Thursday, September 12, 2024
After the previous day, I was looking for something a little less strenuous. I had heard numerous people rave about Zebra Slot Canyon. The photos I saw were striking. It's a bit of a drive out and back though. What caught my attention were the reviews. Everyone mentioned the colors. They also talked about the water. One person described it "as deep as your boot or head depending on rainfall."
Earth Trekkers posted a blog about their hike into Zebra Canyon. You can see that here:
Instead, I chose a revisit to Kodachrome Basin State Park. I tried visiting years ago, but the day was cut short by rain.
After paying my $10 Day Use fee, it was time to hit the trails. There's a ten mile triple loop that seemed perfect. As an added bonus, all elevation changes would be slow and gradual.
The park is best known for these colorful spires. The leading theory is they were once geysers. They stopped blowing, hardened and everything around them eroded away.
The first side trail is the Secret Passage Loop...
It leads to this passage in the rock...
Then dead ends at this notch in the wall.
This is where the morning got a little interesting. I followed this sign...
Cool Cave is on the back side of the second loop. It's always significantly cooler than the air outside, thus the name. The trail certainly appeared clear, and wide. But, I suddenly found myself following foot prints in the sand through an unmarked wash.
The further I walked down the wash, the more wrong it felt.
For some reason, I just kept going. Off in the distance, I saw something that just HAD to be Mammoth Spire.
According to the park map, the main second loop trail goes right by the spire, with the cave being back down the trail a ways. I grabbed a convenient tree branch and boosted myself out of the wash, right onto a three foot wide trail.
The cave is on the other side of the second loop. I pondered. In the end I simply chose to trudge onwards.
I did however take the side trail to Panorama Point. It was only a half mile each way.
To give my legs a break, I drove out to Chimney Rock and felt a little underwhelmed...
At the far end of the park road sits a far more interesting spire..
It was too early to call it a day, so I chose a mile and a half trail out to a place called Angels Landing.
At this point, I knew I was done for the day. But, there was an intriguing trail on the way back, outside the town of Tropic. The Moss Cave only runs .4 miles. Yeah. I could do that. Headed in...
At the split in the trail, turn right and follow the water upstream and you'll be treated to a waterfall.
This ten mile channel was hand dug by Mormon settlers for irrigation. Work began in 1874 and was completed fifteen years later.
If you turn left back at the fork, the trail does in fact take you to a moss covered cave.
Not a bad trail to wrap up the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment