Michigan June 25-30

A family trip to Michigan seemed like a good way to unwind and break up the summer, especially since our previous trip was cancelled. Virtually everything was taken care of for me so I enjoyed being able to "show up" for the day's activities...until I got sick and the nature of the trip changed pretty drastically. It was my first time in Michigan and though we did not stray too far from Grand Rapids we did get to see and do a variety of kid oriented activities. I went cherry picking for the first time which was both fun and tasty. We went to Millennium Park, a busy manicured beach on a lake with pleasantly warmish waters. We went for a day trip to Lake Michigan (windy so we swam in the nearby sheltered lake outlet instead). I hoped to get more runs in but really only managed one, an 8 mile jaunt from Rockford to Cedar Springs on an old railroad grade along a river and through a forest.

Probably the highlight was renting kayaks for a scenic 7 mile float down the Muskegon River from Thronapple to Newaygo. The weather was pleasant and the water great for dips. I saw well over a hundred water turtles sunning themselves on logs along the way (sliders of various sizes and occasionally a soft-shelled turtle). Most of the turtles carefully planned their basking spots for easy escape into deep water but we managed to catch one small one and one bigger one.

We stayed at Chris and Terry's neat rural place surrounded by forest. I got to drive a 1950s era Ford tractor and row around the pond at the bottom of their property among other amusements (like mulberries and blackberries and evening fireflies).

Overall the trip certainly did not go to plan but it was nice to change pace and see some new sights and sounds of the country. Many thanks to Chris and Terry for their hospitality and Heather for all the organizing.

Misery Canyon June 17-18

Everyone in the group seemed keen to put our canyon gear to work after striking out on West Canyon. Feasible canyon options were greatly limited in the Zion area due to our total rope length of 75 ft and the lack of in-hand permits going into a likely busy weekend at the park. I was leaning towards Misery Canyon since we had the requisite rope, would not have to deal with permits since it is just outside of the park, and I thought the variety of slickrock hiking, dark slot, and refreshing narrows of the East Fork Virgin River would appeal to the others. Generally I consider life too short for repeat visits for all of the best pieces of the world but after finding out there is a east fork of Misery that is supposed to be better than the west fork (which I had previously been down) I compromised. To better deal with the heat and group's endurance, we opted for an overnight trip which would allow us to spend some pleasant hours camping within the nearly pristine lower Parunuweap Canyon narrows, honestly probably the better way to do the trip given the annoyance of car camping anywhere near Zion these days.

We entered the west entrance early enough to have not more than a couple minute wait getting into the park and found the right pullout near Checkerboard Mesa. With our ultralight gear packed from our Lake Powell trip (sans 7 days of food, packraft gear, wetsuit, shelter), my pack weight was a comparable delight to shoulder and I strode lightly up the shadows between Checkerboard Mesa and its neighbor. We followed meandering but well trod trails up to the sandy pass, then dropped down into the Parunuweap backcountry.

We wove in and out of washes on sandy trails linked by more pleasant slickrock, stopping once or twice in the shade of large pinion trees. The day was rapidly heating up and we were all eager to get to the shaded slots. We approached the trail fork for the west fork seemingly fast, but the additional less trafficked mile on to the head of the east fork felt like it dragged on and on. It took a full 3 hours to the car to drop into the east fork. We hovelled in the first shady patch of the canyon for water and a snack before continuing on. 

The east fork of Misery Canyon was overall quite pleasant. It was a shallow slot with typical Zion behavior of following a joint as a straight parallel-walled fissure then abandoning the joint for sinuous curves until it found its next joint to follow. The shallow slot meant some sunlight to overheat us but did bring in some nice golden light for photos.

Overall travel was easy in the east fork with sandy or cobble floored walking, but there were at least a dozen minor downclimbs over chockstones to add interest and encourage some pass packing. No water in the east fork. At two places we had to use a log balance beam to continue downcanyon.

The east fork had over a dozen discrete slot canyon sections, each that would inevitably end at some bright and hot wash walking section for a few minutes before diving back into another slot. We did our best to minimize sun exposure. The final slot was probably the deepest, most sustained, and most interesting. Somewhere in here we found a snake that had a damaging fall from above and I attempted to carry it on a stick downcanyon to the next open place where it could maybe recover but we soon encountered a downclimb that was going to be much too tricky to do one-handed while balancing a snake with the other hand and so I put it down and we wished it well. Somewhere in this last east fork section was a short 30ish foot rappel off on bolts then a nice section of deeper canyon beyond.

