ST. GEORGE, UT
Just finished my first hiking excursion from my new home base in St. George. I ended up working a long day and got a late start hiking, so I targeted two easy hikes just 15 minutes from the house that actually had some fun little adventures to make them interesting. :)
Red Reef Trail
This trail starts at the Red Cliffs Recreation Area, but otherwise follows Quail Creek through the Cottonwood Forest Wilderness. You can do a big ol' loop, but I did the wimpy 2-mile round-trip, out-and-back hike I found on AllTrails.
True to both park names, the trail meanders through groves of cottonwoods, flanked by red cliffs. Coincidentally, this picture illustrates just that.
About a mile in, you round a curve in the trail and see this ahead. In case you're wondering: that black "shadow" in the middle is water, deep enough to double as a swimming hole.
Ahh, passing won't be a problem at all with those little toe holds carved into the rock! Plus there's a rope to hold on to - do you see it?
Here's a view from the other side on the way back. It definitely looks more intimidating from this angle, even with the rope.
Even though it looks intimidating, let's put this into perspective. A little further up the trail, I ran into a couple with several small children, including a baby ... which means THEY ALL GOT AROUND THAT ROCK!
But, I would like to point out, the family didn't make it past THIS obstacle. Looks easy, right? The problem is that the ledge you're climbing up to is around 7-8' tall and the walls around it are as smooth as glass. You can even see in this picture how parts of the rock are so smooth it looks like ice!
The dad (who had a baby strapped to his back) asked if I wanted a boost. "Nah, I've got it."
I didn't have it.
He offered again, saying he had just helped a couple a few minutes before me. Ok, I reluctantly agreed.
He had me step up on the wall while he held my foot just enough to keep my traction (still with a baby on his back) and then held my other foot on the other wall, and at that point he said, "Ok, you're on your own" as I strained to just pull myself up over the edge. I was telling Mom this and she said, "Well, what else could he do? He couldn't push you up by your behind or his wife would have pinched him!"
Here's the view of that glass rock / slide from the other direction.
I tried to take some video on the way back. My cinematography skills could use a little work. Pretty sure you'll figure that out yourself without me stating it. Pretty sure you'll also say "a little work??"
But hey, I initially took these videos for my nieces and nephews and they'll watch anything on YouTube with a play button, so I see a five-star rating coming my way from my junior audience. Also, I learned I need to do video in landscape mode so YouTube doesn't cut the top and bottom off the shot, in case you're wondering why most of the video just shows a rock. :)
Ok, and with those 2 minutes and 42 seconds of your life gone ... here are a few more cool shots of the park. Loved the black and orange colors and the variety of rock formations.
Petrified sand dunes!
Swiss cheese rock!
Babylon Arch Trail
Remember I mentioned that I got a later start than usual? Well, it is now 6:15 pm. I get almost to the next trailhead and there's a sign saying that it's a private road. Bummer. I back up and see a pick-up driving my way so I roll down my window and we pull along side one another.
I ask if he knows how to get to the hiking trailhead.
He sure does. "Just go back out to the main road and turn right. You'll eventually pass the fire station on your right and then you'll come to a big dip in the road. Turn right just after that dip." His directions were spot on.
I turned right onto the road that AllTrails had assured me was passable with a basic AWD vehicle. It was a bumpy dirt road, similar to others I'd driven on. And then it turned to SAND. I have never driven in sand before and it is such a crazy feeling! It's kind of like driving on ice where you have control of the vehicle but there are moments you can feel the car traveling with momentum instead of propulsion. The road was also downhill so I was very worried about whether I would be able to make it back up after my hike.
I know this sounds like foreshadowing. It's not. My car made it back just fine, even though there were moments going uphill in sand where the RPMs would suddenly surge as the tires lost traction in the sand, and other moments where you could feel the car drifting ever so slightly. Again, the best way to describe the feeling is like you're driving on ice.
I finally made it to the trailhead at 6:30 pm. There was a parking lot and a hiking sign and, even though I was the only car there, at least I knew hikers are supposed to be there. That also made me feel better about being able to get back up that sandy road.
The trail itself? I realized there was no trail. The park is a bunch of low hills and cliffs and rocks and gullies. I'm sure those aren't the geologically correct descriptions, but I think it accurately describes this picture:
I followed the trail on my phone with GPS. It took me to the top of one of those hills in the picture above. The top of the hill was covered in sand, which is still so crazy to me how southern Utah is truly a desert.
I used GPS to follow the trail, which is a figure 8 loop, total of 2.6 miles. I quickly realized there is NO TRAIL. That someone had come out here and wandered around the rocks and cliffs, recorded their path, and posted it on AllTrails. No problem. Just stay on the red map line.
Here's a pic of the map I was using from AllTrails so you can see what I mean by "stay on the red line." With the pro version, your phone uses GPS to track your location relative to the map, even when you have no cell service. I don't know how that works either.
I'm trying to get to that yellow dot to scope out Babylon Arch. Should be super easy. It was not.
I didn't take an actual screenshot that day, so I recreated it here by adding a blue dot to show where I was in relation to the red line. No problem! Just move a little to the south until you're on the red line again and then follow it to the arch.
No problem, until you realize THIS is what it looks like in real life! You walk south and all of a sudden you're at the edge of a 30' drop.
Now, do you climb down to the red line? Or backtrack to where you lost it?
I found a spot that I KNOW I could have climbed up if I started from the bottom, so I thought, surely I can climb down! I started down, facing against the vertical wall, ensuring I always had three points on the rock. I was able to climb down about 10' or so, but I got to a point where I couldn't actually SEE a good place to step down. Correction, I couldn't see ANY place to step down. So I chickened out / used good common sense and climbed back up. I promised Mom nothing bad would happen to me.
I kept wandering around trying to find a good place to get down a level. I ended up back-tracking, climbing up and down random places, and charting my own course through the rocks.
I finally found a gully to follow, but then came across a boulder that had the same idea. In this photo, I was able to climb up through that crevice on the left.
I have to say ... I did get a little nervous on this trail because I kept losing the trail and getting stuck in a gully or on a hill AND I was worried about getting stuck on that sandy road in the dark on the way back. I didn't actually get back to my car until 7:45 pm (30 mins later than I anticipated). And although the sun didn't set until 8:00, it was getting shadowy in that canyon.
Thank goodness for my iPhone and GPS technology though! I just stuck to it and finally found a path out. It ended up being a fun experience to chart my own course for the most part (even though it was mostly unintentional) and to do so much rock scrambling.
And oh! I should mention: I never did find that arch. :)
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