Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks

From July 22-26, 2010, myself and three of my housemates in Nevada (Cato, Sam, and Gui) went up to Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks on our 4-day off period. On the 22nd we drove up to the Dixie National Forest east of Cedar City where we camped at a primitive site off a forest road going to Crystal Spring. The site was situated in mixed conifer-aspen forest at ~9,000 ft. elevation, which was a nice reprieve from the hot desert where we were all stationed for work this summer. The first night I was awakened by a Spotted Owl hooting nearby my tent.

On the morning of the 23rd we got up somewhat early to head down to Zion (although not as early as we hoped since we forgot that Utah was an hour ahead of the time we had been on in Nevada). The hike we decided to do that day was in the Narrows, where the Virgin River goes through a thin slot canyon. The trail goes north from the last stop on the shuttle and then goes into the river where you wade up the canyon. The water was chilly, but did not feel bad as the temperatures warmed throughout the day.

Along the way we encountered a few American Dippers, which are small aquatic songbirds that dive under water to capture small prey. To dive after prey in the water, they possess secondary eyelids and scales that cover the nostrils while they are submerged.

We hiked up approximately three miles up the Narrows to a spot where a really deep pool was situated below some large boulders. Here we ate lunch and jumped off the boulders into the water.

scarlet monkeyflower (Mimulus cardinalis) at our swimming hole:

At this point we started making our way back, checking out a side drainage (Orderville Canyon) along the way. This canyon was less enjoyable as it was very muddy and there was a loud group of kids yelling back and forth to each other along the trail. When we turned back into the Virgin River out of Orderville Canyon, we were met with the sight of 100+ people trudging up the canyon like an army of zombies. We made more brief stops to boulder jump on the way back towards the shuttle. By this point my one sandal had broken so I declined to jump at the last swimming hole we stopped at (the broken sandal made it a joy to wade back out on the rocky streambed!).

After we got back to the car, we took the east entrance out of the park to take in the scenery there and on the eastern edge of the Dixie National Forest.

The next day we went back to Zion, but did another hike: the Angel's Landing trail. It was definitely one of the more interesting trails I've ever been on in that the upper stretch of the trail goes up a thin ridge of a butte where there are thick chains bolted into the rock used for making the ascent. There are steep drop-offs on the sides of the trail and apparently there have been several deaths along this trail from people plummeting the hundreds of feet down (kind of darkly comedic in regards to the name "Angel's Landing"; one of us suggested they change the name to Angel Proving Grounds).

Here is a group shot of myself, Gui, Cato, and Sam up on Angel's Landing:

In the afternoon we went back to the Dixie National Forest and drove some roads looking for a spring a coworker had told us about. The one road went through part of Cedar Breaks National Monument where we took in some scenic views and wildflowers.

Rocky Mountain columbine (Aquilegia caerulea):

White-crowned Sparrow:

Unable to find the spring, we headed back to check out an interpretive trail through a patch of bristlecone pines off the highway going towards our campsite. There were several of these large trees and loads of wildflowers along the trail. The short trail ended at a viewing platform facing a vista to the south where we could see some of the formations of Zion way off in the distance.

fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium):

Utah swertia (Swertia utahensis) ?? (at least a species in the Gentianaceae family):

Geranium sp. (maybe a pink variety of Richardson's geranium??):

Afterwords we walked up the road from our campsite to look for Crystal Spring. We first went up a trail into the forest for a ways where we could see some of the colorful rock formations of Cedar Breaks in the distance. Unsuccessful in finding the spring along that trail, we went back out to the trailhead and found two small springs in the meadow that must have constituted Crystal Spring. We met a family there, that was camping near us, who were geocaching in the meadow (a hobby that involves locating hidden time capsule-like objects using a GPS device with coordinates downloaded from geocaching websites). We searched around the area for the box until it was found well-hidden in a spruce.

skyrocket (Ipomopsis aggregata):

The next morning we broke camp and headed east to check out Bryce. We first stopped at a short trail at Red Canyon before we got to the park and then searched for a camping spot in the forest west of the park. To our dismay, almost every spot on that road was occupied by RV's and ATV enthusiasts. The one spot we did find available had biting flies, so we went back up the road to eat lunch and swim at Tropic Reservoir. Later on we decided on a campsite off another forest road not wanting to waste any more time. By mid afternoon we were at Bryce Canyon National Park and did the shorter Navajo Loop hike. Besides the spectacular scenery, one of the cool features of the hike was a tall Douglas-fir growing straight up out of a slot canyon.

Violet-green Swallow nests with two young peeking out of the one on the right:

Pygmy Nuthatches:

A pronghorn north of the park entrance, North America's fastest land mammal:

After we ate at a pizza place in the nearby town of Tropic, we did a primitive version of horseshoes using pine cones to pass the time before we built a fire. The moon was full that night and lit up the whole forest all night long. Here is a shot of the moon rising beyond our campfire:

Our last day had us up early to hike the Fairyland Loop trail at Bryce. More scenery, flowers, wildlife, and bristlecone pines were encountered on the way:

Steller's Jay:

Lastly, on our drive back to southern Nevada we stopped to see Cascade Falls in the Dixie National Forest. The falls are interesting in that they are the outflow of Navajo Lake, a body of water formed naturally from ancient lava flows that dammed up snowmelt. The water travels through lava tubes from the lake to where it pours out of a cliff forming these falls.

