A Journey South Climbing and Hiking - Two Parts

Cayuse

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2014
Messages
771
Location
Mesa, AZ
When I got the vacation time back in June I thought it was going to be a couple week climbing trip with my regular climbing partner and I put in for a permit to hike into The Wave on somewhat of a lark figuring it would be a good rest day activity if I beat the odds. The within a two week span in July I got an email saying I'd been drawn for The Wave and my climbing partner messed up her knee wakeboarding and became unsure whether or not she was going to be able to go so I told her the spot was hers until she gave me a definitive answer.

Fastforward to early September and the knee is healing but not well enough to go on the trip so I texted a friend in Las Vegas asking if she wanted to join me on the hike and go camping for a weekend. The response came in about a minute with an enthusiastic YES! so that part of the trip was taken care of but no climbing partner.

I started making plans for a solo trip and figuring on trying to meet up with people at City of Rocks and do some hiking in Bryce and Zion along the way when a very chance encounter with a friend led to the possibility of her joining me on the trip. She committed to the trip three days before I was planning on leaving and now that the boring narrative is out of the way on to some pictures....

We started off by driving to City of Rocks, ID. About 10 hours from Spokane arriving right around dusk. The campsite was pretty nice:


While there we got up on some rocks:


And could keep an eye on the truck:


After a couple of days playing on the rocks there we headed south. This nondescript place near Monroe, UT is Mystic Hot Springs and is a great stop but I only took the one picture...


Then we drove on through a couple of small tunnels...


And after getting a campsite spent the afternoon exploring Bryce


When the person travelling with you is a former collegiate gymnast you get some interesting photo ops...


We left Bryce well before sunup, sneaking out with the parking lights on to head to Zion and get a campsite before we went in to climb this:


We enjoyed the views


Over several pitches


And after spending some time on top it was time to head down


Fortunately the truck was right where we left it when we returned


After Zion we headed to Las Vegas where I dropped off Heather for a few days of climbing at Red Rocks and picked up Kelly for the next part of the trip. Somehow saying that I was swapping partners just doesn't sound good :)

We drove to Stateline Campground out House Rock Valley Rd. and near the Wire Pass trailhead and spent the next two nights there but I neglected to take any pictures of the truck. I did however take some pictures of the hike and of The Wave







We left a different way from how we came in


And got to see a cool if short little slot canyon


From there we went over Buckskin Mountain to 89A and then around to Tuweap Campground. What an incredible place!




And the views of the canyon aren't bad either


End Part 1 due to limit on number of pictures...

I lost the already written part dos so it will be a few minutes to recreate it....
 
Part 2. I had this written in the original post and then managed to lose it in the copy and paste of too many pics in a post. Such is life.

After heading back to Las Vegas and Dropping off Kelly and picking up Heather we made a looooong drive to the Needles where we spent a couple of nights at Hamburger Rock Campground



And did some exploring around the area


We were also due to get cleaned up a bit so we setup a shower (it is possible that only climbers will appreciate this?)


And then set our eyes on South Six Shooter


Via this route


We were happy to summit!





Great views


And could still see the truck (sort of)


Zoomed in

Then we headed to Moab and managed to score a permit for The Fiery Furnace. What a great place to play around in! Kind of like a jungle gym for grown ups!






And of course more gymnastics...


The next day we got up early and drove 14 hours back to Spokane, including a stop at the Patagonia Outlet in Dillon.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, hope you enjoyed it.

PS.  Prior to this trip Heather had never been to Bryce, Zion, Canyonlands or Arches. She is now somewhat hooked on the desert!
 
Looks like an incredible climbing trip, Cayuse! Love that red rock.
And with lovely partners to climb with too. :)

I'm curious about the route you did in Zion on the light colored stone. What's the rating / name / formation?

BTW, your second post is a bit mangled with mostly links, not photos showing up.
I'm not sure how photobucket works, but generally you want a BB-code link to insert in a post, not a .jpg link.

Thanks for sharing your trip!
 
Lighthawk said:
Looks like an incredible climbing trip, Cayuse! Love that red rock.
And with lovely partners to climb with too. :)

I'm curious about the route you did in Zion on the light colored stone. What's the rating / name / formation?

BTW, your second post is a bit mangled with mostly links, not photos showing up.
I'm not sure how photobucket works, but generally you want a BB-code link to insert in a post, not a .jpg link.

Thanks for sharing your trip!
Hopefully the formatting is all fixed now... it is for me in a couple of different browsers where I'm not logged in to the photobucket account.

The route in ZIon was called Led by Sheep 5.7 Grade III, well bolted and could take some protection but none was used and didn't feel too run out. It is on Aries Butte which is labeled as 6492' on the topo maps about a mile east of the small tunnel. Feel free to PM me if you'd like more information.
 
Cayuse said:
Hopefully the formatting is all fixed now... it is for me in a couple of different browsers where I'm not logged in to the photobucket account.

The route in ZIon was called Led by Sheep 5.7 Grade III, well bolted and could take some protection but none was used and didn't feel too run out. It is on Aries Butte which is labeled as 6492' on the topo maps about a mile east of the small tunnel. Feel free to PM me if you'd like more information.
Thanks Cayuse. Sounds like a fun route.
 
You do get hooked on the desert! And, we hope to get hooked on following along on more of your adventures! Thanks for letting us follow. :)
 
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