrated, go check out other things. Haha! We took note of their other ideas to look up later.)

We probably could have gotten a ride from them, but I didn't want to be done with hiking this beautiful, quiet trail, so we packed up and headed back the way we came. There was less incline on the way back, and the area had cooled off some, making our hike easier.

We made it back to our Jeep after a great afternoon of hiking, and stopped in to the Gifford House for a treat. The Gifford House is a historic homestead turned shop located on the national park land, and they are best known for their fruit pies made daily with fresh fruit grown right there! Unfortunately, they were sold out of pies, but we were still able to get ice cream and a cinnamon roll, both great rewards for hiking 9 miles. Also, we made sure we knew when they opened the next day so that we could stop on our way out and pick something up. :)

If I were a horse, I'd want to live in Capitol Reef.

After doing this hike, we discussed and compared this national park to the ones we'd been to, and we decided that our friends were right - we liked Capitol Reef more than Bryce Canyon! While Bryce is gorgeous to look at from above and even more fun to hike through, at the end of the day all you've seen are hoodoos. Capitol Reef was really more of an adventure for us, with its canyons, slick rock trails, colors, and many different rock formations. However, Zion still ranked as #1 - even with the crowds of people, the grandness of the sheer rocks and canyon views topped all we'd experienced so far.

After that, we did the scenic drive to the end of the paved road. We had friends who were there the week before that told us this drive was closed (probably due to mud and flooding because of the snow melting!) but all of the paved road was now open.

After enjoying the scenic drive, we stopped at the Goosenecks. They were cool and colorful, but didn't top the goosenecks we saw last year in Southeastern Utah! They were still worth seeing though.

We made a quick stop at Panorama Point after that and enjoyed seeing more snow-capped mountains peeking through the red cliffs. Those mountains followed us everywhere, I tell you!

Chimney Rock

Another trail that had been recommended to us was the Chimney Rock loop trail. We stopped at the trailhead, but at this point it was late afternoon and we were sunburned and tired from the earlier hike. We thought about just doing a little part of it, but saw that it gained 600 feet of elevation within the first mile or so and decided we weren't up for it for tonight. Oh well, we know which hike we'll do first next time! ;)

We drove back 11 miles to Torrey, UT. We were staying in the Red Sands Inn right off of highway 24, and that is another place I'd highly recommend! They had cute rooms and served great breakfasts. Curtis and I even got a chance to use the pool for once on this vacation.

And one last recommendation - if you're staying in Torrey, eat at the Red Cliffs Restaurant! I think this may have been our favorite restaurant from the entire trip! Curtis had the Philly sandwich and raved about how it wasn't just meat, sauce, and cheese - they also added stir-fryed mushrooms, peppers and onions to the sandwich, and will from now on ruin every other Philly for him. ;) I had the Malibu Chicken sandwich, which was a grilled chicken sandwich with a slice of ham and melted swiss cheese, served in a pretzel bun - YUM! It was delicious and very filling - which made Curtis happy because he got what I couldn't eat. I don't always go and rave about a restaurant, so you must know that this one is special and deserves a visit if you're in the area!

Day 5 Wrap Up: Drove 120 miles, Hiked 9 miles

Highlights: Cobalt Canyon, Cassidy Arch, and Red Cliffs Restaurant :)

Gorgeous Gorges Trip, Day 4

Spring Break, Day 4!

Monday, March 16, 2015

Bryce Canyon National Park and Calf Creek Falls

We started our morning off right with our own hotel room oatmeal for breakfast! We brought along our electric kettle, oatmeal, sugar, and walnuts, all which added up to a delicious and filling pre-hike breakfast! With that, we were off at 6:30, heading back to Bryce. On the way there, we saw our first wildlife of the trip, in the form of deer crossing the road.

We first stopped at the snowshoe rental place, but when they didn't open it when they said they would, we decided to go watch the sunrise and come back. We went to Sunrise Point in Bryce Canyon, set up the GoPro, and tried to keep each other warm in the 20 degree weather. Thankfully, the sunrise was worth it! :)

We went back to the rental place (which still wasn't opened - thankfully we knew to go to a nearby hotel and ask them to open it for us!) and picked out our snow shoes. It wasn't too hard, especially since they only had two sizes: small and large. They claim that the shoes are one size fits all, yet for some reason the small were too big for me, and the large were too small for Curtis...Oh well, we were excited to have them and hoped we'd be able to try them out!

Back in Bryce once again, this time we parked in the Sunset View lot and began our hike down the Navajo Trail. Just one switchback into the canyon, it became clear that hiking would not be easy, and the snowshoes would not be much help, at least at this point. The beginning had very thick mud covering the majority of the trail. The easiest section to walk on was right along the edge of the switchback, and with ice in some parts it was just a little scary. We tied our snowshoes to our backpacks at this point and carried them down this trail.

You can't beat the view though! With the sun just making it over the mountains in the distance, we got to enjoy the canyon in a whole different light than the day before. 