Definitely was an awesome trip!

Vermilion Cliffs

Earlier this summer while driving to Heber on one of my 4-day off periods, I stopped by Navajo Bridge at Marble Canyon and saw a few of the reintroduced California Condors. Here are some photos:

Here is a shot of Marble Canyon from Navajo Bridge:

On the way back to Arizona after my field job ended in Nevada on July 31st, I drove by the Vermilion Cliffs. The rain clouds against the cliffs made the scenery even more awesome:

Schultz Fire

While driving between Heber, AZ and Overton, NV this summer, I drove by the Schultz Fire that burned on the eastern flank of the San Francisco Peaks in Flagstaff. Many homes were evacuated during the fire and they are still dealing with the aftermath of erosion from the fire (monsoon rain-induced landslides and flooding). Here are some shots I took from Hwy 89 looking southwest towards the peaks:

Great Basin National Park

From July 9-12, 2010, Sam (one of my housemates this summer in Nevada) and I went up to Great Basin National Park on our days off. We camped at Shoshone Campground, a primitive (no fee) site in Snake Creek Canyon. The campsite was right along the creek in aspen/mixed conifer forest with sagebrush meadows. It was a bit of a drive from the main attractions of the park, but the scenery at the camp was well worth it:

Right off the bat we found a few bird nests within cavities in the aspens around our camp, including Red-naped Sapsucker, Violet-green Swallow, House Wren, and Mountain Bluebird. It was interesting that the swallow nest was just inches below the sapsucker nest in the same tree. Here is a cool shot of one of the sapsucker parents jumping off an adjacent tree going down to feed its babies:

The first full day we did a hike up Wheeler Peak, which is the 2nd-highest peak in Nevada at 13,063 feet in elevation. Most of the hike was above treeline and was steep near the top with a lot of false summits. There were rain clouds around, but we only had a few sprinkles along the way (thankfully no lightning).

Along the way we encountered high elevation birds like Clark's Nutcracker (below) and Red Crossbills, which are specialists at getting at seeds within cones. The nutcracker in particular is a major seed dispersal agent of limber and bristlecone pines by caching the seeds in various locations for later use, the seeds forgotten about or unattainable becoming new trees.

On the patches of snow in the alpine tundra above treeline, we came across several Black Rosy-Finches (a new bird for me). This species is really fascinating in that the male defends a moving territory around the female (he defends a radius around wherever the female goes). They forage on and around the edges of melting snow patches. Here is a shot of one:

The alpine tundra along the Wheeler Peak trail also had several wildflowers in bloom, including Parry's primrose. Although we didn't go up and smell them, I read later that their odor is similar to rotting flesh, which is a mechanism for getting flies to pollinate their flowers. These plants were found closer to the summit:

And finally we reached the summit:

View from the top of Wheeler Peak:

The next day we did a shorter hike up to Nevada's only glacier and a bristlecone pine grove situated below Wheeler Peak. Apparently Great Basin NP was the location where the oldest individual organism, a bristlecone pine that was determined to be almost 5,000 years old, was cut down back in the 1960's by a grad student who got his increment borer stuck in it and got permission from the Forest Service to cut it down!!! The Great Basin website states that there is a still-living one within the park that was aged at 4,600 years old, but obviously they are not divulging the whereabouts of that tree. On the short interpretive trail through the grove of bristlecones, there are living trees that are as old as 3,200 years. It's amazing that the wood of fallen trees has still not decayed from individuals that died as long ago as 1400 A.D. What's even more crazy is that individual NEEDLES on these trees can be up to 40 years old! Here are some photos:

Just up from the ancient bristlecone pine grove was the glacier, which was basically just a large patch of snow that doesn't melt and a bunch of rocks (still cool, even though it wasn't the iceberg I pictured in my head). The "trail" goes out onto the glacier where you can walk all around on top of it. We saw more of the Black Rosy-Finches here. Behold the mighty glacier:

In the afternoon after the glacier hike, we went on a 90-minute tour of the Lehman Caves, caverns that were the initial attraction to the area before the park was created in 1986. While parts of the caverns had been destroyed by earlier visitors (previous uses included a dance hall, a place for weddings, and for storing non-perishables during the "duck and cover" bomb shelter era of the Cold War), there are still cool formations that remain mostly intact. Even in areas where early visitors had written their names on the ceiling, bacteria is gradually eating away at the graffiti. The caves apparently have the largest collection of a formation called a "shield". All in all, a cool tour.

The following day we packed up camp and headed back for Overton. On the way, we stopped to photograph the unique entrance of a business that makes art out of deer antlers: "Horns-A-Plenty Antler Art".