Havasupai Falls

Wednesday Feb, 25

                I woke up in very rough shape. Anny was late for her convention. I really didn’t do anything today. At some point in the afternoon I went to get clean clothes from my car and shower up. Anny had to take a client to dinner and a party after, so I grabbed some pizza at a place on the strip. I was trying to meet up with Anny at the party so I had a few beers in the room and got ready. Turned out Anny drank too much and by the time I got to party she was already back at the hotel room. The line for the party was huge and she was my only way in, so I just walked back to Aria and had another drink at the hotel bar.

Thursday Feb, 26

                I sat around the room and used the computer all morning. After the great weekend in Utah I talked to Natty and Lee. They suggested, sense I ended up in Vegas, I should check out a place called Havasupai Falls. It’s located at the far south west side of the Grand Canyon. It sounded great to me. So I packed up and hit the road. I stopped at a town and picked up some food for the hike. I also had a long talk with a cousin of mine, James Robbins. He is currently in Michigan and heading to California. If it could work out we might try to meet up along the way. After that I continued driving. I didn’t make it all the way there before having to take a nap. My time in Vegas had me exhausted. I pulled into the parking lot right at sun down. I cooked up some food and watched movies the rest of the night.

Friday Feb, 27

                I originally planned this to be a day hike, but I woke up a little later than expected and turned it into an overnight trip. I quickly repacked and hit the trail. The parking area seemed a bit sketchy; the native tribe that lives in the canyon uses this parking lot to take all the supplies for the village down by mule. So there is quite a bit of unsupervised traffic. So I waked back up to relock my car. But then I was off. This is still pretty much the Grand Canyon, so the first part is always super steep. But after about 2 miles it simply follows a wash to the bottom. It was a really nice hike through a canyon with very steep beautiful sides. When you come out of the canyon you run into the river that you then follow to the village. This is your first glimpse of the water this place in known for. And it’s breathtaking! The water has calcite in it which make the water blue and lime that deposits on the bottom turning it white. The water even looks blue at night. I had to pay and check in in town then I was off to the camp site. You continue along the river and you hike past several places that look like the Garden of Eden. Then you come to Havasu Falls. This is a huge falls and you can walk right up to the spot it drops off. From the village it’s about 2 miles to get to the campsite. I didn’t bring the tent again, but I did bring a hammock. So I got that set up and decided I was going to still try to hike to the end of the canyon today. So I was off again. Right at the end of the camp ground there is another huge falls that you pretty much have to climb down. They have ropes and chains for you to use but still not for faint of heart. I hiked along taking in this beautiful, unknown part of our country. I set up my camera on a timer to try to get a few pictures with me in it. Then I tried to run and jump off a log onto the face of one of the smaller falls. This turned out be a really really shitty idea. The run and the jump were picture perfect, but I didn’t stick the landing. What I was jumping onto was all soft stone and my foot hold broke off as soon and I put some weight on it. Which lead me to basically running and jumping straight into a rock wall, and then falling off said wall. I smashed my left knee into the wall, scratched my right leg from mid calf to mid thigh, cut my right forearm and left wrist was bleeding. The worst was the knee smash. I laid there on the ground wondering if I just broke my knee. Then I heard the camera click and had to laugh a bit. After a few minutes I wondered if I needed medical help. A few more minutes and I wondered if I could get back to camp, after walking around I wondered if I could make it to the village. Once it loosened up a little more I was wondering if I could make it out of the canyon. Then I figured if I could finish this hike and get back to camp I would probably be fine. Still in a lot of pain I finished the hike all the way to where it meets up to the Grand Canyon trails. I headed back to camp, after climbing back up the waterfall. I was in serious pain and knew I needed to take it easy on the way out. But I was trying to keep positive and hoped I would be better in the morning. If I stood in a certain part of the camp I could still get reception. So I called mom and we talked for a long time. I believe this was my first call to her so it was nice catching up on life back home. At night I like to do little wood carvings. Tonight was a pretty sweet sword. 