Even with walking sticks, I was feeling very anxious about walking in the ice and mud, and using excuses like stopping to take pictures to avoid walking. Curtis decided this would be a good time to pull out my brand new crampons. I hadn't ever heard of or used these before and was cautious at first, but quickly grew to love them as the day went on. If you don't know what they are, crampons are basically made of chains and rubber - you put them around the bottom of your shoes, and they help you walk through ice, snow, and mud. They became my new BFF's for today - what a great find, for being in the clearance section at REI! :)

The Navajo Trail also proved our point that the switchbacks in National Parks are steeper than mountains in Tucson. Having to hike it down into the canyon through the mud and ice was probably one of the most difficult parts of the hike today. After we reached the bottom of the canyon, there wasn't much mud, and the ground became a bit more covered in snow.

We took the Navajo Trail to the Peek-a-Boo loop trail and started on the loop going left (clockwise). The trail had lots of ups and downs, steep and flat sections, but for a long time we were the only ones out here and it was wonderful. The hoodoos look even better when you're hiking through them than they do when you're looking at them from the top of the canyon.

For the first part of the loop, there was more snow than before, but it had been walked on so much that there wasn't a real need for snowshoes. However, my crampons continued to work their magic, and I felt totally comfortable walking on whatever was on the trail. :)

Finally, we came to a North-facing section where the snow was much less packed down than before, and decided it was the best time to try out the snow shoes. After Curtis struggled to fit his feet in, and I made mine as tight as they could be, we trudged on - one slow and deliberate step at a time. :)

No, our auto-timer picture is not perfect. There is no way you can easily get from point A to point B in these shoes in 10 seconds. :) It was Curtis' second time using them, and only my first, but I'd say we did a fine job, even though the condition of the snow wasn't ideal. It was just fun to have the experience, and not have to carry them for a while!

We stopped for a snack break when we came to the end of the "snowier" section. We removed the snowshoes and enjoyed cookie bars in the sunshine. 

Not wearing snowshoes also allowed for some better photos using auto-timer. :)

After this, there was only one other section of trail that was snow covered, but we opted to not put on the snowshoes again and just continued on to the Navajo trail. Snowshoes were fun to use, but probably not as necessary today as they would have been earlier in the winter, or right after a fresh snowfall.

Instead of going back up the Sunset trail, we went a little further to the Queen's Garden trail to get out of the canyon. It seemed much easier and less muddy than the Navajo Trail, but it's hard to compare with it being different times of day. We hiked up to the top, then along the rim from Sunrise to Sunset points.

After leaving the Peek-a-Boo Trail, we started seeing lots of people all around, not many with the intention of hiking any further than the end of the Navajo trail. Some were more prepared for the trail conditions than others. Some, specifically the ones that asked Curtis for help, didn't seem to know what they were doing at the bottom of the canyon. 

The most interesting encounter I had was when this older foreign woman came over and was motioning things to me. She pointed at me, and then at her friend holding her camera, then held her arms out. "Picture?" I asked, and she nodded excitedly. I was about to walk over, but then she reached for my hiking poles, taking them, then posed with them while her friend took a few pictures. First there was a "Look, I'm hiking with poles!" picture, with both on the ground and her with a big grin and looking like she was doing a challenging hike, then there was the "Victory Pose," with her holding them in the air like she had reached the end of a long hike and was standing on top of Mt. Everest or something. Then she returned my poles to me. That was weird. :)

When we made it back to our Jeep, we felt content with all we had seen and experienced in Bryce Canyon. The Fairyland Loop would have been another option, but the road to that trailhead was closed so we decided to pass on that. We returned the snowshoes and went back to the hotel for lunch.

There was another hike that was recommended to us by our friends Paul & Holly. It was a 6 mile round trip hike in a canyon along Calf Creek, leading to a waterfall, Lower Calf Creek Falls. We still had plenty of daylight left and knew that we would be very busy with driving and hiking the next day, so we decided to go out and do this hike, even though it meant driving an extra 2 hours for the day.

The hike itself was quite easy, with little to no elevation gain - the trail really just went into the canyon and followed it all the way back. It wasn't anything super exciting, but still gorgeous and different than places we would normally get to hike at home. And the end had a great reward!

We had both seen pictures of Calf Creek Falls and thought we knew what to expect, but the falls were so much bigger and more beautiful than any picture had made them out to be! The canyon walls around them arched in around the falls, yet there was a strong wind that we could only imagine was coming from the heavy flow of water itself. The rock face behind the falls glimmered with many different colors. It was just amazing - and even better, we were the only ones there, and got to enjoy it on our own!

Here you can see how big these falls are - see how small we look in comparison?! This is one of my favorite photos from our trip, and the location was our favorite ending to a hike out of all the hikes we did. It was incredible - such an easy hike for such a great reward!

As we were leaving, some other people showed up, so we knew we were there right at the right time. The entire hike only took us 2 hours and 15 minutes. We left feeling happy - the hour long drive back was worth it. :)

One last look at the canyon where Calf Creek flows.

On the way back, we stopped a few scenic overlooks. We learned from the informational boards that this land in the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument was the last to be mapped in the lower 48 states. One of the snow capped mountain ranges in the distance is called the Henry Mountains, and they were the last mountains to be named. They also have a free range of buffalo in them. Oh, how Curtis longed to hike those. I can only imagine the views from the top, with the national parks and monuments surrounding them!

The next scenic overlook had a "badland" look to it.

Day 4 Wrap Up: Drove 130 miles, hiked 13 miles (7 in Bryce, 6 in Calf Creek), found 2 letterboxes.

Highlight: Kissing under the waterfall. :)