Salome Jug May 26

After a long previous day covering 13 rough miles of hiking in the Sierra Ancha Wilderness, we were looking for a comparatively mellow and dare I say fun day to round out our eastern Arizona trip. It had been years since I had been to Salome Jug and I knew the others would get a kick out of this pink granite waterpark so it seemed like the obvious choice. Highs around 90F likely meant pleasant water temperatures that would probably outweigh the hassle of Memorial weekend Sunday crowds for this popular canyon. We drove without incident back out Cherry Creek Road, stopping once to admire some of the many saguaro blooms spotted along the way. The comparatively rough A Cross Road led us to the Salome trailhead where we joined about 8 other cars. Someone next to us was rappelling 2ft off their car, clearing a first rappel- yes this was clearly this sort of canyon and certainly a harbinger of things to come. 

Despite the mid-morning hour it was already getting hot and it took only a few steps along the dusty trail to crave water. At least after the steep and rough trails of the previous day, it felt like we were flying along the evenly graded trail and even passed a couple groups on our approach. After 2.5 miles we reached the head of the granite gorge area. Happily the water was a warm but refreshing temperature. Among the four of us we has varying degrees of thermal protection from none to full wetsuit- happily everyone was happy with their choices and we waded in. 

The canyon starts as a series of wading pools linked by short bedrock falls but soon becomes more enclosed and the drops taller. The smooth polish of the salmon pink granite is unmistakable as was the surrounding desert of ocotillos and saguaros. As we worked our way down I took advantage of a couple optional jump spots. We passed a couple groups on our way down, including someone that asked me for help down a waterfall. The canyon was busy! I think it is fair to say we saw at least 40 people over the length of our hike.

The sculpting and water features just gets better and better as it cuts deeper through the granite bench with a few nice twists and turns and deep pools. In higher water we would have a few tricky maneuvers to make but at this flow we made good time working our way down. Finally I could see the traverse line for the waterfall rappel or jump and so we all put on our rappelling gear before the pool before. I got in one more nice extra credit jump into the deep pool above the "jug" part of the canyon. 

The geometry of this drop was a little different than I remembered but I led the charge out along the traverse line and began setting up our rope, thankfully arriving before an additional 2-3 groups piled up to queue. Kari first, then Heather rappelled down without incident. At this point the group behind us more or less begged us to help someone in their group down that had never rappelled before. They had a rope that was too short and did not seem to have a lot of confidence in what they were doing. Keith then jumped down to provide a fireman's belay and I set up up on rappel on the top. Thankfully not much time was added and they were quite appreciative. Happy to help avoid a potential rescue I suppose. I packed up the rope and jumped into the near-bottomless pool. We watched a couple more people jump their way down then began the long swim down the flooded hallway, certainly the standout part of the canyon. We found one more optional jump and worked our way down to the final turn in the canyon. As I had remembered, the end of the canyon is certainly its most surprising aspect. The natural waterpark framed by vertical cliffs abruptly gives way to a wide open desert wash providing a dramatic end to this fun and scenic canyon. 

Unsurprisingly the exit trail was much improved since my last visit to this canyon over a decade ago! And certainly much more popular, we were by far the most experienced canyoners in the canyon. Back up the sweaty trail to the car. The carpark had well over 20 cars in it at this point with even more people hiking in to the canyon. It was midafternoon at this point, but we considered our options and decided to drive for broke back to southern California, making it back around 11pm. On the drove out we spotted an excellent roadside crested saguaro that made a particular nice parting shot. 

Thanks to Keith for driving. I am glad that everyone enjoyed this canyon and it formed such a contrast with our previous day's rough and tough hike.

Pueblo Cyn & Devils Chasm May 25

While I had been in this area before on canyoning focused trips towards the start and middle of my canyon career, it was comparably recently that I realized there were some unique ruins a little deeper into the backside of the Sierra Ancha Wilderness. By some accounts these were among some peoples favorite adventure hikes in Arizona. I thought these ruin hikes would be an excellent way to round out our spring break after the Salt River but this was not to be. For a combination of reasons we ended up bailing on our Salt River trip after 8 river miles. We then drove into Cherry Valley beyond the second creek crossing, but then gathering storm clouds and a rainy forecast had us worried about being on the wrong side of a flooded river and 20 miles down a road that would turn to deep mud and so we bailed on this plan as well. So March was disappointment stacked on disappointment. We saw Memorial Day as a chance at partial redemption, this time four strong with Keith and Kari joining. 