Saturday Feb, 28

                I tired sleeping in the hammock but that didn’t go so well. So I tried for the ground, also not going so well. So I slept like crap and woke up very stiff and hurting all over. I walked back down to the falls to loosen up my knee and get some more pictures. Then it was back to camp to pack up and start the trip out. On the way out I stopped at all the falls I rushed past on my way to the camp. I had a serious limp going on by the time I got to the village, and debated on taking the helicopter ride out of the canyon. My knee hurt but felt stable, so I decided to hike it. Hiking up the wash is difficult but nothing compared to the last 2 miles. That was slow going with lots of breaks. I was very happy to make it back to the car. At least I thought I was. The first thing I had to do was charge my phone. So I reached for my charger and realized it wasn’t there. Then I looked around, those mother fuckers opened my car and stole my shit! I was furious. They walked off with over $3000.00 worth of my gear. Including laptop, all my chargers, passport, wallet with military ID, and many other items. I looked through all the garbage cans to see if they ditched the personal items but no luck. The only thing that saved me was that they couldn’t figure out how to open the hatch on my car. Turns out this is really common here and the Indians go through people car looking for booze. If they only know I had 5 bottles of very nice bourbon in the back. Damn Indians taking shit that aint theirs, they could have at least left me a blanket! That’s a little smallpox humor for ya. I knew there was nothing I could do about it so I drove 60 miles back to the nearest town to make a police report. This took a bit a time and I was getting frustrated. But we finally got everything sorted out. I planned on calling my insurance in the morning. But this is the reason these blog posts have been so late. I had no computer to keep up with things. I was lucky in that I had my credit card, id, phone, and camera with me while hiking. I have my pictures from past trips backed up at home and my camera has everything from this trip on it. Of all the things in my possession, the pictures from trips are on the top of that list. This whole experience really put a damper on my trip. Not only the theft but also the hurt knee. I knew I needed time to heal up and I wouldn’t be able to do some things I had planned. From here I drove back towards Vegas. I tried to get in touch with Anny, I could have really used a drink about then. But I couldn’t get ahold of her. So I continued driving back to Hurricane UT. Maybe I could still try to do something in Zion. 

Great view from the top

Hiking through the wash

 In the village

 Pictures dont do justice for this place

 Garden of Eden

150 feet straight down

 Camping right on the river

 Second major falls

 

 Nice easy trail down

 Clover shaped deposits

Lee's house in SLC, Stewart Falls, Antelope Island, Hot springs, Western Utah

Thursday Feb, 19

                I was up early and caught up on some typing before lee woke up. We had some coffee and he showed me around his place. I really liked his house and lifestyle. Lots of pictures from traveling and things he found along the way. He also has chickens in the back yard for fresh eggs every day.  Lee made it a new year’s resolution to go to the grocery store as least as possible. So they have been dehydrating and canning everything they can get their hands on from friends and family. One of lees hobbies is making stained glass pictures. He showed me his work shop and everything involved in that process. After that I drove about an hour south to the village of Sundance. Here I did a lovely hike out to a frozen waterfall. This hike was also on the list of life changing hikes in Utah. But after hiking, this list was clearly not made but an experienced hiker. It was nice, but not life changing. It takes you through several aspen groves and pine forests around the side of a mountain then down to the falls. The falls were very nice to see partly frozen and sparkling in the sunlight. I hiked back to the car and talked to my dad on the drove back to Lees. They planned a great dinner for me in thanks for the drive. They call it hot pot. It’s near boiling water and broth then you add in thin strips of meat and fresh veggies. You simply cook everything to taste and eat away. It was a very long meal full of conversation and good music. While lee cleaned up Natty and I went over some maps and she planned out a great weekend trip for me through western Utah. 

Friday Feb, 20

                In the morning I headed straight to Antelope Island located in the Great Salt Lake. The lake is extremely low right now and it’s almost not even in island. I walked around the visitor center then drove around the island. There are buffalo scattered all over the place! I also was able to find a few prong horned antelope. I didn’t want to do any of the typical trails so I decided to just free hike to what looked like a cool spot. I parked and headed off. I thought it would be really cool to bring home a buffalo skull, if I could find one. When I started walking I found a small creek and decided to follow that. Almost right away I found a large buffalo bone along the creek. I picked it up and continued on. Then I hit the gold mine! I found a full buffalo skeleton, everything except the skull. It was scattered across about 30 yards but I was able to pick up several interesting finds. Including the hip bones and vertebra. I gathered my treasure and set it aside. I continued hiking around until I couldn’t go any further up the ravine. I went back for my horde and started back to the car. I had to hide from several cars on the road, but they would just take a few pictures and turn around. I stashed everything in my car and drove up to a spot called Buffalo Point. This gives you a great overlook of several bays and islands around the lake. After that I decided to get the kayak wet one more time. I left from the marina with an island destination in sight. After an hour or so I realized I was not getting any closer. I checked the gps and I have gone 2 miles. They island was still 4 miles away. This wasent happening so I headed back. The Great Salt Lake is incredibly salty. The ocean is about 4% salt, this lake is about 27% the max water can hold. I was covered in a thick layer of salt and had to wash off. As I was doing this another gentleman was washing his car. We started talking and I had a question. The whole day there has been smoke in the distance. It was strange to watch. It would go straight up then stop and spread out at the same height as the mountains. He told me there is a storm coming tomorrow and that is when the farmers are allowed to burn their fields. He also told me about a kayaking spot called the Little Grand Canyon. I looked it up and it wasn’t flowing right now but I would like to get the chance to see this in the future.  After I washed off the car and kayak from all the salt I drove to Park City Utah. My cousin Joephine just moved out here for work and I was really looking forward to seeing her. I didn’t think I would get the chance to, but with this detour in the trip to SLC it worked out. I met her at a coffee place and we hung out talking about our adventures. From there we walked over to the High West Distillery for a lovely bourbon and scotch. I dropped her off at the house she is staying at and made my way back to lees for a much needed shower. I made some tacos and took care of laundry. Natty came over and we talked more about the trip she planned. Lee got back around 11 and we all watched tv.

