September Adventure 2014 September 8 - September 14, 2014

John Golob and I had such a great hiking trip to Canyonlands National Park’s Maze district in the spring of 2014; we decided to plan a fall trip.   After reviewing our bucket lists we came up with enough ideas to fill a week’s worth of hiking in Utah and Arizona.

 

The first stop was along the Colorado River at Lees Ferry and the Vermillion Cliffs.  It was 1500’ up from the river to the top of the Cliffs and provided a good warm up for the rest of the week.     

 

This is a favorite location for the endangered California Condors.   We did see a few Condors in this area on the return trip.

 

The big event of the week was the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim hike.   It’s a mile down, a mile back up and 21 miles of hiking.   We hiked around the cloudy north rim, listened to a California Condor ranger talk and had an excellent meal in the North Rim lodge before getting a good night’s sleep in our cabin.

 

Here’s a picture of the canyon from the window of the North Rim Lodge.

 

 

 

You have a nice view of the canyon and the trail on your way down.

 

We spent the night at Bright Angle Campground near Phantom Ranch where it’s almost civilized.  Dinner was provided at Phantom Ranch Canteen and there was running water and bathrooms.   We had a tent, but I slept on the picnic table under a very bright full moon (it got a bit cold about 5am and I crawled in the tent).

 

On your way out of the canyon you need to be careful you don’t get stepped on or what you might step in.

 

After hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon our next stop was to hike to the highest point in Arizona, Humphrey’s Peak at 12,633 feet.   One of John’s goals is to hike the high point in each state, so here’s another one for John.

 

John’s favorite past time is mountaineering (i.e., hiking to the top of very high mountains).   After mountaineering with John several times, it was time for him to spend some time with one of my favorite activities, canyoneering.    

We made our way back to Zion National Park and meet up with my friend Bill Westerhoff at Zion Adventure Company and headed for Birch Hollow Canyon.

 Here’s John on his first rappel dropping into the canyon.

 

Bill is giving John some instructions.

 

Into the depths of the earth we go. 

 

 

It’s just a few more feet to the bottom.

 

After a dozen more rappels and a grueling hike back to the car, the September-Adventure hiking trip ended as a great success.

So that's the end of Mark's post.  John's wife Susan flew into St. George airport so she could ride home with John.  The night the guys got back we had a "September Adventure Celebration dinner at one of our favorite St. George restaurants, Anasazi.  You cook you own meal on a super heated lava rock. 

 

To cap it all off we ordered the chocolate fondue plate for dessert. 

 

Now that completes the September adventure!!