Whistler – the other story!

Canada - land of lakes

We last posted as we were about to leave the USA and head into Canada (with a quick stop at camping world to buy some more levelling blocks for the RV as some of ours were broken). Getting into Canada proved a very stress-free process. We were unsure about what foods we could take across the border so decided to eat up what we had in the last couple of weeks in the USA.

Whistler: Mountain Bike Mecca

Symi came for three runs. The bottom of the chairlift, notice the jumps
in the background that are part of the Crankworks madness

 

Top of the World. Awesome scenery, dubious trail in many places

What can you say about Whistler that hasn’t been already? It has the most famous lift accessed trail in the world (A line) and the most ridden trail in the world (Crank it up, runs into Heart of Darkness).

Port Townsend – One of the coolest small towns in America?

Harbor Port Townsend. RV over back of building

Port Townsend was recommended to us by a volunteer ranger we met on our overnight hike. She told us it was a lovely Victorian Port worth spending a night in. We took her advice and were glad we did. Arriving mid-afternoon – badly in need of laundry facilities after 9 nights dry camping – we drove up without reservation to a marina in town which also had RV places. We had the choice of  a beach side spot or one $17 cheaper just behind it. We took the cheaper one gambling the front one would remain empty giving us uninterrupted views – score –no one came! After completing the domestic chores of the washing, vacuuming the RV and showering we headed out to see the town of Port Townsend. 

Olympic National Park – a rain lover’s paradise

Heading further north into Oregon we had to make a decision on seeing either Olympic National Park or Mount Rainer.

After some reading and talking to other people we decided on Olympic. Before heading there we had a night in Portland. After crossing Portland from south to north and encountering what was pretty much the only real traffic congestion we have seen in months we settled into an RV Park then showered and cleaned up before heading out to dinner with Bruce Felix (a family friend of Fiona’s family for many years) and his wife Audrey. Also there was Jenna his daughter and her fiancé Mike. We had a fantastic evening with them, enjoying to company, the food and Bruce’s wine which was excellent. It was lovely to spend time with a family (and their lovely dog) and we are grateful for their hospitality.

Blackrock: Whistler Warm-up

Road gap after the Salad Tosser

Blackrock is one of North America’s premier freeride destinations. Go to Salem, turn west to a small town called Falls City. Here hokey and pokey combine. There are a number of shops in town but at 12:30 on a Monday afternoon, when Fiona and Symi had a wander around, only one was open. We went looking for bread – we had already dismissed the possibility of decent and were just concentrating on the bread part.

McKenzie River: Home of America’s favourite MTB trail! (and hot springs)

Blue Pool: It's cold and deep. You can cliff jump here if you want to freeze

McKenzie River is not far north of the Willamette River but is way more popular.  The drive from Bend was spectacular with open views of the Sisters Mountains, Mt Bachelor, Mt Washington and Mt Hood, all still covered in snow. After Sisters (a town) it was very quickly back to the lush green scenery. You are spoilt for choice for accommodation with cabins and campgrounds all along the river. Paradise Campground had been recommended to us but we couldn’t go past Belknap Springs with its two hot spring fed pools, Rob feeling the need to soak a tired body. Our campsite was opposite a large area of lawn, perfect for soccer and Frisbee, and the McKenzie River Trail (MRT) was 30 seconds ride away.

Bend: Named the best mountain bike town in the USA

Bend is only a 100 mile drive from Oakridge but a world away. It’s over the Cascade Mountains and on the Columbia plateau at 4000 ft elevation, hence classified as high desert. Due to this, the rainfall is much less than the west side of the Cascades. Bend has been one of the most successful towns in Oregon in the last 10 years and is a popular place to live, due to the low rainfall and many outdoor activities, there are snow sports very near town. The town itself looks prosperous with trendy shops and a micro-brewery for every day of the fortnight. The picturesque Deschutes River runs through town and has great rapids if that’s your thing. Unfortunately the camping here is limited to RV parks, the one we stayed in was between two major roads and relatively noisy compared with the solitude of Oakridge.

Deschute River Trail

Oakridge: Mountain Bike Mecca?

Meadow, top of Alpine

I had heard about the mountain biking in Oakridge from a number of sources, so it would be rude not to go for a look. It was an easy drive up the i5, where we discovered that it’s illegal to fill you own petrol in Oregon. After filling with gas, Simone wanted to put some music on and we continued our usual system of playing songs alphabetically, choose a song and off you go. Today she randomly started with The Angel’s, Am I Ever Going to See You Face Again (studio version!), that evening I read in the paper Doc Neeson had passed away!