Saturday Feb, 21

                I packed up in the morning and said my goodbyes. It truly added to my trip to be able to meet these people. Natty packed me up some snacks and I left with some coffee to go. My first stop was the artesian well located in town to fill up on water. Next on the list was the army surplus store for some supplies. Natty and Lee are big into rock hounding and we generous enough to share their spots with me. So I needed to pick up a shovel and a few other things. From here I headed west out of the SLC. This is where my adventure begins. Over the next few days I saw many things I never expected and spent about 400 miles down dirt roads. A good part of this weekend adventure was along the original pony express. So one of the stations was the first stop. Really just an old open room house that has been refurbished. As I continued on I came across 3 wild mustangs right next to the road. It was really a sight to see these beautiful animals in their natural environment, not caged up. I spent the rest of my daylight digging around for geodes. I think I managed to find a few but it’s hard to say. Then I drove over to a space called Fish Spring. It was dark but the place didn’t seem all that interesting, so I headed on. I ended up getting lost on some of the back dirt roads but I finally made it to the place where you can find topaz. But I knew I needed to gas up at some point, so I headed to the nearby town to fill up. After that it was back to the topaz. It was dark but I threw on a head lamp just to see what I was getting into tomorrow. As I was walking around I realized the ground all around me was sparkling! There was topaz everywhere! I started collecting. I went a little over board and spent several hours crawling around until I was frozen to the bone. I made it back to my car and clean off my finds.

Sunday Feb, 22

                This morning I got to actually see where I was located. Turns out there was an abandoned mine shaft right in front of me begging me to explore. But first I cooked some breakfast and found some more topaz. The night before a few other stones really caught my eye but I didn’t think anything of them. They were faceted spheres. When I saw them today I started to pick them up. Turns out they were garnets! After breakfast I hiked through the mine shaft, at least until I came to the cave in. Then I was off again. I drove around looking for another type of stone on the list called Wonderstone. But never ended up finding it. I used up more gas then I expected so I headed back to town, everything was closed on Sunday. But I figured I would be ok if I came back first time in the morning. So it was off to the first hot spring. Baker Spring consists of 3 manmade concrete tubs and you adjust the temperature by using rags to divert hot water into your tub. They also have a valve that lets in cold water from another spring nearby. I had that tub cooking in no time! At this point I can say I’m well experienced in hot tub temperature and I’m guess I had it at about 110 degrees. The sun was shining and I was loving it. Lots of people left garbage (beer cans) laying all over the place. I figured I had the time to clean up the area a bit. From here I headed further west, just about to the Nevada border. This is where I wanted to try my luck fishing for the illustrious Bonneville trout. I was losing day light fast but I thought I had enough time. I walked across a small creek, about 2 feet wide and then followed it through a farmers cow pasture. As I was walking I noticed something in the woods. Sure enough 2 huge white cow skulls just sitting there! I set them aside and kept walking. I was hoping the stream would get wider as I followed it up. I came to where it forked and the stream was still very small with trees lining the sides. I had no room to cast and I saw no signs of fish. With the day light fading I threw in the towel and headed back with skulls in hand. Here I had a choice, either stay here and move on to the next hot spring in the morning. Or go back and get some more topaz. I knew I could do that at night so I drove back to the topaz spot and hunted the rest of the night.