It was past dark by the time we crossed the Salt River takeout and had to make a decision on camping. I knew options were more grim (especially in the dark) along Cherry Valley Road and so suggested we try one of the cliff edge camps along the escarpment near Parker Canyon, somewhere I had fond memories of but haven't been in a decade. I was a little nervous with it being a holiday weekend but after we drove past two groups, we easily found an area we could have all to ourselves right at the prow adjacent to Parker Canyon. Heather and I set up the tent to combat the wind. It was complete darkness when we all went to bed and I was excited for the others to see the view when we awoke. 

The views were every bit as good as I remember and I can think of very few campsites that match this spot. The quartzite cliffs and turrets of Parker Canyon were like a mini-Grand Canyon and off to the west we could see the sun rising over the broad valley that Roosevelt Reservoir sits in and at the far distance make out the architectural bridge spanning the reservoir's outlet. Things warmed up quick once the sunlight crested Asbestos Point and we packed up and hit the road soon after. Along the drive we were blown away by the saguaro forest, the entirety of which seemed to be in peak bloom with bees busily buzzing around each crown of flowers. It was quite the spectacle and a nice surprise.

Cherry Valley Road was thankfully in very good shape and the second creek crossing that was such a mental ordeal for us at high water surrounded by thunderstorms in March, was laughably trivial this time around. We drove Keith's Outback almost exactly to where Heather and I turned around in March (this rough boulder strewn part of the road appeared nearly identical to our memory), and once again decided to turn around. We parked at a pullout along the road to the unofficial Cherry Valley Campground less than a quarter-mile back, and then geared up for an unfortunate bonus hike of 5.7 miles round trip along the road to access the hiking trails. With this extra effort demanded, we abandoned the idea of bringing canyoning gear for a Pueblo Canyon descent and instead tried to go fast and light to instead focus on the hiking.

Already by the time we started hiking it was getting quite warm and I broke from my traditional style to start hiking in shorts and using trekking poles, both good choices. As the road veered into the crease of Devils Chasm we caught some great views of the quartzite cliffs of the Sierra Ancha Wilderness above. After about 1.5 hours along the road we came to the trailhead for Pueblo Canyon and began climbing the old Jeep trail there as it worked its way steeply up to the base of the cliffs. 

Partway up the ridge we ran into a few backpacking kids, then later their dads. They did not have too much to say other than the trail being very overgrown and rough but the ruins at the end being worth it. We made good progress until we reach the first cliff band where the trail did become a loose chute to gain the top. On top it was overgrown but otherwise a decent trail we could push through without too much effort; I was feeling optimistic. Then we turned into the north facing base of the main cliff and our progress slowed considerably. At this point I could see ruins at the base of the same cliff band on the opposite side of the canyon, 0.5 miles away as the crow flies. Unfortunately we were not crows and so instead followed this rough and overgrown sidle trail as it went up and down in about 50 ft increments, mentally taxing our progress. We stopped a few times to catch our breaths and cool down. The further we turned into the corner the more steady the shade from the cliffs and there were some pleasant springs, fern gardens, and wildflowers along the way. As we made it about halfway along the base of the cliff we got to a longer overhanging alcove with some neat things to see. We checked out an old Uranium mine adit right next to some crumbling ancient ruins and then a little further got to a multi-room complex under the same alcove. Interestingly we could see where an entire slab of a wall collapsed on its side with the wall's blocks sticking upright. This little taste of ruins helped break up the grind of the hike and we gained a little more energy as the cliffs now contoured into the canyon where there would be a 100 ft waterfall waiting for us. The trail went right between the cliff and the waterfall about a third of the way up, forming an irresistible spot for lunch before we continued on the last quarter-mile past the ruins.

