Arizona – Ulen Adventures

6 Sept-1 Oct 2020. Canyons and Waves, Part 5.

Part 5 shows the last few days of our Canyons and Waves adventure near the Utah/Arizona border.

26-29 StateLine campground. This campground straddles the border of Utah and Arizona. It drove us crazy for a while, because we could never figure out what time it was – the phones and the truck just wouldn’t match! So we forced the phones to Denver time and just calculated the right time zones in our heads… Stateline campground is about a mile south of the entrance to Wire Pass and also the Wave hikes. Our plan was to get to this free campground early, snag one of the eight sites for four nights. We would hike the Wire Pass trail into Buckskin Gulch as a warm up, take a day off to rest our bodies, then hike the Wave on the 29th.

We found a very nice site at the Stateline Campground, covered picnic tables and bbq pits!

The Wire Pass day hike also requires a permit, but you can pay for it right at the trailhead, so that’s what we did. The Wire Pass trail is about 1.7 miles and dead ends onto the Buckskin Gulch trail. (Buckskin Gulch is part of the multi-day Paria Canyon Trail hike that we mentioned in Part 2).

We actually went north in Buckskin Gulch about a mile, turned around and went back to the intersection, then went south in Buckskin Gulch about 1.5 miles. (Then turned around and went back across Wire Pass). The next time we come here (and it was cool enough that we will come back), I think we will spend all our time going south. It was just a more interesting hike in that direction…

This is the beginning (and end) of the Wire Pass Trail. It is pretty open and gets VERY hot in the afternoon! (Bring water if you come).

Wire Pass trail has some skinny parts (also a dry waterfall that we bypassed).

At the intersection, we headed north on the Buckskin Gulch trail.

I think maybe hikers must have filled these holes with pebbles?

I think that spire at the top looks like a saber tooth tiger head!

When the trail opened up, we turned around and headed south.

Going south, Buckskin Gulch got narrower, and there were occasional puddles of mud – which were easy to step in – don’t ask me how I know!

The rock formations were grand and beautiful!

Here you can see where a flash flood left debris high overhead. Rain is dangerous here! (Chuck is carrying my hat so I can concentrate on getting mud off my boot!)

Occasionally, you can see where the walls have collapsed over time, leaving rubble on the ground.

We ran into this little critter, probably a Marten (type of weasel).

This is as far south as we went, turned around and headed back. Probably 8.5 mile day.

The Wave. We had tried for five years to get a permit to hike The Wave. The BLM office only issues permits for 20 people a day to hike this area. Ten people via a internet lottery four months in advance, and ten people via a lottery of those that show up the night before. There are hundreds of people who are disappointed not to get a spot every day! I’m very glad we persevered, it was a GREAT experience. Chuck says sometimes I put in too many photos, but I think this time you’ll enjoy them!

The hike (definitely NOT a stroll) to The Wave is 2.7 miles of climbs and descents over rocks and sand.(You get a brightly colored permit that you must wear on your backpack to verify you are allowed to be there – ours was pink).

The BLM office gives you a map, of sort, with pictures to help you identify landmarks along the way.

If it hasn’t rained in a while, you can see footprints from previous hikers in the sandy areas to help lead you the right way. (Unless the wind has blown them away).

There are three main “waves” at The Wave.

We left on the hike pretty close to sunrise, so we had some amazing colors.

This is one of the side waves. It almost glowed in the morning light!

Us standing here gives a better perspective of how large everything is!

I just couldn’t get over how beautiful it was!

I thought this looked a bit like bleachers.

Here is a colorful canyon near The Wave.

Everywhere you turned, there were more colorful formations!

Can you imagine how the earth swirled and settled millions of years ago?

So many layers of ground showing, so very colorful!

You can see one of the few trailposts here.

The Wave hike was the highlight of our Canyons and Waves trip. I’m so very glad we got our permit and finally made it here!

6 Sept – 1 Oct 2020. Canyons and Waves, Part 4.

Here is part 4 of our Canyons and Waves adventure near the Utah/Arizona border.

20-22 September. Lone Rock Campground. We headed to the BLM Lone Rock Campground on Lake Powell near Page, AZ. This is a huge spot on the beach that allows you to camp anywhere you like for a small fee. We have stayed here a few times before, so we headed down the sand near the water and parked. Unfortunately, this campground is suffering from the renewed enthusiasm of folk who want to get away from their houses because of COVID, but don’t really know about basic camping etiquette (like quiet times at night). This phenomena is especially prevalent on weekends, and we arrived on a Sunday. So, we experienced a more wild night than we are used to the first night, and found a better spot further away from the water (and crowd) for the next few nights. We picked this area to take advantage of Page for our restocking routine, groceries, laundry and basic camper cleaning and maintenance. We also got to launch our Kayak on Lake Powell and kayak in Antelope Canyon. This is only a couple of mile kayak trip up the canyon, and then you can continue further up the canyon by hiking. This hike did not show off the beauty that you can see on the commercial tours of Antelope Canyon, but those commercial tours were closed because of COVID.

Here is the “Lone Rock” at Lone Rock Campground – Lake Powell.

Paddling on Lake Powell to get to Antelope Canyon.

Antelope Canyon out on the water, not as dramatic as the commercial tours further inland, but still really cool!

This is the colorful “parking spot” for all the Kayaks that paddle to the end of the water at Antelope Canyon and want to hike.

Ack! We found a Baby Rattlesnake on our hike up Antelope Canyon! Back to the water for us!

23 September. Crosby Canyon. After getting restocked, we headed across a creek and along to the north shores of Lake Powell. This is a much more peaceful and rugged area, and we shared our first spot in Crosby Canyon with a view of less than half a dozen other campers, a family of Coyotes, a few birds and a few bats.