Four Months in an RV in the USA

So, how are we going after four months of RV living? Very well thank you. Buying and registering the RV was achieved in a couple of weeks - we will write more detail about this in a post later on.

High Desert Museum

Today the whole school (me) went on an excursion to the High Desert Museum. I was extremely excited to go to the museum because there were live animals like owls, otters and fish. After we ate our delicious breakfast of tomato with avocados on olive bread, we made our way to the museum.

Porcupine

The first show we attended was the desert dwellers show about animals. It was fascinating. They showed us three real live animals and told us all about them. The first one was a skunk and they explained how they spray their predators with a terrible smelling liquid to scare them away. Next up was the badger, they showed an excellent demonstration of how badgers digs, it was cool. Lastly there was the porcupine, I was stunned to discover that porcupines ate and climbed trees!!!!

Northern California Redwoods

Replicas of Indian houses at Patrick's Point

The redwoods on the California coast are taller than their inland cousins but with a smaller diameter. The northern Californian coast is a confusion of National and State Parks that contain 45% of the remaining coastal redwoods, 39 000 acres compared with the more than 2 million that existed in 1850. Summer brings the fog which supplies half the water supply that allows the coastal redwoods to survive, a tall redwood requires 500 gallons of water per day!

King Range: The lost coast

We heard about the King Range National Conservation Area and Tolken Bike Park from Canadian friends. It's on the Lost Coast near Shelter Cove. The coast here is the most isolated in mainland USA. Tolken sits 2000ft above the ocean and only 2 miles away, the hills are steep. We drove up the US101 from San Francisco and at Garberville turned towards the coast for the 26 miles to the campground. This was one slow road in an RV, near the turn into Tolken the road was so steep we wondered if the RV would make it up. At one point the speed was below 10mph. We finally turned into King Peak Rd which was dirt, narrow and again very steep in sections. Tolken campground only has limited spaces available, the thought of there not being a spare camp space was not a happy one at this time. Luckily the campground had cleared out after the Memorial Day long weekend, relief!

San Francisco

After spending a good deal of the day driving across California from Yosemite we reached San Francisco Bay. Crossing the San Francisco-San Rafael Bridge into Marin County (where mountain biking began) we passed the San Quentin prison. We had booked a place in an RV Park in Greenbrae as it evidently had easy access to a ferry to San Francisco.

Golden Gate Bridge with just a touch of fog.

Once we had booked in our minds turned to the necessary tasks to complete before beginning exploring the city. For Fiona this was the washing, for Rob (who admittedly had been driving all day) it was mountain biking. For those of you who notice details the last time Rob did any “proper” mountain biking was back in Colorado and withdrawal symptoms were well and truly set in.

Riding the ferry to the big smoke

Next morning we were up and on the ferry to San Francisco (our first city in three months). The ferry ride was great with views of Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge and the city itself. Arriving at the ferry terminal we were greeted with a huge farmers market. 

Lots of lovely food.

We spent a lovely time wandering around tasting amazing stone fruit, cheeses, bread etc. One man was giving out samples of sun dried fruit. It tasted so much better than any dried fruit we have tasted before. Luckily we had a backpack with us so were able to stock up on goodies. We had allocated 2 days to the city so decided to spend our first day on foot.

We had a great time touring around the harbor area with the highlight for Symi being the sea lions which lounge around on the jetties. We did take the opportunity of a quick coffee in the sunshine as well.

Sea Lions at pier 39

Not RV friendly

Then it was on to tackle climbing some of the city’s steep hills. We of course visited the most crooked street in the world. Glad we did not bring the RV as it would have found the corners challenging.

By this time it was late in the afternoon and well past lunch time. China town was just around the corner. It is huge. We found a dim sum place and settled in for lunch. We spent a bit more time wandering around looking at houses, cable cars and trams and then decided to call it a day and take the ferry back.

Later in the evening we decided on a picnic dinner of local buys (evidently this makes us locivores!). Fortunately we had bought some local county wine so we were able to accompany our picnic with a glass of red.

Next day we decided to bus in over the Golden Gate Bridge. We were lucky with the weather on our stay as there was only fog over the bridge in the afternoon of our second day. That said, the temperatures in the city were decidedly cooler than if you went inland a little. Today was to be the day of the cable car. We purchased our day passes and were confronted with an hour long line to board a cable car.