We emerged back into the blistering sun and I soon recognized the west fork plunging in to join us. I knew the best was yet to come. A boulder jam marked the second of two rappels for our route, another 30ish foot rappel around chockstones. Below was a trickier downclimb that Heather and Kari opted to rappel. This penultimate slot was only 300ft in length but had some of the more interesting features we had seen up to this point including sculpted walls and chute downclimbs.

A final short wash section led into the deepest and darkest main event slot, one of the best bang for your buck 300 foot sections of slot canyon anywhere. Scenically everything up to this point was really just a warm up. First came the dark narrow gateway at the top of the slot, ominous it appearance and with its roar from the river echoing upward. At the first sign of water (an ankle-depth pool followed by a thigh-depth pool) I prompted everyone to drybag up just in case. The canyon had been bone dry up to this point but I knew there was often a shoulder depth pool coming up. Into the darkness I could see the double bridge room and its pool, mercifully only knee-deep. We ooed and awed at this dark grotto and I dug out my mini-tripod to attempt photos. The frontispiece is my best attempt to capture the two bridges but my photos just do not come close to doing this place justice. A spring emits from the bridge pool and trickles its way down a further dark hallway, then drops down several very scenic waterfalls with frogs and ferns aplenty. It is an unusual spring with a strong sulfurous odor and notably lukewarm temperature (beautiful but foul). I showed the others how to do an easy rock climbing traverse move to bypass the final swimming pool marking the end of Misery Canyon.

It was nice to be back in the cool confines of Parunuweap Canyon with its lush greenery and babbling waters. The flow was higher than I was expecting for this time of year; if it was a little higher it would be boatable. Kari and Heather were overdue for a break so Keith and I left them to nap poolside while we explored upcanyon and downcanyon for campsites, particularly ones that would provide some shelter from the strong winds swirling in the canyon floor. We found a nice spot upcanyon but then found an even better one downcanyon, a few minutes downstream from an excellent spring and a few minutes upstream from the scrambling exit out of the canyon. We filled and purified water and moved all our gear to the campsite. 

Parunuweap Narrows downriver of Misery

After settling into camp some I managed to convince Keith to go downriver with me to check out Labyrinth Falls. I had been once to the edge before solo and recall being very impressed not only by the falls but the sportiness of the river in this section. I packed the rope and harness just in case I was feeling motivated to try to peer over the edge of Labyrinth Falls. About 1500ft below we reached a spot requiring a chest deep wade. Here I lost motivation to carry anything and stripped down to boxers and camera. This section of canyon is supremely wild with usually only one sporting way to proceed. We waded the pool, walked a 60ft long log plank, performed several downclimbs, a long deep wade, and then the final shelf traverse and wade to approach the lip of Labyrinth Falls. I was just as impressed as I was the previous time. The roiling water plunges out of sight into a dark void below. Even with getting quite close to the wet and slick edge and holding my camera way out, I could still only kind of guess at what I could see. Best I could tell the waterfall plunges into a frothy turbulent pothole which then drains out via a second chute falls. We enjoyed the falls for a few minutes before working our way back upstream, easier now that we knew the route. Back at camp clothes were set on tree branches to dry and we ate dinner alongside the river. The wind died somewhat and we seemed to be fairly protected at our campsite. Ominously we could see some dark clouds in the downstream portal of sky and we all hoped for a lack of rain overnight. 

Log plank at right

Labyrinth Falls

Determined to beat the heat for our outward slog we got an early start and actually managed to start hiking before 6am Pacific time. Happily we had no overnight rain and had the best case scenario of thick cloud cover that provided a cool exit hike, allowing us to make fairly good time. We only had a few minutes of wading until we left the river and began scrambling up the escape route. This was overall as straightforward as I remember with just a few short not-too-exposed sections of steeper climbing. We gained the saddle area in about 20 minutes and then continued across cairned slickrock and sandy paths upward and northward. As we joined the main trunk trail near the backside of Checkerboard we spotted a group veering off southward down the wash west of Misery. I yelled to see if they were doing Misery (if they were and walked down the wrong wash they would be having a lousy day) and they yelled back that they were doing something else. Keith later looked up that this wash leads into a seldom done canyon called Family Camp Canyon

Camp spot at center

Escaping the East Fork Virgin River below

As we joined the main trunk trail near the backside of Checkerboard we spotted a group veering off southward down the wash west of Misery. I yelled to see if they were intending to go down Misery (if they were and walked down the wrong wash they would be having a lousy day) and they yelled back that they were doing something else. Keith later looked up that this wash leads into a seldom seen canyon called Family Camp Canyon, somewhat cruelly named after the family that navigated into this canyon by mistake and made it to the head of a monster 300ft rappel before camping and waiting for rescue.