We continued following the foot trail and soon came to the first of four groupings of ruins. Overall these were surprisingly well preserved and extensive with many multi-room and multi-story structures. Most Colorado Plateau ruins are made of uniform colored sandstone blocks and related adobe; these ones were unique to most of the ones I have seen in that they used highly colorful tabular "bricks" of the local quartzite. Many of the doorways were in pristine condition and interestingly we could se a few examples of renovations where an existing doorway was later patched into a wall. Many of the sizable support logs forming floors of second stories were still embedded in place. Also of interest were some storerooms and shelf surfaces built into the back of a couple of the rooms. We only saw the very occasional small piece of pottery or ear of corn but the ruins were spectacular with a commanding view over forest and pinnacles opposite the valley and expansive views down the valley. Despite being south facing in midday, the alcoves these ruins were built within were deep enough that we explored the ruins in pleasant shade. Heather and Kari were tired from the hike and content to chill and snack in the shade at these first ruins but Keith and I continued on along the base of the cliff to see more. While we were gone they both saw a black bear traversing the ledge just below them!

Past a few springs and clambering behind a large boulder we continued along soon arriving at the second complex of ruins. These were also nicely designed multi-story multi-room buildings with nice masonry and huge logs. The front face of one of the ruins had a very nicely designed wall with two rocks protruding out of the top face as if horns; I cannot imagine any purpose to these other than a novel architectural flourish. On the back wall of one room we spotted some pictographs painted in a couple colors. At this point Keith had seen his fill and hiked back to Kari and Heather but I continued onward a bit further.

This third area was not quite as extensive but did have some more neat things to see including a moderately well preserved second story floor that I could see the different construction layers within. I walked past this to where the cliff edge turned into the sun spotting one further small ruin and then returned to join the others.

We walked back to the waterfall and filtered our water here before retracing our steps back. Thankfully now in known territory, we made a little better progress back along the overgrown sidle trail. When we finally regained the ridge on the homestretch back down to the road Heather and Kari offered to let Keith and I charged forward to try to fit in a second hike up Devils Chasm while they ambled back to the car and camp at their own pace. We happily agreed despite the fairly late hour and set off at an aggressive pace. A mile and a half back down the road we turned off to head up Devils Chasm. Almost immediately we came across a comparably excellent trail in a remarkably lush canyon alongside a babbling stream; it was such a contrast from most of the rest of our hike and I would not have guessed I was in Arizona based on the context. Near the bottom we ran into a group of three young people hiking that fairly casually told us there was a "jaguar" in the cave near the chockstone climbing obstacle further up and they turned around there. I gave them the benefit of the doubt thinking they maybe saw a mountain lion best case but more likely a bobcat; it turned out I gave them too much credit. I was hiking in just my boxers for speed and cooling; I was probably a bit too lose with this approach and my guess is that some of these riparian sections are where I acquired some poison ivy rashes. The trail got much rougher and harder to follow but did break out into some spectacular bedrock patio sections.  When we reached the handline chockstone obstacle we did hear a strange noise. It took us both a minute or so to process but after that it was conclusive: the "jaguar" was just a frog croaking in a cave underneath the boulder...

Some more nice bedrock patio sections led into the hard hitting final 0.2 miles with a 700ft climb up chutes of loose rocks and dirt. I was sweating profusely but doing my best to power through. The day was nearly over and we made it this close but this final climb just did not seem to end. This part of the trail was much worse than anything else we had seen and we were glad Kari and Heather skipped this part. Finally we broke through some of the low trees and I got a view of our destination right above us. Wow it was impressive! We scrambled the last bit to gain the mid-cliff ledge hosting the ruins. The Devils Chasm ruins are a remarkable and imposing fortress, one of the most unique ruins I have ever seen. The ancient peoples had taken up every square inch of a mid-cliff ledge such that the wall of the ruin rose directly out of the top of a 30ft cliff. When these people slept in the cliff home their heads were literally feet away from this cliff edge, yet inside you would never guess. The construction here consisted of a single access doorway which led through to four distinct rooms separated by additional doorways and a final doorway that led out onto the deadend ledge beyond. Once again the views were spectacular and wild from this vantage. All in all this was the best constructed of the ruins we had seen with the main outer wall cleanly designed and completely intact. The whole structure had at least two stories with a third story for part of it. I would have loved to linger longer at this amazing spot but had to be satisfied with walking through, snapping a few photos, and then powering back down along the trail before darkness overtook us.

