Saturday, April 3.
20.8 miles.
Didn’t get any sleep last night. Right before I tried to fall asleep I looked at the Across Utah map again and saw a little warning sign near Zion and the official end of the route. I clicked it and it said there had been a massive rockfall in 2018 and another bigger one in 2019 near Weeping Rock, in the canyon that leads into the east side of Zion on the Hayduke. The trail was closed there as was the trailhead making the very last mile and finish to the Hayduke impossible. Most of the journals I’ve read are before 2018 so they don’t have this obviously so now I don’t know how we’re going to end this thing. We had planned to go into the park there and do the Zion extension but now we might have to find an alternate. The permits also seem like a pain in the ass to get so who knows.
That plus not getting my shoes or a new filter, the snow on the North Rim area, the Grand Canyon permit needing to be changed, and the Bryce permit made me anxious all fucking night. This route is such a fucking logistical nightmare and I’ll be glad when it’s done and I can go back to doing easy to plan hikes (AT 2022 babyyyy).
So I went to sleep very late and woke up very early which put me in a bad mood all day again. We packed up and I went to the post office to see my package had arrived. Of course it hadn’t and wouldn’t until Monday at the earliest. Double zero was out of the question so I had to the talk the post office employee into bouncing my box to the South Rim post office. Figured we were going to be in Kanab too soon for it to get there and Jacob’s Lake doesn’t take packages so South Rim it is. Kanab might have shoes or at least some shoe glue and tenacious tape and new insoles to try to keep mine together until the South Rim.
I was pissed off all morning again which actually helped me get through the road section out of town faster. We took the alt from Tropic to Bryce Canyon National Park, entering into the park and the throngs of day hikers from the side entrance. Despite being in a shit mood and being around so many people (most of them maskless of course) I was in fucking awe of Bryce. I’ve been now to a few really awesome national parks and Bryce is definitely one of them. It’s so unbelieveably weird and unique with all the massive hoodoos and towers and pillar. It’s like something out of a kids book or a fantasy novels. The alt took us up into the hoodoos, close enough to almost touch them and actually cut through a few of them it seemed. I was going to take a more direct way to the Visitors Center but opted to stick to the alt when I saw how cool Bryce was. Glad I did. The alt took us up to Sunrise Point where we got some incredible views of the hoodoos, the giant sandstone mesas, Tropic Valley below us, and the Grand Staircase in the distance. Definitely in the top 5 anime views of the Hayduke.
We took the very nice single-track trail to the general store which didn’t have a filter but did have tenacious tape and sunscreen which I needed. We went over to the Visitors Center which also didn’t have a filter but did have a very long line to get in. We spoke to a ranger who told us we could get backpacking permits but needed to carry a bear can through the park, not so much for the bears but for the chipmunks (I think) in the park. We could have rented bear can but would have had to do an out and back to return it. That was out of the question since we wanted to hike through but she offered us a map and told us to talk it over. Glad she gave us the map because we saw the trail we were supposed to take as the alt back to the Hayduke actually sneaks out of Bryce for a half mile or so pretty far down. If we could get to that point, 13 or so miles from the Visitors Center, we could camp in the nearby national forest. So that’s what we decided to do. We took the shuttle (which had just started running the day before woooo) to the trailhead near the trail we were gonna hike on for the rest of the day. Along the way the bus driver pointed out some adorable prairie dogs sanding up in a big field (didn’t manage to snag a picture sadly).
It was around 1:30 when we got to hiking which gave us around 6 hours to do the 13 miles before it got dark. We thought that would be more than enough time but it ended up being barely enough and we were wrecked by the end of the day.
The trail was awesome. I was so happy to be back on beautiful well groomed national park single-track trail. We haven’t really been on single-track since maybe the first few miles back in Arches and it reinforced how much more I like hiking trails than routes. The trail wound it’s way down Bryce, up and down some incredible ridges and actually forest! Full of more than just pine pinyons and wrily cottonwoods. We also got more sweeping views of the valley and the Grand Staircase sporadically. The only problem was that there was some elevation change, a few rollers and some switchbacks. Nothing really serious compared to the some of the other trails/routes I’ve done but after weeks of basically flat hiking, it did get me a little sweaty. My post covid lungs also felt the altitude. We went up to over 8000 feet a few times, not that high, but high enough that I couldn’t easily saunter up the switchbacks as I used to be able to.
We passed by a few campgrounds which had something I’d never seen before and I think is actually a great idea: separate areas for cooking and camping. There were designated spots for cooking and eating where camping was not allowed. I think that’s a great idea for ensuring animals don’t associate camp areas with food, especially bears, but also the smaller mini bears.
The trail was really fun, especially the downhills where I could run a little. Always love running techy downhills and I haven’t had a chance to do that this trip until today.
The fun only lasted for a few hours before the sleep withdrawal and general emotional fatigue kicked in. Getting into an area with snow didn’t help. Had to posthole a bit before finding a spot for dinner. Jordan fell behind me pretty early on and I had to wait a while for him. He had gotten turned out near one of the campsites and had managed to get lost on the only long trail section we’ve had so far, ha!
Our dinner spot had amazing views again but we were definitely exhausted by then. We slogged the last mile to the section out of the park hitting some more snow on the way just to cap off the day. We made it to a little gate confirming we were out of the park and found a semi decent spot to sleep. I think it was decent anyway, it was dark when we stumbled around trying to find someplace to set up.
It’s a bummer we couldn’t get permits but we still got to see a lot of Bryce and I’m glad we took this extension. Hiking way more than we had planned also means we should be in the next town in max two more days which is fantastic. Less time to have to borrow Jordan’s filter and maybe less time until I get new shoes, or at least insoles. The climbing throughout the day and busted ass shoes have maybe brought back the plantar fascittis I haven’t felt in weeks so I’ll have to keep and eye on that.
Plants Outside 