Camping&Hiking

May 14, 2011 – Hiking Little Cottonwood Canyon – photos

: Morel Mushroom – a delicacy

: Orange cup mushrooms – the mountains are full of them at this time.

: Young Moose watches us as we watch from afar.

: Snow melt stream

: Between Lisa Falls and Tanners, Little Cottonwood Canyon

Capitol Reef Area Trip, October 2010

April 19, 2009 – First hike of the spring

HIKE 1: 5 mile recreation area West Desert area

We tried to overlook the hundreds of people on dirt bikes and ATV’s and still had a beautiful hike:

HIKE 2: Little Cottonwood Canyon

October 17-19, 2008 camping trip to the San Rafael Swell in Southern Utah

September 5-7, 2008- camping trip to the Deep Creek Mountains in the Great Salt Lake West Desert near Wendover, Nevada Indian Farm Springs Canyon

Uintas Camping Trip, July 25-27, 2008

Southern Utah Camping – March 25 – 27, 2008: Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument

(Click on photos for full size images.)

We arrived in Zion National Park Tuesday, March 25th and stayed one night. The Park is spectacular with its cliffs.

This photo was taken as we entered the Park.

The Park does not permit cars to travel to the top of the canyon anymore. In 2000, the National Park Service implemented a shuttle which takes tourists throughout the canyon and makes 7 stops. Since shuttles run every 6-8 minutes throughout the day and evening, you can get out and take photos and hike for as long as you want. We took the shuttle to the end of the line, at “Temple of Sinawava“, where the Virgin River narrows – called “The Narrows”. At this point the river becomes the trail and you can wade through the narrows. We had our water shoes with us and had planned to wade a little, but it was late in the day so we decided against it. The following photos are what we took in this canyon:

To get out of the Park on the East Side, you must go through the tunnel in the mountain, which is a little over a mile long. Learn more about the history of the tunnel here.

Once through the tunnel, you can park and walk up a half mile trail to the canyon overlook.

When we left Zion National Park, we started our search for a more primitive area in which to camp.

The first thing we saw as we exited the Park were wild turkeys:

We ended up on the Cottonwood Canyon Road where we camped at the convergence of the Paria River and Cottonwood River. The 40 mile dirt road continues on along the Cottonwood river, which we traveled the following day. This photo shows the dirt road and desert through which it is cut.

The photos below are of signs that describe the ghost town of the Paria Movie set and what is in the region:

The next set of photos are after we set up camp along the Paria River and took a hike in the area. Most of the time was spent wading through and along the river banks.

The desert is full of plant life:

The Paria river cuts through some scenic cliffs.

We packed up our camp on March 27th and continued traveling the Cottonwood Canyon road until we reached Cannonville, Utah where the pavement began again. Along the way we saw spectacular scenery and rock formations.