We were back to the cars at about 9am and drove on through the tunnel into Zion Valley. We tried to find parking so that the girls could have a quick look at the visitor center gift shop but the parking lot was 100% full even at this early hour. What a zoo! We drove through the paid parking lot and charmless tourist trap that is the town of Springdale and onward to home. I thought it was a great trip considering we had Zion backcountry to ourselves and did not have to deal with any hoards. My overall verdict is that the east fork of Misery Canyon is indeed more interesting and scenic than the west fork, but since the best of the canyon is below the confluence it is probably not worth the extra cross-country hiking to access it. I get the impression the canyon is seldom done as an overnight trip which surprises me. It is possible to go fairly light through the canyon and spending time exploring Parunuweap upriver, and particularly downriver, definitely helps balance the time spent on the approach and exit.

Glen Canyon June 16

Our ambitious Lake Powell multi-sport trip cut short, my mind continually cycled through other possibilities in the area that would consider the extreme heat and our ultralight gear inventory. It did not take me long to land on packrafting the 16 mile free-flowing section of the Colorado River between Glen Canyon Dam and Lee's Ferry as an enticing possibility if we could surmount the logistics. Access below the dam is very limited. Nearly all visitors catch a motorboat up from Lee's Ferry to the base of the dam, then offloads a kayak or paddleboard to work their way back down the river. A few descend one of the few technical canyons requiring very long ropes (longer than we had at present), then float out. To my knowledge there is only one hiking route from the rim to the river in this steep-walled Navajo Sandstone canyon, the Ropes Trail that I knew as little more than a rumor from some friends. While downing large shakes in the park in Page we all scoured the internet to see if we could find any concrete information on the elusive Ropes Trail the day before. Once an official "Angel's Landing style" trail within Glen Canyon Recreation Area, it has been decommissioned and forgotten by all but a few locals. Spaced poles were drilled into the rock and linked by cables that followed a miraculous joint that provided a steep route all the way down to the river. The best way to picture it is as a vertical cliff that happened to have a 10ft wide ledge slanting sideways down the cliff like an escalator, exposed but safe. If we could find and get down this trail we would be well positioned for a relaxing float down 14.5 miles of the river to Lee's Ferry which seemed like a good use of our packrafts. 

The Ropes Trail had a weird multi-layered presence online that made it hard to decipher where it was and whether it was accessible. The most accessible layer was a Google pin suggesting people park near the dam (restricted access) and lots of reviews saying the trail is closed, blocked off, and patrolled by armed officers. The next layer had some blog-type accounts of people going down the trail to the river and back, but none of these occurred in the last five years so access could have changed. Finally digging deepest I did find one account of someone going down the trail and packrafting out, and this had enough of a description and a GPS track that would allow us to find the start. It seemed quite reasonable that we could take a wide berth around the critical dam and electrical facilities without causing anyone harm and I could not see why the trail itself would be blocked off in the open desert. We were still not 100% sure it would work out, but were confident enough to set a shuttle the night before. Lee's Ferry was only about 8 miles away from Page as the crow flies but due to the terrain and roads it was a 42 mile one-way drive!

We left Page at a comfortable 7am and drove across the Glen Canyon Dam to the roadside Beehive Campground where we staged our car. We started off on the rock-lined slickrock paths that circled around some roadside rock formations, which made pleasant travel compared to the deep sand that surrounded. Keith and I carried the boats, freeing up Heather and Kari to not have to worry about carrying loads down whatever tricky things the Ropes Trail might throw at us. At the end of the slickrock we merged onto sandy roads until we needed to cross country over to the next road. We had one barbed wire fence to slip under (zero no trespassing signs in sight) and then regained slickrock as we worked our way through ledges towards the rolling canyon rim. This area would have felt quite remote were it not for the major transmission lines overheard and the dam tunnel infrastructure on the opposite canyon wall. It was not clear that we were doing anything wrong by being here but I still felt uneasy and was looking forward to getting down the canyon wall. We had one exposed traverse move that slowed us down a bit but then I could see the spaced poles that would mark our route down.

