We planned our September long weekend hikes to few canyons (The same grand long canyon has different National parks, known by different name).
Brief description of the trip:
Date: Aug 30th, 31st and Sept 1st.
Miles Travelled on Vehicle: 1172
People : 8 (Kiran, Nadeem, Schunder, Sudarshan, Shilpa, Mayuresh Baji, Pranav and me)
We all met up in Phoenix, Arizona, at Nadeem's room, had dinner, packed required stuffs, left Phoenix around 1:30am. It was a long drive of 430miles, reached Zion National park with some breaks around 10:00am.
We started hiking with 'Emerald Pools Trail' and then did 'Angels Landing Trail'. Angels Landing was real nice hike, the last stretch was awesome, as we had to climb a stretch of .5miles with the help of chain, on a steep canyon.
Came back, drove to Kanab, camped there in the night. Had Soup, maggi as our dinner. Day one got over without any problem (oops, i don't want to mention about Crazy horse camp ground, which had tag line, "camp forever" :O)
Day 2 started around mid night itself for some of us who slept in a tent without an extra sheet. It started with some drop of water falling on my face.. slowly others got up too, we were waiting for few seconds to think about what to do. Rain drops got bigger and bigger.. we had to run near car. Sadly car was not organized and all our luggage was spread around. we organized it, and slept in car itself (4 of us). It rained whole night, and it was raining even in the morning, and hence we couldn't hike few slot canyons, as planned. Visited BLM office, as per their advice, we went on drive towards Johnson Canyon (towards Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument). It was nice drive. Came to Page, visited Lone Rock, where people were busy with dirt motor biking near sand, and water sports in Lake Powell. Had food in a mexican restaurant in Page. Later went to horseshoe bend. and went on Boat ride in Glen Canyon Dam's backwater into the Antilope canyon.
Day two night, camped in Page, had soup, maggi. Played cards in our tent. Well, it didn't rain, but it was very windy. we had fears thinking our tents may flew away (with us inside it :O).
Day 3 started very early, got up around 4:45, folded tents (took time to clean the sand on it :O), brushed, cleaned up, left towards Grand Gulch Canyon.
It was a drive of 3 and a half hour, on the way, passed through monument valley, mexican hat. This ride was full of photo breaks. After mexican hat, we had to climb an ridge of canyon, which provided really spectacular views. Reached Grand Gulch Canyon, had Breakfast, started trekking.
Best thing about GrandGulch canyon is that its a slot canyon (we came to know this after trekking around a mile on top, missing our way), hence there is not much artificial feeling, nor a well laid out trail. there are very few people camping in that trail, hence its very *natural*. The speciality of this canyon is that, you can see lot of greenery, and it has many houses/arts etc which were made by native Indians 1000s of years back. Trek was bit relaxed as there was not much elevation gain (just about 500ft).
After finishing this trek, visited Monument valley, which is really picturesque.
Came back to Phoenix, had bath, slept for some time, got up, flew back to San Jose Airport. From where, I took, bus -> light rail -> bus to reach my office, my first journey in public transport in USA (other than BART).
More photos of the trip later.
NOTE: The distance of the trails were not posted as for Transcanyon hikers these distance was quite easy :D
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