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 Utah's canyon trekking,deck chair packing desert explorer who dreams of visiting Canada someday
3988 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2012 : 3:52 PM
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Beautiful morning! My son called last evening and said he would like to come along with me as I hike up the "Toe" trail that is supposed to go stright up the face of Red Mountain.
We geared up and left about 7:30 this morning. It's only 10 minutes away, in the town of Ivins, Utah. We have two different ways to get to the top of the mountain and have heard a lot of commotion lately about the Toe Trail to the Gunsight being more well used and therefore, more user/hiker friendly. Well, it was not to be....
See the scar on the mountain? Rock slides happen a lot, as we knew. My friend Tim just went up there last summer and tore his leg up. Bloody and purple from contusions. Well, we horsed around the bottom and thought about it for awhile and were going to opt out until I talked us into "trying" to climb this 800 ft rocky sand hill.
Here is the view. Notice the bleached white area? this is a rock slide. Redrock comes tumbling down and scars with white dust. If you walk up to redrock and run a knife edge across it, it will scar white. hmmmm strange. Even though it is red through and through...
We hiked up the wash looking for the spur trailhead sign which we found when we hiked/slid
back down. This little sign was it...hehe too funny.
We made it up 400 ft. and had a little snack at this flatrock, the only break in the action for us the whole way. A little lizard joined us wondering what flatlander humans were doing up here?
  
Nick looked at me and said I'm done. If you want to go to the top, where we have been many times before, I will stay here and chill with the lizard. Uhhh....nope....I was looking for a more challenging way to take others to the top but this is pants ripping,
nasty, depantsing (sp?) raspberry on the elbows and knees creating, ass sliding, sucking in alkalai dust choking, trek pole bending, rockslide creating, ankle twisting, back wrenching.
ok, I'll stop...hehe we were still having a great time. Just wished a helicopter would come and rescue us with a ladder....no way says Nick. Afraid of heights. You would hang onto a ladder and ride off of here? sheesh...you're crazy, old man..hehe it was a laugh.
Here we messed around before going up. and some pictures when we slid back down.
      
Monument to Kyle Banner!! hehe redrock makes some funny creatures. I am still looking for the likeness of siskel and Ebert out there.....
My all time favorite wild flower found on slopes and chaparral flats is Prince's Plume.
Way cool. Pinks, oranges, reds, purples, whites, and now this most brilliant yellow!!
Truly, if I am driving along and see it, I have been known to pull over and hike up to it.
Usually full of bees, too. great stuff.
 
I wore my sandals again. Yeeouch! I put some golfer's tape on my toes. It really sticks and won't come off. Golfer's grip tape. Helped. I am looking at some aku shoes for Father's day from my son and wifie.....I'll help, with the cost. anyone use AKU shoes?
Oh! we literally ran into two hony lizards. ahem. I mean HORNED lizards...
 
We left there and headed over to Kayenta and Nick treated to a Virgin Mint Julep smoothie concoction. Way good.
I will stick to the two ways that I know to get to the top of Red Mtn. I will be doing an overnighter if anyone is in the area this October. Cool temps in the seventies each day.
there is uh.....one more way up that I must explore. there used to be horse concessionaires
that used to ride into Snow Canyon around the corner and they had gone to three ponds trail so many times. But, on one day, they saw a cougar drinking at one of the ponds/tanks in the slickrock. It spooked and bounded all the way up. the Japanese tourists got some blurry pictures but chattered the whole way back about the way cool cougar. The ranger took the report and scrambled up to the top easily, thus opening up a NEW way to the top. I will look into it when I toss my sandals aside in the fall. Nick won't go. Mention snake or gila monster, ledged up, cougar, he is out. NOT way cool dad...not.....hehe
Once on top, you can just imagine the views as you hike along the cliff band.
cheers for now, RED MTN.
Til next month when I will try and find the ponds...coming in from the east 4 miles across burning sands.
Next week, in the gorge a full hot sun day at the Yellow Knolls. Man, I wish I was there now!! Itching like a man on a fuzzy tree!!! |
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Happy go lucky, plaid wearin, postholin, safeway gaitor sportin, old-school film shootin, giver of many regards
Abbotsford, B.C.
Canada
13466 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2012 : 9:50 PM
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Jerry
I admire you for getting out in the dry desert sun, taking your son and getting to the flat rock, and sharing graciously with the small lizard. He was probably just as curious as you.
Neat to see your side of the country; quite opposite to what I am used ... the moisture, the snow, the cool, and the high mountain slopes. It will be getting warm here, Sunday might hit 80'F....
Thanks for showing us those warm and neat looking places.
K |
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Outdoors addicted flyfishing, skiing, snowshoeing, hiking car crooner and resident motormouth
Da'Wack, BC
Canada
5372 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2012 : 10:00 PM
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Yer makin me miss the Red Rock Jer.
Nice trip. |
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Utah's canyon trekking,deck chair packing desert explorer who dreams of visiting Canada someday
3988 Posts |
Posted - 05/10/2012 : 07:37 AM
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Thanks, karvitk! Visa-versa on the climate and terrain. I love seeing and miss the humdidity, the beautiful tulips blooming in downtown Vancouver, the thousands of cherry trees bloomimg in the neighborhoods, how the forests seem to walk right down the mountains to the sea. And, when I walked around Lighthouse Park, it was the first time I had tasted the salt water of the ocean in over ten years. I guess the desert is always lying waiting for the return of the sea; waiting for waves to once again lap against the shore. Glaciers
and frozen lakes, deep green forests with moss-like beards hanging off the pines. wow!
As you saw, there was no tree in my little vertical trek. On top, pygmy forests of chaparral and pinon and juniper each plant having its own space without any crowding or thickets to bushwhack through. I just meander along serpentine through the deep sand and rock through it all. No blockages. There are some large ponds on top. They are natural and when it rains, they fill to the brim and then, flow over and run along the slickrock
to form 600 ft waterfalls.
Hi, Exy! thanks! I miss it every day that I am not out playing in it. I always see something new. Next week, I will be back in the Virgin River gorge exploring a full hot day in the sun at the yellow Knolls area. there is no trail. Just a slickrock hop; go wherever it takes me. Maybe I will see some bighorn sheep? that would be cool!!
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Trail blazin', backcountry bushwackin', pine huntin', photo takin', long winded story teller
3838 Posts |
Posted - 05/10/2012 : 3:05 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Rented Mule
Hey, I thought that was a, "Beware Of Rattle-Snake", sign.
Good to see your reports again.
You are looking like you are in great shape also. |
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Utah's canyon trekking,deck chair packing desert explorer who dreams of visiting Canada someday
3988 Posts |
Posted - 05/11/2012 : 4:20 PM
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Thanks, Wildman! I feel great!! Next Wednesday, I will be so excited to do a full day in one of my favorite places, the Virgin River Gorge. gonna work on a guide book for the next two years. Bad part is having never taken notes on the first time I was there. D'oh!
Now I have to go back and re-hike the same hikes. But, I love it. I love the dry climate and the amazing way that life clings to a crag living life by the drop....SRV
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North Vancouver, BC
Canada
271 Posts |
Posted - 06/16/2012 : 11:01 PM
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love it .... love it ...love it.. can't wait till september.....
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Toe Trail Utah
