Birch Hollow Sept 9

After a chilly night along the Paria, we quickly dismantled camp and hit the road to Kanab. Upon arrival we found out the Coyote Buttes permit lottery was in fact held later than advertised, which gave us time to run to get a hot drink and pack for an adventure later in the day. Though we were the first to arrive at the community center for the lottery, enthusiasm continually waned as each new person stepped in line, decreasing our chances of snagging a coveted permit to Coyote Buttes North, better known as "the Wave." It had probably been nearly a decade since I last tried to get a permit through the lottery. Not much has really changed other than the increased popularity and relatedly near-impossible chances of scoring. Over 50 potential trip leaders representing about 150 people spaced throughout the room, hoping to be lucky enough to be one of the 10 people allowed to visit the Wave. We were not! Though it meant further eating into our day we stuck around to try to get a permit for the dramatically less popular Coyote Buttes South permit. This requires challenging miles of deep sand 4WD roads to access and arguably more hiking to see. Ten people stuck around for the permit and so happily no lottery was drawn and we all received permits. I over two women wearing matching Martha's Vineyard hoodies that they had booked a guided all-terrain vehicle tour to access the site at a cost of $500 each. I had something very different in mind! With permit in hand for tomorrow, we peeled out of Kanab ASAP to try to fit something else into the day. Though we potentially could be a little short on daylight, I was keen to check out Birch Hollow, one of the very few Zion area classic canyons I had not yet gotten to. Being just outside Zion NP, it was one of the few canyons open in the area due to Zion's blanket closure on backcountry and canyoning permits.

 

We made pretty good time driving to Zion's east side. Pulling into the parking turnoff we saw one large van suggesting one guided trip already in the canyon, and two other guys pulled up in a truck as we set off down the trail. Overall I was happy about this considering I was expecting the canyon to be much more crowded and was worried about waiting on rappels. Also happily the air temperature was extremely comfortable, and not the high elevation chill I was expecting from the cold snap. The canyon started as a modest gully of little interest. As we descended the walls gradually grew. At one point we hit an interesting evaporite layer (gypsum?) that had pirated the drainage through interesting cave systems. The gully then became more of a wash. A prominent horizonline was a sizable chossy drop (sketchy looking!) that we happily bypassed on the loose trail down the left side. A short distance onward was the first real rappel in the canyon, an overhanging 90 footer through sandstone and shale layers.

A few minutes later we entered the Navajo Sandstone and the canyon started to slot up with some nice twisty corners, and chockstone downclimbs and rappels. 

The canyon relented for a brief moment before plunging down an intimidating headwall rappel (another 90ft). We descended down the smooth polished walls back into the shadows, excited to finally be getting to the meat of the canyon. It was the first of several excellent rappels in the canyon.

At this point the rappels became rapid-fire, with the canyon dropping as much vertically as it did laterally. Rope was coiled and moved a short distance to rig the next drop. I thought we would have been overtaken by the group of two behind us at this point. We could here them behind us but could largely keep pace which was nice. Some more downclimbs followed.

The last three rappels were easily the best in the canyon. The canyon twisted narrowly overhead. A fluted drop over or under a wedged log. A few steps over to a long rappel into an alcove beneath a large chockstone. A few steps further to the most sculpted drop of them all. It is too bad this final section was over so soon. It was easy to get carried away with the photos in this section!

The bottom of this final fluted drop found us about a hundred feet away from the confluence with Orderville Gulch. The guys behind us caught up right at the bottom of the last rappel. A quick chat revealed they had a car shuttle set at the Orderville Roadend and we imposed on them for a ride which they cheerfully agreed to. We were expecting to have to ascend anastomosing cattle trails back up to the rim so the friendly company and easy way out were greatly appreciated. A lucky break and one that let us complete the canyon round trip in a little over 4 hours, with daylight to spare. Heather came away with a new appreciation for the scenery and fun that canyons could be, overwriting some of the previous experiences I have subjected her too. I had to agree that it was a pleasant canyon with good bang for the buck. I'm glad I didn't have to see it in crowded mode. Thanks to Matt and Cody from Arizona for the ride!

We made a quick roadside stop south of Mt Carmel Junction to check out the interesting graffitied tunnel under the highway ("The Belly of the Beast"). We stopped for a tasty veggie burger, fries, and shake in Kanab, then drove on down House Rock Road. 

A campervan highly annoyingly was stopped in the middle of the road while the passenger was fussing around with something on the side of the car. The passenger jumped in (knowing we were behind!) and the van proceeded to drive down the road at a painful sub-10 mph. Eventually this became too painful and so I aggressively overtook, rudeness deserving rudeness. Within a few hundred feet of overtaking was the sign for the campground turnoff! How embarrassing! Not wanting to be the dick that needed to overtake to get to camp literally seconds before, we drove onward like we had somewhere else to be. This was actually fortuitous because we shortly came upon the trailhead to see the Maze petroglyphs. We had nearly lost all daylight but decided to rally for the short hike to the petroglyphs. It was a scenic little hike through some mud badlands, across a sage flat, and then up a bouldery slope to the intricate and unusual petroglyphs. 

We rounded out the day claiming the last camping site in the wonderful stateline campground (half the sites are in Arizona and half in Utah) at the end of the Arizona Trail. Nice facilities and some neat interpretive signs and monuments for the AZT. A cold but comfortable night.