We waited about 10 mins and decided that there must be shorter cues elsewhere. We hopped on a bus and rode around for a bit then found a queue of only a few people on the cable car that crosses the financial district. We waited about 10 minutes and then got an outside seat where Symi and Rob were able to stand out on the step. Symi was well pleased about this. Hitting the bottom of the financial district we decided to try out the rail system and head over to Castro district for lunch. We got off the train and saw a retro looking diner which looked good.

Lunch was good and made more enjoyable by the very gay owner who went out of his way to look after and entertain us.

Staying on theme we then headed up for a walk through Haight-Ashbury and down to the golden gate park.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on public transport. We rode on a great retro tram - San Francisco seems to obtain from other cities – the one we were on was from Chicago. We followed this up with more cable car rides and then a ferry ride back home. 

The verdict? We loved San Francisco our first city in over three months but don’t think we could spend long periods of time doing city tourism on this trip. Strangely a day walking around a city is more tiring in many ways than a 20k walk. The other reason would be that we could never afford it. We still have a few cities on our to do list but will definitely be spending the majority of our time exploring the natural wonders of this country (+ the man made single track). 

Yosemite National Park SAR Presentation

When we were at Yosemite National Park we went to a SAR presentation at the Yosemite Theatre. SAR means Search and Rescue. The talk was very interesting with a few scary stories.

The man talked about swift water and how dangerous it is. People drown every year and it is the most common cause of death. Stay out of swift water.

The scariest thing he talked about is how they have to rescue rock climbers off the cliffs from their injuries. They got them out with stretchers and lifted them in to helicopters. It was scary.

When I got back I made a Lego stretcher for all my toys. Now I play rescue games with all my toys. Some of the stories scared me but I learnt lots.

Rattle Snake in Kings Canyon

Yesterday my family went on a long hike on the Hotel Lewis Trails. It was eight miles in the Kings Canyon.

Lookout at the top.

We all walked up to the trail head. From there the trail was very steep and hard. I felt very puffed, hot and tired. We could see snow on the other side of the valley and thought it would be nice to roll around in it. When we started there was a nice soft flowing creek. Daddy almost stepped on a Rattle Snake. Every twenty minutes I got some cold Gatorade.

After a long uphill we got to the lookout and it was a stunning view. We could see the roaring river. We got up to a really high elevation and we could see the camp.

Coming down was the easy bit. We walked through a meadow which was lovely. We got tot he end of the walk and we were all glad.

Back at the campsite

My visit to an American School

After Easter I went to school with Tanner – a friend I made in Durango. They call it an elementary school not a primary school. The teacher’s name was Mrs McCue and she was lovely. I had already met another girl from the class, her name was Aspen. Aspen was born in Australia but now she lives in Durango, in Colorado.

Emma, Symi and Tanner all ready for school - complete with PBJ Sandwiches!

Tanner’s class had been learning about rocks. While I was there they told me what all the rocks were. They were metamorphic, sedimentary and igneous. The teacher gave colourful book to write down all the different type of rocks. At the end of the day I got to keep the book and take it home. Now I am using it for my schoolwork.

Some things that were different were that the kids did not have any uniforms. I wish we did not have to wear uniforms in Australia. At least I don’t have a wear a uniform in RV school. Sometimes I do school in my pyjamas. Another thing that is different is that all the classrooms are inside so the classroom door goes into a corridor. I found it a bit claustrophobic. The last think I thought was different was that the recess and lunch seemed very short.

I really liked spending time with lots of kids and everyone was kind. I miss all my friends so I was happy to spend time with lots of kids. I would like to thank Tanner and his Mum and Mrs McCue for arranging for me to come to the classroom.

Yosemite: Why would you welcome bad weather?