We continued down the canyon without incident, arriving to the road just before dusk and walking the last 1.5 miles of the bumpy road in near darkness. The Devils Chasm detour only added 3 miles but also about 3 hours to complete. Kari and Heather were waiting patiently at camp. Having done 14 fairly rough miles over an 11 hour span, I was suitably tired and lethargic as I slowly ate dinner and settled in for the night.

I was particularly glad to get both of these hikes in, especially considering how remote and out of the way this place is, and because we had to bail on a previous attempt months before. A dose of redemption is always appreciated. Overall it was a great day with stunning scenery and some of the most unique and remote ruins I have seen. I remain in awe thinking about the rough terrain and out of the way nooks that these ancient peoples lived and apparently thrived.

Zion Narrows May 11-12

A number of conditions aligned for me to get back into the Zion Narrows for a paddle, my fourth trip ever and first time since 2019: we had the minimal flow conditions met with a stable flow of 200 cfs (more would have been preferred), Keith was able to drive there early to pick up a permit before the backcountry desk closed Friday, and Tim was able to fly Eric and I in his three-seater Cessna out to St George. All of this remarkably meant that we could squeeze an overnight trip into a standard weekend despite my obnoxious Friday teaching schedule. 

I left campus on Friday in a furious rush to fight traffic to the small (and no complaints but frankly nearly abandoned) Riverside Airport where I was instantly greeted by Tim and Eric who had been waiting on me. As we loaded Eric mentioned it was a nerve-wracking ride from Camarillo and he wasn't sure how his stomach was going to handle the rest of the trip. At the time I mostly attributed this to the stress of flying across Los Angeles (surely some of the busiest airspace in the world) and not being used to flying in small Cessnas, but as I soon found out the roving rain clouds and occasional thunderheads did in fact mean the air was quite unsettled and for almost the entirety of the 3.5 hours flight we got bumped all around and had to manually deviate off our route to avoid the worst of the weather. It was probably the roughest flight I have had. Stacked with the fact I should have gone to the bathroom before the 3+ hour flight and it was fair to say I was not comfortable for nearly the entirety of the flight. 

Eric bravely took the controls for much of the flight. As the sole person in the back seat I was able to move to both sides of the plane to snap photos out the left and the right sides. We made a large spiral to gain enough altitude to clear the San Bernardinos, flew over the Deep Creek headwaters, then continued flying over many familiar desert landmarks including Pisgah Crater, Mountain Pass Mine, and the futuristic solar array. Because of weather and traffic we were actually given permission to fly directly over the Las Vegas Airport, which provided us with surprisingly cool views of the Sphere. Onward past Vegas we flew over the Valley of Fire and an interesting area of faulted folds. The sun was nearly gone by the time we crossed over the Virgin River Gorge and we had bumpy air coming in for our landing at St George Airport just before dark. It was a memorable flight in more than one way and I could only hope that was the crux of the trip! We piled in quite tightly into Keith's car, had a sitdown Mexican meal in Hurricane, then drove on to camp at the BLM land off of Kolob Terrace Road. Despite plenty of vehicles, we managed to find a very nice spot and settled in. The night's weather was uncertain but I initially risked sleeping out. Around midnight the annoying wind was replaced with rude rain drops and I worked to set up my tent. There was probably no more rain afterwards but at least with the wind off of me I slept better the rest of the night. 

It was a groggy early predawn hour that we awoke and packed for the short drive to Springdale. We arrived at ZAC well before our scheduled 6:15AM shuttle to give Keith time to park at the visitor center and walk on over. It turned out to be a full shuttle bus with 4 groups (all packrafters or inflatable kayakers) headed to the Chamberlain Ranch Trailhead for a narrow run. Unsurprisingly the Zion Narrows was probably now thoroughly discovered by packrafters compared to my first trip in 2016 when we were considered a novelty. Although we were the only ones doing it as an overnight, I noticed some of the others seemed to have bigger packs that were just as heavy packs as ours. It took quite a while to leave with some people showing up quite late. We found out we had apparently missed an epic chance to see the aurora last night due to the usually strong solar storm and I marveled at the pink colors in the cell phone picture I was shown. The drive was entertaining with a couple people there revealing they were on a soon to be released survivor-type reality TV competition held in New Zealand. Eventually we made it to the trailhead and unloaded everyone's pack. It seemed like more than half of the people were jockeying for the one stall toilet so it was not until around 8:30AM that our group finally set out hiking. We were told to expect 5 hours of hiking for the 9 miles to the confluence.

