West Rim Trail - Zions National Park

I was half expecting the West Rim Trail to be nice and mellow more the first 9 miles and then just wind down some cliffs and drop in elevation down to the Virgin River, but it's not so. Sure it starts out all nice and mellow, gradually dropping in elevation with some mellow rises up and over hills. The ponderosa pines mingle with prickly pear cactus and yucca to make for some interesting scenery. Even more dramatic though is the varying stages of destruction and recovery from numerous wildfires over the years. Some pines would be completely consumed while its neighbor was left unscathed. The cactus seemed to be the least affected by fire since they lay so low to the ground.

The first remarkable stop is at the three mile mark where you have a nice overlook of the infamous Subway. Someday I'll get around to doing it. After that stop you drop down some significant elevation in to Potato Hollow where the fires left only skeletons of large trees that once shrouded the trail in a green canopy. Now they reach out, attempting to snare the travellers who pass in their midst. This area is mostly covered in grasses, and some willow type things that cause my skin to itch. There's a spring in that area that I didn't visit, but I heard that it's full of green, slimey goodness.

From Potato Hollow you climb way up over the ridge. And this is when you realize the trail isn't gonna play nice. After several breaks you crest the ridge and get a great view of numerous canyons on the West side of the rim and you drop into Sleepy Hollow. No sooner do you reach the bottom and are awarded with great views, do you subcomb to the drudgery of climbing an even steeper trail to an even higher elevation than the ridge you just crossed.

Once up there the trail splits and most of the campsites in that area are only reachable from the Canyon Rim section. It's up here that you get to see the most dramatic and extensive layout of canyons that the West Rim Trail has to show. This section gradually climbs upward, but very gradually. The landscape to the East was completely obliterated by a wildfire. The designated campsites in this area are in small patches of pines that weren't affected by the fire.

We had campsite #4. It doesn't have any views from the Rim, but they're a short walk away. I set up my hammock in the trees and napped for a while. The mosquitoes hit hard that night, but the bats came out to feast on those blood suckers. There were several meteors that burned up in the sky while I was still awake to see them.

Next morning we saw the very different views that the South side of the West Rim Trail has to offer. After winding around the rim to Cabin Spring, I stopped to get some water to treat. Cabin Spring is nothing more than a very small trickle with a little pool big enough to fill a Nalgene bottle. There are two campsites right there with enviable views of Majestic Mountain, and the canyons to the South and East a short walk away.

It's at this point the trail starts dropping down a trail cut into the sandstone cliff opposite of Majestic Mountain. Eventually you cross over to the Majestic Mountain side, drop some more, and cross a bridge traversing a deep drainage. Unfortunately the trail climbs again, but only for a short while. Once at the top you can look down into the depths of Zion and see the trees surrounding the Virgin River beyond Walter's Wiggles, and Angel's Landing. Then it's a short trip to Scout's Lookout, and the obligatory jaunt up Angel's Landing just because it's right there and it'd be a shame not to do it. The rest of the way is on the paved trail down Walter's Wiggles, through Refrigerator Canyon, down the hot switchbacks, along the edge of the Virgin River, till you get to the bridge which drops you off at the Grotto.

The Virgin River was really, really nice to cool off in and wash off the dirt & stank of the trip.

View photos from this trip

Mt Nebo

Just checked off another county high point. Took the North Route off of Mona Pole Rd. It's a clean cut trail that slowly approaches the mountain while going up and down over a couple hills before you enter a basin on the North-East side of North Peak. The trail does a couple switchbacks before switching to a squiggle of a trail climbing directly up towards the ridge line. Once you're on the ridge, the trail rises and falls on the East slope of North Peak where you get your first good view of Mt Nebo, and eventually curves around to Wolf's Pass. Next is a 1200 ft climb up the North slope of an unnamed sub-peak. Once on top of that, you can see the final trek across a connecting ridge with steep slopes, tricky moves, and a use trail that's very easy to lose. There's a great view of Hell Hole Basin on your left as you cross that ridge. Once across, it's a final push up to the summit of Nebo -- officially 11,928 ft -- with loose scree and plenty of exposure. Best part though, it only takes 4.5 miles to get there, and once you've had enough of a higher altitude experience, it's a quick descent back to Wolf's Pass. The clouds were building the whole trip, and once we were safely off North Peak it started to sprinkle on and off for the rest of the hike.

Maybe next time I'll try it from Andrew's Ridge and see what that endurance fest is all about.

View photos from this trip

Mojo Rebuilding on the Ben Lomond Trail from North Fork Park

I've always been curious about the trails out of North Fork Park. There are two that head up to the Skyline Trail, the Ben Lomond Trail and the Cutler Trail. I needed something where I was gaining some good elevation and covering some distance so I could get some of the mojo back that I left on Mt Peale when I had to abandon the summit attempt, and the Ben Lomond trail seemed like a good candidate. It starts out innocent enough -- after you find it in the maze that is North Fork Park (follow the signs to the corrals and park next to them) -- anyway the trail is nice and wide, and in great shape. After a couple miles though,

There's a trail in there somewhere...

overgrowth from the surrounding brush encroaches the trail sometimes making it disappear almost entirely. After 3 miles the trail flattens out a bit and crosses a saddle where there's some good camping and from there you get a nice view of Ben Lomond Peak, and Willard Peak View of Ben Lomond and Willard Peaks. The next two miles take you to the saddle right below the last big ascent of Ben Lomond. It was getting late and I didn't have enough water to summit, otherwise I probably would've done it just cause most of the work to climb Ben Lomond Peak is simply covering the distance to get to the point where I was at. It was okay though, cause my only goal on this trip was to make it to the saddle, and I did that, and I felt I could keep going all the way to the summit which was even better. So I turned around, bushwhacked the trail, ran out of water with two miles left and when I reached my truck I realized the mojo was good. I now feel ready to go out and conquer another one of the ultra-prominence peaks again.