The biggest issue with one of America's most popular National Parks is the crowds and reservation only campground. You have to book five months in advance and when released campsites sell out in minutes. Having missed that boat it was plan B, turn up early to the campground reservation office and hope for a cancellation. The first attempt started just south of Yosemite, up at 6am (definitely this is not typical!) and we drove 1 hour to Wawona in time for the 7.30am opening of the office. Yes

Grizzly Giant

there was one night only available the Ranger apologised, we were very thankful. It was then a couple of hours of school work before going to Mariposa Grove on the shuttle bus to visit more Giant Sequoia's. We did a small walk as legs were still recovering from Kings Canyon but managed to take in some more giant Sequoia's including the Bachelor and Three Graves and the Grizzly Giant. Grizzly Giant is more than 1800 years old and stands only 209ft but has a base of 96ft circumference and 29ft diameter. In the photo the branch on the right that bends up has a diameter of 6ft!
 That afternoon we relaxed at another stunning campsite next to a river. However we were in the trees and there was none of the stunning granite dominated scenery that makes Yosemite famous. Our aim the next day was wake and be at the valley reservation office very early. There was rain forecast that night and the next two days, in our thinking improving the odds of fair weather campers cancelling. That night was wet with a large thunderstorm coming over us during the night!

Tunnel View, fresh snow on the hills

Setting off before 6am the next morning we drove the one hour to the valley. The roads were quiet and wet, from Wawona it climbed steadily to over 6500ft. We noticed what we thought was hail on the ground that gradually become more dense, yes that would be fresh snow! It did feel cold the evening before. The road enters the valley through a tunnel. We stopped for a quick view and photo of the cloud choked Yosemite Valley, it was bitterly cold. Then it was straight to the reservation office where we arrived first in line, just. Could we have three nights? We were in luck, no problem :). Not staying in the valley would have involved an hour drive to get to the nearest accommodation. Celebrating we caught the shuttle bus to the Yosemite Lodge for unfortunately an ordinary breakfast before walking to explore the village via the lower Yosemite falls. That afternoon Fiona and Symi attended a monotone bear talk while Rob explored the valley's 12 mile bike network. That night we went to a Search and Rescue talk at the village. We learnt of some careless ways to die at Yosemite, saw some great rescues of climbers via helicopter and came away with a new respect of white water, drowning being the most common way to die here. Basically falling into the white water is equivalent to falling off a cliff! Because we are here in spring the rivers are moving awesome amounts of water from the snow melt.

Yep it's busy, the 'death' stairs

The next day the weather improved but the cloud was still obscuring the higher granite and the famous Half Dome remained hidden. We set off on the parks most popular walks, the mist trail. It was a slow walk up to Vernal Falls and after the SAR talk the previous night we had a new respect

Vernal Falls

for some of the trail dangers. There is one point (see photo) were three people have died, they get bumped off the trail, from there is a very steep slope to the white water river. Knowing this makes some people's actions seem very casual! After Vernal Falls the crowd thinned by 95% and it was upward to the top of Nevada Fall completing a 1900ft climb (and 8.5miles round trip), the biggest climb yet this year. We descended the quieter John Muir trail. Of course the trail is popular for a reason. The waterfalls and views were stunning. Rob and Symi finished the day with a bike ride around the valley hoping to spot a bear. Just before sunset is a great time of day, the crowds have gone home or are back in camp.

Nevada Falls

Yosemite Falls

Our last day in Yosemite was clear and sunny, finally giving us the full view of the valley! It was another walk and the only way is up here. 1000ft and 58 switchbacks later we all arrived at the base

Yosemite Point, Half Dome top left

of the upper Yosemite Falls. Rob continued up another 2000ft to the top of the falls and then Yosemite point. It was of course another amazing walk, this time with the complete view of the valley. The view of Half Dome highlighted a very successful Yosemite trip. That evening we found the energy for another valley bike ride, again enjoying the solitude that evening brings.

Yosemite Point, observing climbers on top of Stolen Arrow

Meadow late in the day

Kings Canyon National Park

Following Zion we stopped in Las Vegas to have a quick look. The first night we went to the ‘strip’ for a look. If Singapore has shops, Vegas has slot machines. It’s hard to walk far without seeing the things. Fiona and Rob can think of nothing more pointless than gambling and did a tour that included the water fountains and wonderland at Bellegio, birds at Flamingo and French themed hotel, Paris. symi liked the fountains and animals but was generally not a fan of Vegas either. Unfortunately due to a high wind forecast (winds to 60mph) we stayed another night - high winds and RVs don't mix. We took the opportunity to do a buffet ($11 each) at the Sam’s town Casino that we were staying at. It was very meat orientated and Rob tried to taste as many ribs as possible. During the night the wind howled confirming the decision not to drive.