After the immediate first wet feet crossing of the North Fork Virgin River (rude!), we started along the old ranch road making easy but less interesting travel the first 3 miles. The road ducked in and out of pine forest and ranch meadows with frequent views of distance plateaus. I noted a distinct lack of snow on the high elevation slopes suggesting that there was not much snowmelt left and the Narrows paddling season would very soon be over. The meadowy floodplains petered out as cross-bedded sandstone walls began to rise and narrow with the river frequently meandering into cliffs, forcing a river crossing. Between the numerous crossings (over 50 by the end of the day) we worked hard to pick up hints of trails that would provide the best travel. For at least a couple hours this scenery and style of travel continued. At one point when we stopped for a snack it began to rain, and then briefly pour, and we ran to hide under some rock overhangs; fortunately the rain only lasted about 15 minutes or so and then we continued on. 

At the halfway point it felt like we had a disappointingly long way still to go, but every step was progress and generally the scenery improved the further we went with sheer 500 ft walls rising out of the river and the occasional narrow section with wall-to-wall water being two of the standouts. Three of the other groups passed us by while hiking with one more remaining behind us. There would be occasional stretches where the river looked boatable, only to soon run into a small rapid with too little water flowing over the rocks. I thought it akin to a form of Chinese water torture designed especially for kayakers, teasing us with this beautiful river and scenery but poking us every hundred feet with not enough water. It would be a way better trip if we were able to boat these 9 miles rather than hike them. Oh well- I knew I had been spoiled with my more standard Deep Creek approach.

At last we reached the falls where the river dramatically pours about 15 ft over a stable log jam into a slot below. Miraculously and fortunately for everyone this is nearly the only place where a natural bypass to the river is possible and we detoured through the spooky dry slot passage. The falls were a useful landmark telling us the we had about two-thirds of a mile left to go to reach the confluence. Some of the best scenery of the hike was on this stretch including the darkest, narrowest narrows and an imposing joint controlled fin. The scenery was hard to beat but we were all well ready to stop carrying a heavy pack and start paddling.

It was a relief to make yet another turn, look down canyon and notice the comparatively wide "park" signaling the junction with Deep Creek, which probably had about 150 cfs to the North Fork Virgin River's unboatable 50 cfs. That hike really did take a solid 5 hrs, 5.5 hrs actually, leading us up to a 2pm arrival. It was beautiful the whole way through but rough going with 50ish stream crossings and the creek taunting us the whole way: with double the flow we could have had a beautiful float the whole way. We joined the two other packraft groups that arrived ahead of us that were pretty close to taking off. The beach area was pretty full with people staging so I walked down to set up direct at the confluence so I would have less distance to shoulder my boat. Unfortunately right as I was in my most delicate moments in the transition (boat open, stuffing my camping gear into the drybags, changing from wet hiking clothes to my dry set for my drysuit layers), it began to rain aggressively. I had no good trees to hide under and was frantically trying to manage keeping the rain (and then wet hail!) off my critical camping gear and sparse warm thermal layers I needed to change into while trying to make forward progress on the packraft transition and managing my rapidly dropping core temperature. It was one of those moments where trips instantly change from walks in the park to epics. Eventually I managed to complete the transition with minimal damage but the poor timing meant that I was the last one in our group to get ready by about 5-10 minutes, a rarity!