Monday Feb, 23

                I found some more topaz while making food, but I was done with that. The next thing I wanted to find was obsidian! Also known as black glass, you can make some the sharpest tools from obsidian.  I have a project in mind to break them open then insert a LED light into the back side of the stone and hopefully get a little light to shine through. But I knew I needed a lot to be able to attempt this. Luckily for me there is a spot called Obsidian Hill. And sure enough it was covered with it. I filled my bag with the largest pieces I could find in about 2 hours.  Then I had to gas up. From there it was west on the main road until I turned off on the dirt again. This took me to Swazy Peak. Another spot on the list was the trilobite mine. It’s a place you can pay to smash rocks and look for ancient fossils. The first one was closed but I saw the gate open for the second place. I was guessing that was closed too so I continued driving up to the top of Swazy. As I climbed up the shitty rock and dirt road I started seeing something I haven’t seen sense I left Wisconsin, SNOW! It made me laugh a bit that I was snow free up until now on the trip. This is one of the few places that the ancient bristlecone pines grow. I’ve been told they are the oldest trees in the world, but I’ve been told that for about 3 different trees so who knows? Either way a very pretty sight! After making it to the top I headed back down and stopped at the trilobite digging area with the gate open. I pulled up and honked but no one came out. Sure enough they were closed. I had no idea what I doing, I don’t know what I’m looking for or how to find it. So I walked around and started hitting pieces of soft shale rocks. After doing this for about 20 minutes I really felt stupid. Then it happened. I threw a rock down and froze. Sure as shit, that’s exactly what I was looking for! I continued for about another 20 minutes and ended up finding about a dozen fossils, one was a really nice one. The others were mostly parcels. I was slightly concerned about someone coming down that road and I knew I wasn’t supposed to be here. So I gathered my findings and took off. I had one last thing on the list. Gandy Hot Spring. I started driving and got extremely lost several times! But I always figure your never lost if you don’t have to be anywhere. So I was loving the crazy little roads twisting and turning through the bottoms of these beautiful canyons. Eventually I found my way and was headed in the right direction. I figured why not celebrate! Lee sent me on the way with a 6 pack of local beers so I cracked one open. It worked out nicely, when I would finish a beer I would just go out the window and put it up in my kayak. Once I made it the Gandy area, it was extremely confusing to find the spring. Which turned out be very easy. This spring turned out to be one of the highlights of my entire trip. It’s actually considered a warm spring, only about 75-80 degrees. But the incredible feature was that it was an underground cave spring. There is moss covering the entrance so not many people know about it. It was freezing cold and very windy outside so I changed, grabbed my underwater flashlight and goggles. After hoping in I was ready to explore. I found the moss and made my way back to the end, then dived down. The scene was incredible. It used to be a regular cave so it’s full of stalagmites, stalactites and columns. But underwater it looked incredible! I found a few places to pop up for air and went back as far as I thought I could, about 30 yards. But the sun was going down outside and I was in the middle of nowhere, 100 miles from anything. So I didn’t spend a ton of time inside but it will always be engraved in the top of my memories. From here I drove back through Swazy Pass just trying to imagine the first people to walk through here and how they possibly did it. Back on the main highway I drove south. I still wanted to go back to Zion and do a few trails I haven’t tried. But once I hit the highway that storm that guy was talking about finally hit me. It was a frozen blizzard with cars all over the ditches. I felt comfortable enough and made it to the town just outside Zion, called Hurricane. While I was on the way I saw one of my friends from high school was in Vegas, about a 2.5 hour drive from here. I got in touch with her and found out she was in town for a work convention. My hiking idea was ruined by this blizzard so we made plans to meet up tomorrow when she was finished for the day. 

Tuesday Feb, 24

                With my hiking plans put on hold it gave me time to get something’s in order. I got a car wash, after that long on dirt road dirt was stuck everything on that thing. Next I picked up some containers to hold all the stones I collected and try to keep them protected. Then I needed to strip out the entire car and go through it top to bottom. I moved the bones from the front seat up into the kayak. I had my hiking boots under the bone and grabbed them. That’s when I found my little friend. A black widow was hanging out in my car! I think it came in on the bones, 3 days ago. Not to mention I sleep in that same car, while that black widow is active. It creeped me out a little to think about. But I found a jar and made her a nice little home. The temperature continued dropping and it was much warmer in Vegas, so I made the drive over. I cooked some food and watched some movies waiting until Anny was done. I meet her at the Aria Hotel and we grabbed a drink. I haven’t seen Anny in a long time, so it was great catching up with an old friend. After that we hit the town. She looked up a lot of different fun places to see here and it’s the most fun I have had in Vegas. And I believe on the walk home someone ended up climbing a statute or 2.  

 Hike to Stewart Falls

 Hot Pot dinner with Lee and Natty

 Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake

 Prong horn antelope

 Wild buffalo all over the place!

 Small pool where i found buffalo skeleton

 Smoke off to the left, stops going up at same level as mountains

The lake is very low

 Small islands all over the place

 Same smoke after a few hours

 Island destination, no chance of making it

 Pony express

 Wild mustangs

 Old mine shaft

 Driving around western Utah

 Baker Hot Spring

 Bristlecone pines, i believe?

 Top of Swazy Peak

 Old meets new

 Salt flats

 Gandy warm spring, you can see the moss entrance on the left

 Bad pic but its all i got

 Black widow

 Vegas Strip