The textures down Halfway Hollow were striking.
The textures down Halfway Hollow were striking.
Nancy taking one of her frequent rests (being pregnant, we didn't want her getting dehydrated, hot, or out of breath).
The fence across the wash didn't go all the way down, nor did it go all the way across. Assumedly, it once kept cattle to one side or the other.
Once we got down to Harris Wash, things opened up at Halfway Hollow.
This is the entrance to Zebra Slot -- I think we were a long ways away from the zebra striping. We tried wading though the water, and we made it out to that first island on the left, but it was unbearably cold (it being mid March).
Tunnel slot looked very interesting -- inches wide at the top, but walkable on the bottom. Unfortunately, it, too, was filled with very cold water. We didn't even bother trying to go in, this time.
Nancy taking a break in Harris Wash on our way back.
First off, here's some video shot with my Flip camera interspersed with some photos (click on it to view it on my Picasa album).
Nancy and I did the Emerald Lakes hike the first day.
The trail goes under the waterfalls. It was exceptionally muddy, but worth the trip.
With Tan and Katie the next day, we hiked to a "slot" canyon recommended by our hotel manager. It was a pretty hike with great settings, but it didn't look like water flowed down the canyon -- it looked more like we were in a fissure up above the main canyon floor.
The slot we were headed towards was up on the right of this bowl.
These pot holes had lovely swirling ripples in the sand.
Nancy taking a break for first lunch.
Here's the beginning of the slot section.
Another view in the slot.
Katie, Tan, and Nancy in the slot.
Katie and Tan in a deeply undercut shelf en route to the viewpoint.
The view.
Nancy at the viewpoint.
I stayed back to snag a picture of the gang crossing this rather rickety bridge (supported by one leg on what looks like unstable rocks). Apparently, there was a mountain goat with a baby just above me, but I couldn't see them no matter how frantically Tan and Nancy waved at me.
At the end of the path where the canyon narrows such that the bottom is all underwater, people had been stacking rocks.
The view on the hike up to the Narrows is very pretty. Next time, I'll try to come when there are leaves.
One of the viewpoints in the park. The road goes along the top with many pull outs, and there are trails going down and back up (we hiked the most common loop).
Hiking down in, we got a closeup view of the bizarre formations.
Here's the crew headed towards a tunnel cut in the rocks for the trail.
I liked this gnarled old pinyon root.
We hiked up this canyon on our way back to the car.
A quintessential Bryce Canyon view.
Angels Landing as seen from the parking lot. We hiked up to the saddle to the left of the peak and then came up the narrow isthmus on the back side.
As we hiked up to the saddle, we had this lovely view down the canyon.
A section of the trail is called "Walter's Wiggles". It's 21 chained switchbacks.
When we got to the saddle, we saw a condor fly overhead. I didn't know that condors lived in the park, so I thought it was just a turkey vulture. But when we looked at the photograph, we could see the white patches under the wings, and even read the tags. This is female 343/A3. She had been looking for a nesting site with male 299/99. Unfortunately, shortly after we saw her, 299/99 showed up back at the release site with high blood lead levels. People still hunt with lead shot, despite the risks it poses to wildlife and themselves. Utah will even give away free copper shot, but people still insist on using lead. It's especially a problem when people shoot a deer they can't reach or when they gut the deer and leave the lead-infused entails in the wild. Condors, as scavengers, see the dead flesh and eat it, lead shot and all. There are only 369 California Condors total in the world, so losing any, especially one on track to breeding, threatens the survival of the species. 299/99 is in captivity undergoing chelation to try to remove the lead from his system. 343/A3 was captured, as well, to try to keep the pair together on the hopes 299/99 survives. More news will be posted at http://www.nps.gov/grca/naturescience/california-condors.htm
The view from the saddle up to Angels Landing. We hiked up that narrow isthmus with 1000 foot cliffs on both sides. The chains between anchored posts made it much more comfortable.
Nancy, Katie, and Tan on the way up.
A view down the canyon as we neared the top.
The view up the canyon from the same spot.
Tan, Katie, Casey, and Nancy on top.
Eating lunch on Angels Landing.
Looking down on the bend in the river as it goes around Angels Landing. We hiked starting near the waterfall in the top center of the image the next day.
The ground squirrels were very tame, having seen 100s of people eat lunch there every day.
I carefully framed the other pictures to avoid showing other people, but this gives you a sense of how crowded it was. We were never anywhere close to alone the whole way up or down. And this was the off season!
Hiking the ridge towards our descent.
Clinging to the chains as we descend.
The widest spot on the isthmus.
Looking back up at Angels Landing.
A nice view down the canyon.
The wind picked up on our descent, such that the waterfall on the far side of the canyon was dropping at a pretty significant angle.
We hiked up to Hidden Canyon the next day. Like Angels Landing, the hike involved clinging to chains on narrow ledges, but now it seemed like old hat.
Hidden Canyon is a hanging slot canyon above the main canyon.
Katie on an improvised bridge.
Tan on the bridge.
Nancy under an arch.
We couldn't find a way past this block. Tan was able to scramble up the fallen tree, and I went most of the way up, but we figured getting Nancy up that while pregnant wasn't a good idea.
Tan working his way up the fallen tree.
Some of the petroglyphs. I like the Joshua trees.
More petroglyphs.