The confluence looking upstream, Deep Ck joins at left

A little chill and shivers remained from the drenching (and I wore less thermal layers than usual to prioritize dry clothes in camp), but oh what sweet relief to unshoulder all burdens and float on down the river. It had been years and a global pandemic since I had paddled the Zion Narrows, so despite the low flows I was thrilled for the reward that was to come after all the effort it took to get to this spot. I was also excited for Tim and Eric's first time. Before we set off from our first eddy below the confluence, I told them my advice: savor, don't rush! We only had 2.5 miles to go for the day to the last possible camp (Camp 12) and I knew just how fast that would go if we didn't occasionally stop, eddy out, and enjoy the views. The two main types of rapids were wall hugging wave trains and riffles that T-ed into cliffs requiring careful maneuvering. At one of these T rapids I recognized a familiar deep alcove and stopped to catch its eddy to shoot some photos from the inside. I also remembered an interesting slide rock that at higher flows you could sneak through behind. Despite the river being only about 200 cfs, the coverage was thankfully sufficient to get down pretty much everything. The variety of scenery was even better than I remembered. Every turn on the corner was a new surprise, be it a long view towards a giant alcove in a towering cliff wall, a pocket garden of ferns and trees, or a dark hallway of narrows. Everyone was smiles ear to ear.

There are 12 backpacker campsites that are supposed to each have a numbered sign but we struggled to find most of them. Camp #1 was the Deep Creek confluence where I set up, mostly eroded away apart from a pad for a single tent. I spotted the sign for Camp #3 but continued on. Even though I was looking for it, we somehow managed to blast right past the Kolob Creek confluence (Camp #6), which caught me off guard. At this point we started more actively looking for the camps. Since we had our pick and plenty of later afternoon to go, we wanted to try to find the best one to stay at. Camp #9 might have been the first one we stopped to check out and in hindsight would have been an excellent choice, a spacious site in a nice amphitheater bend in the canyon. We stopped briefly to poke our head up the confluence of Goose Creek, which had a pleasant little trickle of water in it, then continued on. On river left there was a new-since-last time rockfall that created a new double-drop boulder rapid that we all stopped to scout before running. Eric had a rare hard time on the first drop, flipping and rerunning it twice before succeeding upright. From here it was only a short distance to the familiar river right rockfall rapid, which had evolved a bit since Keith and my last time here. Last time it was a brand new rapid with some of the most aerated water I have ever encountered; Keith and I had both flipped and ended up swimming and chasing our boats about a third of a mile. This time we found the small eddy on the left with the trail leading up to Camp #12 and happily found it to be the best site.  

At camp we had space for four tents, a great view of the rockfall across the river, the white noise and the rapid below us, and good access to spring water immediately downstream. We knew there were still two groups behind us on the river both planning day trips. One showed up shortly after we arrived at camp and used the camp trail to portage (as you should); the other did not show up for quite a while and had us concerned we might have to offer up some of our camping gear for an emergency bivvy. Thankfully they did eventually show up with high spirits and the confidence that they would make it out with the remaining daylight so they portaged through our and disappeared out of sight past Big Springs. We now officially had the Zion Narrows to ourselves for the night! Eric and I tried to walk to Big Springs from the camp but it would have required swimming the river; a solid consolation prize was a smaller spring on river left conveniently just below our camp. We also spotted the "wreck" of a brand new 50 lb Advanced Elements inflatable kayak beached up the river bank, clearly an ill-equipped boat for the river belonging to even more ill-skilled people that had to be rescued days before. We settled into a pleasant evening sitting on a log in camp talking about rivers and life. I passed around the river-chilled four pack of canned margaritas I had smuggled all the way here for us to enjoy. We had moments of light drizzle but overall the weather seemed to be trending towards improvement as we settled in for the night. What a rare treat to be here now I thought. Despite being one of the most popular national parks and on one of the most sought after backpacking hikes (narrows overnight), we were the only people in at least a 3 mile radius.

Rockfall rapid from Camp #12

Big Spring in distance

I slept well to the earplugged white noise of the rapids just below me, then in the morning enjoyed the position of my tent which allowed me to eat and chat while still cozy in my sleeping bag. As we were packing a small gunshot rockfall broke loose opposite us and cascaded to join the rest of the debris pile; it was small and we were well safe of it but it was exciting nonetheless. I redeemed my previous packings in being the first one ready to go this morning and rewarded myself with a solo paddle the 500ft to Big Springs. Keith and I unintentionally swam past Big Springs on our last trip attempting to run the rockfall rapid and I was determined to stop to enjoy this neat spot and set up to get some photos of the others paddling past it. 