The next day (not much of a Mother's day for Fiona) we braved the subsiding wind and drove to Bakersfield. From Vegas there’s not much but dessert. A few points of interest being the solar energy generation just across the California border. It’s the largest solar thermal power plant in the world. At Mojave we drove past the aircraft boneyard, where planes go to die. We were intrigued about all the planes in the middle of nowhere and ‘googled’. Also Spaceship One was developed here. After Mojave the road climbs over a pass and finally we left the dessert into some green hills with trees.

Grant Grove, fallen Sequoia

After a stop for the night at Bakersfield we continued north on the Interstate 99 through the ‘Valley’ region of California. It’s basically flat and very agricultural. It’s also very populated with endless small towns and moderate sized farms that appear all a bit run down. Leaving the flat (at 500 ft elevation) at Orange Grove begins the surprisingly large climb to 6500ft at Kings Canyon NP. This would be a great driving road, just not in an RV! Kings Canyon has the advantage of campground availability, its neighbour Sequoia NP is reservation only at this time of year and full. The first two nights we camped at Grant Grove. On arrival we did the short walk to the visitors centre and had some bear education. The main thing we learnt was the local Black Bear is not aggressive and their scat is big compared to the other

Dead Giant

animals like Mule Deer. We started to see plenty of bear scat, some very fresh, over the next few days. Some were keen to see a bear, others maybe not so keen! We also learnt that Kings Canyon at Cedar Grove looked very impressive. One of the frustrations in planning the NP trips is getting good information, there is always plenty more information on the ground. We followed the trip to the visitors centre with a short walk to the General Grant tree, the second largest (by volume) tree in the world. We pondered the 2 000 year age of the tree and how much history the tree had lived through.



Birthday Champagne and cake

The following day was Fiona’s birthday. Following the typical morning of school work we went for a great walk through more giant Sequoia trees, ending at the Dead Giant. We then enjoyed a great birthday celebration with a bottle of Champagne, Salmon and a dessert of red velvet cake cooked by Symi.

Overlooking Kings Canyon, the valley right is toward Cedar Grove

Next day, Wednesday, we moved to Cedar Grove campground, another with no reservations and plenty of availability. The drive there was spectacular with some views of the North and South Fork of the Kings River. The road in dropped back to 3 500ft before following the South Fork

Zumwalt Meadow

Kings River through a very tight and tall canyon. The campground was one of the best yet and we scored a great campsite via the river. That afternoon we rode the six miles to the road end taking in a walk to River Road falls and around the beautiful Zumwalt meadow. We met a couple who had just seen a bear, but we only saw some very fresh scat.

Cedar Grove Lookout, campground directly below

Thursday we went up the Hotel Creek trail ascending 1400 ft to the Cedar Grove Overlook for a grand view of Kings Canyon. The ascent was steep and strenuous involving many switchbacks. At one point we stopped for a photo, Rob failing to notice the rattle snake sunbaking on the trail a few feet away! After the overlook was the scenic walk through an open yellow pine forest meadow before descending the Lewis Creek Trail. We were all tired on return having completed about 15km.

Above Mist Fall

After a rest day we drove to road end and walked up to Mist Falls. The canyon here is narrow and steep and the Kings River falls rapidly producing an endless roar from the constant white water. After the falls we became ambitious and continued higher towards Paradise Valley. Turning around eventually and descending produced amazing views down the valley. However attention was frequently at our feet with three snake sightings on the descent, two Californian King Snakes and another Rattle Snake (we were thinking of how much Barbs would love this walk!!).  We decided to make the walk even longer by going back by the Kanawyer loop trail. This involved crossing a few creeks with only small logs to balance on. There was some great open meadow, great for bear spotting and one mile from the end we saw our first Black Bear about 30m away. The bear was totally unbothered by us and very casually walked up the hill. We watched the bear as long as we could, initially too mesmerised to grab the camera. All up this walk was 20km, Symi’s biggest yet!

Black Bear!

Kings Canyon was fantastic, the scenery is rated as comparable to Yosemite without the crowds. We met some locals who had been coming here for years, we were able to pick their brains on their favourite locations further north where we are heading, including for Yosemite our next stop.

