Sneaking away from work for two days, i hopped onto a plane to join six amazing women in celebrating the upcoming wedding of one Ms. Becca Katz. The Party tunes blared as we piled into a van, left Las Vegas in the rear view, and headed toward an area known as the Arizona Strip. This name describes a region north of the Colorado River and includes parts of southern Utah; it is primarily an arid, sage-brush grasslands and desert and is sparsely populated with few roads. Cutting through the grassy mesas, however, are many incredible canyons that have been carved by the region's rivers as they flow toward the Colorado. It was at one of these canyons, the Paria Canyon, that our party bus arrived late on Wednesday night.
With our group complete, we packed our backpacks on Thursday morning and headed into the Paria for four amazing days of hiking and exploring the narrow canyons that have been cut through the Navajo Sandstone by the Paria River. Hiking through the canyon was a unique experience for me, despite having grown up in the Southwest. The canyon starts out fairly wide, but soon narrows into a long section called, shockingly, The Narrows. Following the "trail" simply means following the river, and we hiked along its banks and, more often, directly in the river as it winds for miles through the canyon. It was refreshing, after years of hiking and trying to keep my feet dry, to feel free to walk straight into the water, shoes, socks and all, knowing that in five minutes, my feet would be back in the water again around the next bend. The spectacular scenery in the canyon also inspired tons of photos as the walls of the canyons, with the many different patterns worn into the rock by wind, water, and other rocks. While most of my photos do little justice to the real place, i have tried to pick some of the best and to give a sense for the incredible scale of the rock walls and landscape.
As incredible as the canyon was, the trip was truly amazing for the wonderful people that shared it with me. Our time was spent catching up with friends and getting to know each other better as we wandered the bends of the river, contemplating jobs, relationships, friendships, health, and all other aspects of our lives. An enormous thank you to Steph and Martha who did much of the organization and who kept producing a never ending stream of exciting, entertaining, and funny bachelorette appropriate items. There are so many other stories to be told but i suppose i will stick to the adage that what happens in the Strip stays in the Strip (or something like that) and will take only memories of the penis straws, backcountry grasshopper pie, discussions of poop bags, trailhead digits, Whitney Houston songs, Business Time and so much more which made up a fantastic weekend.
Packing out- Brenna, Marja, Martha, me, Becca, Steph and Tawni
The layering in the sandstone walls is the result of erosion, but also tells the story of the sand dunes that were compressed to form the Navajo Sandstone formation, roughly 200 million years ago.
A wider section of the canyon near the wilderness boundary
One of my few pictures not of people's butts- Steph, Tawni, Becca & Marja
Hiking through The Narrows: Martha & Tawni
Becca and Marja fixing one of our stoves before breakfast.
Tawni enjoying the morning sun
I am not really sure what just happened here, but am guessing there is some heckling involved
Brenna performs the Paria Canyon Water Ballet
Rounding a bend in the river. The hikers in the center of the photo help give scale.
A side trip through the Buckskin Gulch Canyon. The Buckskin, which happens to be the longest slot canyon in the US, is both incredibly narrow (often less that 1 meter in places) and deep, meaning that sunlight rarely reaches the floor of the canyon but the shadows and reflections of light on the canyon walls are beautiful. While the entire 14+ mile route through the canyon requires rappelling gear, we enjoyed exploring a few miles up, climbing up sketchy fixed ropes, and squeezing through narrow passages.
Martha demonstrates proper hiking attire- never leave home without your hiking frock.
No comments:
Post a Comment