We had the 3.5 miles of the best narrows to go before things would open up into Zion Canyon, buses, bikes, and tourists. Again the mantra of savor it! Every blind turn was a delight to the senses once revealed. There were several boulder strewn sections where we read and ran our way down, including a few low logs to duck under (including one I smashed my helmet into a bit) and a few steeper rapids. I did what I could to take photos, frequently trying to paddle ahead of the others to stop and shoot. The river spanning narrows were easily some of my favorites. Even for a place I have been to so many times, drifting down these dark and mysterious hallways towards a dark corner still has not lost any of its allure and I craved more. We drifted underneath dripping fern-draped travertine overhangs of springs in one of the hallway sections. At the Imlay canyon junction the east-rising sun flooded the narrows with bright sunlight for the first and only time of the trip through the narrows. Disappointingly, Imlay canyon did not have a waterfall like it did last time so we did not linger too long. While briefly eddying out in the sun just below we spotted a surprisingly chill GPS-collared deer, happy to munch on plants and watch us from only about 30 ft away. As the following pictures attest, this section had the most stunning narrows scenery.

I knew we were starting to get to the beginning of the end as a lot of the day hiking landmarks came and went. Only I stopped at the Orderville confluence, and only briefly. I then paddled ahead of the others as there was a particular swooping overhang I wanted to stop for photos. Once I got out and scrambled to the back of the alcove I realized it was not the one I had in mind but actually was nearly as good and with the mix of lighting actually probably made for the best panoramic shot I took. A couple bends onward I finally spotted the alcove I had in mind and shot more shots from the sloping rock bench inside it. The lighting here could have been more cooperative but I was otherwise happy to get some of these shots that had been on my mind for years. It was a bummer to not have two or three times the flow for the joy of the rapids, but it did make it much easier to get out at various points and take photos which I was appreciative of. Shortly after was the slickrock waterfall of Mystery Canyon, signaling the unfortunate end to the narrows. One last bend and about a 1000 ft of canyon brought us to the end of the Riverside Walk Trail and the hoards that accumulated on the beach at its end. We had lots of eyes and cameras on us as we floated past. The last challenge would be the boulder rapid just below, which is always worth a scout as the river is split between three drops that change depending on logs and debris. We took the left door and with that were into the comparatively lazy float through Zion Canyon.

Orderville Canyon at right

Last rapid before the canyon float

We continued to float through the shade beneath the sheer canyon walls as we gathered all the attention from the Riverside walkers. I always enjoy the scenery on this section. At the Temple of Sinawava we beached in the sun for a quick snack break as we assessed how much further to go. The next 5 miles to the Court of the Patriarchs is usually a very mellow Class II float but some exceptional flood seemed to do a number on eroding several banks such that there was easily a dozen downed cottonwoods in the river to thread our way under or around. We arrived at Court of the Patriarchs around 1pm (totaling 12 miles from our put-in) and deconstructed and repacked gear while Keith hopped on the bus to retrieve his car. This all took longer than we hoped but we still had a little time to stop in for a tasty late lunch on the cliffhanging patio at River Rock in La Verkin before heading to the airport. 

We swapped gear, parted with Keith, and hopped into our three-seater for the journey home. Our adventure was not yet over. The flight back was mercifully less bumpy than our outward flight, but still had plenty of stomach sinking turbulence. This time we flew over Lake Mead, Hoover Dam, and Black Canyon, then rejoined our route past the solar collectors outside Vegas and onward across the Mojave. I We flew past Cima Dome and I got an even better view of the Blackhawk Landslide on the way back. We had a smooth landing into Riverside Airport. I said my goodbyes and left Tim to continue his taxi service to drop Eric in Camarillo.

So all in all it was an excellent trip, easily the best of the year so far. Paddling the Zion Narrows really is one of those rare things I am willing to do over and over because it is just that good, and every time I see something a little different with the weather and river conditions. The low 200 cfs flows meant the river lacked a little whitewater punch but made for ideal conditions for frequent photography stops and I think I got better photos this trip than any previous one. The crew was great and the Cessna flights a fun novelty providing nice vantages. If anything the trip did remind me of how many other Colorado Plateau runs I still need to find an opportunity to jump on. Thanks heaps to Keith for securing our permit beforehand and Tim for the very memorable flights.