Zion National Park

First in line, excited about the tunnel drive

After our only drive going over previous ground, the short drive from Kanab to the Zion turn-off, we made our way 
towards the east Zion entrance with Symi very excited about

One of the many bridges on the Pa'rus Trail

our drive through the Zion-Mt Carmel tunnel. Due to the RVs size we had to pay a special fee to make the tunnel one-way. Exiting the tunnel shot us into the spectacular main valley of the Zion NP, heading down numerous switchbacks to the valley floor. We were too late to get into the first come first serve South Campground and only had to drive one mile out of the park to find an overpriced RV spot for the night ($46 vs $16 in Zion!). We promptly returned at 8am the next morning to grab a prime spot and begin our exploration.

Angel's Landing looking from upper Zion Canyon

The first day we cycled up the Pa'rus trail and then the Canyon scenic drive that is closed to traffic except for the shuttle buses. The valley was coming to life with new leaves on all the many cottonwood trees and was extremely verdant. We have been in a repeating cycle of seeing new leaves, Sedona, Moab, Durango and now Zion. There was so much seed (surrounded by fluff that looks like cotton!) blowing in the wind it looked like snow. We parked the bikes at Zion Lodge and hiked up to Emerald Pools. Wow what a great introduction to the park.



On top of Angel's Landing, Zion Canyon 1400ft below

The next day we took on the more challenging and very famous Angel's landing. The warnings for this walk are scary: long drop-offs, not for anyone fearful of heights and the last section follows a steep narrow ridge to the summit. If that is not enough there have been 6 fatalities on this route since 2004. The walk starts up some steep switchbacks before getting to the many tight switchbacks up Walters wiggle. At the top you arrive at Scouts Landing where the walk gets

Descending the ridge

serious. The ridge looks very intimidating and Symi was not keen. Symi's parents were very keen and promptly promised her a horse ride on her birthday if she made it to the top. She did have to put up with the mantra 'keep one hand on the chain at all times' repeatedly. We quickly discovered just how narrow the ridge is, in some places only a few feet wide. There are chains to hang on to but at times they swap sides of the trail leaving you exposed between. Not for the faint hearted. A fall would send you off the side, a 1400 ft cliff! Two hours later the reward of course is the view at the top, thankfully the ridge up there is wider allowing some relaxation although the parents were happier when Symi was sitting. Symi was the only child up there when we went. We are still trying to work out if this means Symi is exceptionally brave or her parents foolhardy! The trip down was easier than the one up in terms of feeling exposed. As you can imagine we are all getting quite fit - especially as lots of this is at altitude.

Hiking up the Narrows

Other walks included the Narrow's river walk and Hidden Canyon. The river walk starts at the Temple of Sinawava and stays on a path for 1 mile. Then follows a walk in and out of

Turn-around point

the river. We achieved our aim of getting to the where the Orderville canyon comes in, two hours upstream. The walk is a unique experience with it's soaring vertical canyon walls, hanging gardens and of course the river walking. Hidden Canyon was another exposed walk using a cliff face to get to the mouth of the canyon. We had attended a ranger bird walk that morning and were told that it was possible to see Mexican Spotted Owls in the canyon. No such luck, but another amazing walk was ticked off the list.

Heading up Hidden Canyon

The cliff access to Hidden Canyon

On May 5 it was Symi's birthday, her parents having trouble believing their daughter had turned 10. She did well with plenty of presents, yummy food and attention. As promised she did a horse ride from Zion lodge that afternoon, followed by some soccer and swim in the river. The river was a regular event, very refreshing at 9 degrees.

In pyjama's, birthday lunch, beautiful campground

Very happy birthday girl!

After six nights at Southern Campground we drove around to Kolob Canyons to do an overnight walk down the La Verkin Creek trail to the Kolob arch. The weather forecast for that

The white stuff is hail!

day wasn't great but the rain was forecast to clear that night. Undeterred we set off in a sunny patch in near freezing conditions, it wasn't long before a black cloud came over and dumped hail on us! Luckily the scenery was worth the effort. After six miles we came across the sign to our campsite, we just had to cross the La Verkin Creek! It was not possible at the usual spot so we trekked upstream until we found somewhere less threatening. Rob did the pack hauling across and we arrived at the camp relatively dry. However it was freezing and we had all retreated to the tent by 7pm! The next morning we awoke to clear skies.

In the wilderness

We did the short walk to see Kolob Arch, then casually set off on the walk back to the car about midday. We made good time and Symi did a great job on the final long climb, carrying significant weight for the first time. We high tailed it back to Hurricane and plugged into power for the first time in 8 days, the electronics breathed a sigh of relief. 

On the rough walk up to Kolob Arch

Big Bend, upper Zion, bucket list views