Happily the Ropes Trail was quite straightforward and the joint ledge wide enough to help combat the exposure. We found two steeper chimney sections with a fixed line but were able to get down without needing them.

Two-thirds of the way down the route abandoned the first joint and briefly jumped to a second. From this spot it looked like the last part was going to be the crux of the route as we could see cable and rope beelining steeply straight down toward the river instead of sideways as the route had been proceeding. Fortunately once we got over to the top of this section we could see that there were plenty of features and there was only a few feet of steepness. The ropes and cable were not needed but provided some mental security. Once down the wall we followed some cairns downstream to the river's edge, or rather just above it (in hindsight there must have been some other trail branch heading upstream to the camp area). It took care to carefully descend the slippery slope into the frigid river. I waited in the waist-deep shallows helping everyone else get positioned in the water. And then we were off, floating our way down the river.

After the first bend in the river we past beneath Ferry Swale Canyon and its neighbor, which I am quite convinced are the remnants of an enormous meander cut-off. Being just below the dam the water was a crystal clear green providing a neat floating effect as we drifted over the shallow rocks and water plants below. We saw a group of big horn sheep eating vegetation and drinking from the river. This section of the river was turning out to be a lot nicer than we thought. Yes there were occasionally motor boats and other groups of kayakers or paddleboarders but overall we had solitude and scenery a plenty.

After a shady corner we arrived at a busy beach for a petroglyph detour. I tried to walk to them barefoot but retreated to grab my shoes. The Descending Sheep panel was quite neat with two cookie-cutter copy trails of sheep and many other considerably more abstract motifs pecked into a dark patina. Back at the beach I went for a quick dip in the cold water and we ate an early lunch. The petroglyphs were actually on a tighter bend than the too famous Horseshoe Bend immediately downstream. From this beach I could see the silhouette of a hundred stick figures on the canyon rim snapping the same picture of Horseshoe Bend. 

I have to admit Horseshoe Bend is less scenic at water level but no complaints on the comparable solitude we had. On the downstream side of the bend there was a good section of cliff for cliff jumping but I did not realize this in time and the current soon carried us past before I could investigate. Vertical cliffs cut by steep closely-spaced joint sets predominated the canyon but occasionally we would have an alcove or perfectly planar striped cliff.

Onward we continued with no break from the warm sun. We all continually dipped our hands into the water to soak our faces and necks. Heather and I spotted some climbing routes following prominent cracks on river right in this section. Near 6 Mile Campground there was a rare patch of shade tucked in tight against the cliff and we stopped, alongside several of the motor tour boats that knew the spot well.

Taking photos I drifted a bit behind the others at this point. Canyon right had a vertical cliff plunging right into the river with a remarkable density of sandy colored lizards with 1-2 lizards every 3 feet. I rejoined the others at the Waterholes Canyon mouth for a brief stop where I very disappointingly realized I lost my sunglasses at the petroglyph beach which put a damper on my mood. We continued on through the last few bends in the river. The canyon changed dramatically in style as the layers began to tilt and move the Navajo Sandstone above river level. We paddled past the mouth of two interesting canyons on canyon left as the wind began to pick up. Seemingly on queue with the wind was an enormous sand dune coating landslide deposits of the Kayenta Formation. On canyon right I spotted a stellar cliff jumping spot and Keith and I both took laps climbing up the cliff and jumping off the perfect perch into the shockingly cold water.

We saw some more big horn sheep on this section that treated us with complete indifference. We had a lousy headwind and paddled to maintain progress. The last few cliffs of colorful tilted sandstones and mudstones were particularly impressive. We turned the final corner and landed on the upstream side of the Grand Canyon launch ramp at 3pm. Car retrieval and packing went smoothly enough and we drove back to our car at the start. All agreed it was a great trip. We were glad to be able to see this section of canyon and to be able to access it without motorboats like nearly everyone does. It was a really neat trip overall.

We had some indecision due to hunger back at the trailhead but voted to drive on to Kanab for pizza. The pizza restaurant we were aiming for was temporarily closed and we went to another one instead which wasn't really worth the wait or prices. While we waited we figured out our next trip. We were heavily limited by the lack of rope (75ft total) and the lack of permits going into a busy Zion weekend but eventually settled on a Misery Canyon trip as something to do. We drove through Kanab and camped the night at the Ponderosa Grove Campground near Coral Pink Sand Dunes.