Dennis Dixon is heading West!: Zion Nat'l Park, Day 3/4

Wednesday, April 28, 2021 - Wendy and I visited Zion National Park back on Sept. 16, 2018 (read that blog here), and I really wanted to come back and do some hiking. So I did come back 3 months later, in December 2018 (read that blog here).

So now I'm out in Zion again, to hike some Really Cool Trails that I couldn't get to before:

East Rim Trail

Canyon Overlook Trail

West Rim Trail/Telephone Canyon Trail

back in Kolob Canyons: Timber Creek Overlook Trail/South Fork Taylor Creek Trail/Middle Fork Taylor Creek Trail/North Fork Taylor Creek Trail

Today I'll be doing West Rim Trail/Telephone Canyon Trail - 22.9 miles in 9 hours 30 minutes. My iPhone died at 2:45 PM, after 14.32 miles in 6 hours 45 minutes - don't worry, I did make it back down (I finished in the bus-waiting-area right at 5:30). This first "map of my hike" I find very disappointing - you can barely tell that my "almost loop" is up on a plateau, and you certainly cannot tell that there are AWESOME buttes and canyons off to the west (the left):

The same "visual problem" applies to the "main hiking map for Zion National Park" [Trails Illustrated Topographic Map by National Geographic]:

It all looks kind-of washed out, both to the left/west of the West Rim Plateau, as well as the "Telephone Canyon" area to the right/east of the Plateau.

So I exported my hike, and put it in Google Earth, which looks MUCH BETTER:

and when I rotate Google Earth, you get a good sense of the canyons I was able to look down at from the West Rim Trail:

The yellow line at the top of the picture is Wendy's and my auto route when we came through here in Set. 2018.

"Hiking" fits very well with the aspects of my personality which equals loner/independent/just do it. I like picking a place (a-mountain-on-a-list), then picking a trail, figuring out how long the hike will take me, and how do I get to the trailhead. This approach has worked very well for me, whether hiking in National Forests, on 4000 footers in New Hampshire, or out in the Adirondacks. The only place that I have needed "reservations" is Mount Katahdin in Baxter State Park in northern Maine. As you can imagine, I have not done very much hiking in "National Parks" - they often have a Reservation System for Backpacking/Camping sites, and Zion in particular also has a Reservation System for its "popular/canyon hikes" (I had to get a Permit for my hike into The Subway in Dec 2018).

Zion also has an additional "regular" restriction relating to private vehicles in The Canyon - "Private vehicles are only allowed to drive the Scenic Drive during the non-shuttle season, usually January to mid-February." That means that, during these Covid-times, to get up The Canyon, you need to purchase a Bus Ticket. I had picked today (Wednesday, April 28, 2021) as the day to hike "West Rim Trail", which starts at "The Grotto". To get your "shuttle tickets", you have to go to recreation.gov and open an account (yet another "username and password" situation - it is not getting any easier). The tickets are released in 2-week-blocks: for April 16 - 30, 2021, advance tickets are released on March 31, at 9:00 a.m. MST (did you catch that - "MST" = "Mountain Standard Time" versus EST [Eastern Standard Time] which is 2 hours ahead). So at 11 AM on March 31 (well, 10:58 actually) I logged on [having established my account earlier], and was able to get my single bus ticket for boarding between 7 AM and 8 AM on Wed. April 28 - Thank You God!

I am pretty psyched for these next 2 days of hiking:

After breakfast, I was able to drive in to the Visitor Center and get a parking space, and board a bus at 7:30. 25 minutes later it let us off at "The Grotto":

and I was hiking by 8 AM:

It is beautiful walking over The Virgin River:

I started the hike at an elevation of 4,300 feet. The first 1/2 mile is pretty flat, but then you gain 1,000 feet over the next 2 miles (up to the turnoff to "Angels Landing") - looking out over the Valley is pretty spectacular:

I love the colors of the sun on the sandstone:

I left the "Angels Landing" crowds (basically everybody) at 9 AM, and headed into the backcountry:

You hike up along the backside of a big mesa, then zig-zag up a cliff face to get up to the "West Rim Plateau" (gaining another 1,000 feet in 1 and 1/2 hours):

Awesome views all around on this section of the hike:

I reached the "West Rim Plateau" at 10:43 AM:

With its nice view back behind me:

This is where I left my 2-liter spare water bottle, for when I go back down.

I headed to the right, down "Telephone Canyon Route". Over the next hour I gained another 700 feet in elevation, while hiking 2.4 miles through some pretty nice territory:

At the top of the plateau, a guy caught up with me, and just kept heading north. That was the last I saw of him. I guess he was going all the way to "Lava Point" - another 7 miles. I kept going another 2.7 miles (more cool views):

and stopped at 12:15 (10.88 miles so far) for lunch, sitting on a fallen tree (looking back down the trail I had come up):

I hung out there for about 15 minutes, then headed back. These are my last pictures for today because my iPhone battery was dying, and my trusty/old faithful rechargable battery was already kind-of dead. MapMyWalk held on for another 1-and-1/2 hours (and 3-and-1/2 miles), but up on the "West Rim Trail" I finally stopped hearing my MapMyWalk lady. The "West Rim Trail" section up there is 1.4 miles longer than the "Telegraph Canyon Trail" section, but I made it back to trail intersection with no problem. Just as I got there a guy was coming up and he told me it was 3:40 - I knew I had to hustle down those last 8 miles to get to "The Grotto" trailhead and pick up the Shuttle Bus (when was the last one - 6 PM? 7 PM?). Unfortunately, my spare water bottle WAS GONE. Well, I'm sure happy it was probably a LIFE-SAVER for some hiker!!! I had enough to get down.

So I scampered down that bunny trail, and was back at the bus-stop at 5:30!!!!

It was another hour before I was back in my car, and able to plug-in my iPhone. After it charged up "enough" I could stop MapMyWalk, and save it (and edit it later). I figure I did 22.9 miles in those 9 hours 30 minutes. Pretty cool.

WOW - What A Day! Thank You God for these WONDERFUL Adventures!

Wednesday Hiking Music - no music while I was on the "Angels Landing" trail, both up and down, but other than that:

Annie Lennox - Diva, 1992 first solo album