Sunday, 10th of June 2012 at 06:07:43 AM

Y.S.N.P. day 8: the Golden Cathedral hike

Today I wanted to see the Golden Cathedral in the Neon Canyon of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. A famous spot for fotografers and Canyon lovers. The trailhead of this hike is on the Egypt branch road at mile 10 of the Hole  in the Rock gravel road. On that road 16 further miles had to be driven to reach the trailhead. Whereas the Hole in the Road access road is quite good to drive, the Egypt road has many rocks and sand. Some points you must be very carefull not to damage the car. I also once touched rock with my Jeep despite the High clearance. All this means the drive time to the trailhead is long. Therefore I had to start early at 5.20 am and arrived at 7 am at the trailhead. The hike is very strenous. Althoug it’s only 13km (9 mile) roundtrip, you must first climb donwn into the canyon, cross the Escalante river and there are no marked trails, so you need good route finding skills or GPS. I had a GPS and the recorded track of this hike (Thanks Matthias R.) otherwise I would have been lost. I arrived 9.20 am at the Golden cathedral and stayed 2h there.

Golden Cathedral, Neon Canyon, Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument
No one was there. On the return a large part of the climbing out of the canyon was on a sand dune, where hiking is very tiring and exhausting. I arrived 2.30 pm at the trailhead and felt like half-dead. After recovering and drinking ice-cold coke I was still tired but decided to do further 2 small hikes to Grand Staircase Escalante’s small slot canyons called Peek-a-boo and Spooky. I had some trouble finding them (presumably due to my exhaustion. Again here it was necessary to climb up from the Canyon Ground to the Trailhead and car park, I did this in Slow motion. Arrived 6 pm at the car and went back to Esclante for dinner .

 

Related Posts:

| Yellowstone 2012 | Comments are closed
Sunday, 10th of June 2012 at 05:52:28 AM

Y.S.N.P 2012 day 7: a crazy day

Too tired to write much just to log my travel the major day events: 4.2o Check out in Las Vegas and 2h30 drive to Zion N.P. In Zion N.P. done two major hikes: Finally the Narrows Hike along the Vrigin River (tried it already last year but water too high) and after returning from Narrows Hike at 2 pm redone the Angel’s Landing hike, which I had done the first time in 2009 and liked very much. After retourning from the mountain, drive to Escalante, UT where my next basecamp would be for 4 nights. Arrived very tired at the Hotel at 10.30 pm.

in the Zion Narows
last 800 m to Angel's Landing on a narrow rim
evening view from Angel's Landing in Zion N.P.

Related Posts:

| Yellowstone 2012 | Comments are closed
Friday, 8th of June 2012 at 06:07:24 AM

Y.S.N.P trip 2012 day 6: recover + rest in Sin City

I would be only 1 day in Las Vegas but return later for another two days before my flight home. After the eventfull days in the Y.S.N.P. tour I needed some relax. In the morning I bought the obligatory Ice-chest for the car (Walmart 15.99) USD and bought the beveranges for the trip. Then I went back to the Hotel and its nice Pool. Its always relaxing drinking some beers  (3) in the sun. Only two fotos shot today. The evening I prepared the backpack and the travel plan for the tour I would start the next day. It should bring me again back to South Utah.  (I must admit I did also some shopping in the evening).

Related Posts:

| Yellowstone 2012 | Comments are closed
Thursday, 7th of June 2012 at 04:09:08 AM

Y.S.N.P. trip 2012 day 5: Salt Lake City – Antelope Island – Park City

After a Starbucks drive through coffee breakfast I drove from my Hotel to a downton Parking Garage near Temple Square to stroll around downton Salt Lake City. I visited the Temple Square, headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There is a lot to see and all tours are free and the employees very kind and explained a lot. Very impressive was the Conferecne center auditorium with a capacity of 21.000 people. There was the possibility to finally go up to the Adminitrative Building tower for a view of the city. I postponed this to later to have better sun for the fotos. I walked up the State capitol hill

Utah State Capitol
wich has nice residiential aparment buildings and lots of gardens to see the Utah state capitol. I also went into the Utah Visitor Center opposite to Sate Capitol Building to buy a nice Utah T. Then I went back to Temple Squre where a nice lady accomponied me to the top floor for the views over Salt Lake City.
top view of Temple square area
Again she was very communicative and answered many questions. It was 11.30 am and I had still plenty of time until my departute from SLC airport. The Visitor Center had recommended me to visit Antelope Island State Park due to my interest in the Salt Lake.
Antelope Island State Park sign
Its only 20 minutes north of Downtown and I headed there for a 2 hours driving tour on the island. Lots of wildlife and amazing views to the Lake and the mountains.
causeway to Antelope Island
Than I had still time and decided to drive to Park City which I knew from the Sundnace Film festival taking place there. A lady in Temple Square had recommed it worth being a visit. Indeed it is very pittoresque small ski paradise at high elevation of 10000. feet. I had late lunch there and then took the chance to see  the Fatali Foto Gallery (met Mrs. Fatali who showed me around). It was then time to drive  to Salt Lake City  airport for my flight to ???.
main street in Park City, UT
Here I wrote the day 5 blog entry during waiting for the boarding. When I returned the Rental car the receipt showed me that  I had driven unbelievable 1588 miles in this 5 days. It was my basecamp in West Yellowstone which caused me daily long drives to touring the Y.S.N.P., as well as the long drives in the park and the drives between SLC and Yellowstone. The Chevrolet Equinox was not bad, but I liked much more my Jeep Grand Cherokee model 2012 which I had last year.

Related Posts:

| Yellowstone 2012 | Comments are closed
Wednesday, 6th of June 2012 at 08:36:22 AM

Y.S.N.P. 2012 trip day 4: Grand Teton N.P. and road tripping USA

West Entrance to Y.S.N.P.
Today I left Yellowstone and drove South visting the Grand Teton N.P.
driving towards Grand Teton
It was an unspectacular and sunny day, mostly sitting in the car driving along the Teton mountains landscape. A small hike at Jenny Lake to the hidden fall. Lunch in a nice restaurant at the Jenny Lake. Some gravel road side road drive on the  to sight bears. A boat tour on the Jenny Lake. And finally the 5h drive direction South to Salt Lake City.
downtown Salt Lake City
 I touched 4 states in one day: Montana-Wyoming-Idaho and finally Utah. Tommorrow I will check out downtown Salt Lake City (luckily i found a cheap room near city centre) and tomorrow night take my Plane to [???].

Related Posts:

| Yellowstone 2012 | Comments are closed
« Older Entries  
  Newer Entries »