The roads on the north rim of Lake Powell are definitely ‘less traveled’.

There are cool rock features as you head into Crosby Canyon.

The GPS said that we were in the water! I guess water levels were down a bit.

There were not too many people sharing this beach in Crosby Canyon!

Here is momma coyote finding a fish for her babies.

All those nooks and crannies in the hills make great spots for bats to live, I guess.

24-25 September. Alstrom Point. Continuing east along the north side of Lake Powell is one of our favorite dispersed camping spots, Alstrom Point. It takes a high clearance 4×4 to get all the way out there. The views from this area are just incredible; you can watch the lights from the stars above and the lights from the parked houseboats hundreds of feet below on the lake. We were lucky this time with great weather, and the colors of the area just popped out!

We camped perched at the top of this cliff for our views!

View from our back window (before the wind came up and broke the window).

You can see the houseboats parked on the beach way below.

Lake Powell from Alstrom Point at sunset.

Next – We make it to The Wave!

6 Sept-1 Oct 2020. Canyons and Waves. Part 3

Here is our continuation of our Canyons and Waves adventure near the Utah/Arizona Border.

14-15 September. Kodachrome State Park. We spent the next two nights at beautiful Kodachrome State Park in Utah. This wasn’t our first is visit to this park, so we skipped the easier trails we had done before and struck out on the Panorama Trail. Beautiful views all around, a couple of slots and spires, and even a little bonus of internet service at the very peak of Panorama Point!

This is the colorful view from the top of Panorama Point at Kodachrome State Park.

Along the Panorama Trail was a short slot canyon called Secret Passage.

One of the many spires at Kodachrome State Park.

16 September. Lower Hackberry Slot Canyon. We took off south on Cottonwood Rd and stopped for our hike of the day at Hackberry Slot Canyon. This canyon was a bit different, fairly wide, with some bushes and trees growing on the bottom… From our research, we were expecting a 4-5 inch stream flowing through, but apparently not in September. There was plenty of sand, though, enough that we hiked half the trail barefoot! (Just to keep the sand from piling up in our water shoes). We spend the night at the BLM White House campground and were entertained by Uber-like drivers dropping off people to hike the 3-5 day (45 mile) Paria Slot Canyon trail. They were certainly tougher than us!

Cottonwood Road, along what they refer to as a Cockscomb mountain ridge.

The Hackberry Slot Canyon Trail, can you see Chuck’s shoes hanging from his backpack?

The Hackberry Canyon was wide, but still very deep!

We got to camp next to a huge sandstone boulder at White House campground.

17 September. Toadstools and Sand Dunes. We did a quick hike to see Toadstools and then headed to Corral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. This sand dune area was certainly bigger than the sand dunes area in Northern Colorado, and is known for several movies filmed there. We saw plenty of people playing with motor “toys” there.

The Toadstools hike was just a quick 1 mile hike off the main Hwy 89. Just amazing seeing these rocks wearing hats!

Lots of sand at Corral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, but I thought the sand was more orange than pink…

18-19 September. Toroweap. This spot on the north rim of the Grand Canyon has been on our “bucket list” for quite a while! To get there, you go down a dirt road for 60 miles, drive through the Grand Canyon- Parashant National Monument and then arrive at a big Grand Canyon National Park sign and a tiny Grand Canyon Ranger Station manned by a young volunteer who stares at our rig and says, “you know, you need to be less than 22 ft long to make it through the rough and twistee road”. After assuring her that we were indeed only 21.5 ft long, and her verifying our two day camping permit, she let us tackle the rugged 4×4 road to Toroweap Point and the Tuweep campground.

There are two 60 mile dirt roads out to Toroweap. We took one out and the other back. Would recommend sticking to the east one if you are heading out there.

The Toroweap Cliffs on the way in were beautiful!

The road inside Grand Canyon NP were a bit rugged.

Short hike to the edge of the Grand Canyon.

Here is Chuck getting close to the edge – 3000 feet straight down..

View of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon from Toroweap Point

From this point you can see the rapids on the Colorado River, and the rafters on “tequila beach” (where the rafters celebrate surviving the rapids). This is the only overlook in the National Park where you can see the river directly below.

Grand Canyon view from Toroweap point, looking east.

The Tuweep campground was about a mile from the point, and we found a boulder to camp next to! We were the only “big-rig” (non-tent) in the campground – as Chuck likes to say, the only one getting a hot shower in the morning!

There were plenty of short, pretty hikes to occupy our time!

We took a picture of this guy who got way closer to the edge than we would have! (See his Dad yelling at him to be careful from a safe distance on the left?)

Next – on to Page, AZ and Lake Powell.

May 14, 2018 Arizona

14 May 2018. Drove off of the rim and tried out a very cool Arizona State Park that someone had mentioned to us: Tonto Natural Bridges State Park. This was such a wonderful place, we would recommend it to everyone. Here is a little description:

The Arch was beautiful! You started at the bridge part of the arch, then followed the trail down one side and under the arch to another trail going up the other side. Going under the arch, you had to rock scramble (hands and knees), climb, and get a little wet. This was such a fun place!

Looking down the trail under Tonto natural Bridge

The South side of the arch, with a viewing platform you can stop at

The more adventurous can climb into the arch

The stream drips on your head as you start through

You can see the scale of this place better with chuck standing on the entrance rock

We had to climb up high on the left to make it through

Saw this guy and thought of you, Kathy Ulen, hope you are feeling a bit better.

May 13, 2018 Mogollon Rim Az

May 13 2018. Spent the day traversing the top of Mogollon Rim in Arizona. 40 miles of dirt Road – didn’t quite make it to the end before we camped. Great Vistas, Steep drops, small lakes. Truck handled it all well.