Following an adventurous 150th anniversary season in Yellowstone, Park Junkie finds his way to the red rock canyons of southern Utah, and Zion National Park. Upon arrival however, our wandering explorer finds that fall has not yet made it to this area, and triple digit temperatures send him on a Top Down Hike through the Zion Narrows in search of cool water seldom found shade!
Guide to Zion
I woke slowly that Monday, which would prove to be my last such day in Yellowstone for this season…
For some strange reason I found it easy to just roll over and close my eyes again, hugging my pillow and contemplating how I might one day design a system by which I could telepathically tell my french press to just make the coffee itself. It’s hard to get up without the smell of coffee… & it turns out my french press is worthless with my physical direction.
After a few minutes of self-directed deprecating humor about what a lazy loser I was, I found my way to my feet, stood tall and stretched my back toward the sky before slowly lumbering toward the heavenly destination that is my coffee station. I grabbed the water kettle, filled it with water from my gravity filter and placed it on its stand before pushing the button that would magically ignite the electric element and heat the water for my morning fix…
I emptied a precise amount of beans into the grinder, pushed down and listened as the blades of the electronic device effortlessly shredded the beans into a coarsely ground mixture that quickly made its way into the dark depths of my french press… Ten minutes later, I poured a cup of coffee and sat back to observe the morning light from the Park Junkie Maproom’s back patio… content to enjoy a few moments of serenity before deciding upon the day’s adventure.
One day prior, adventure had rewarded with me, as it had all summer long in Yellowstone. My old friend Eva & I had attempted a hike to the Pelican Cone, at the northern end of Pelican Valley. The journey to the cone proved a bit too much for the time restraints that day, as the Park Service regulates the time during which one can hike in Pelican Valley, due to the fact it is a bear management area. Hikers can only access the area between the hours of 9am and 7pm.
The hike to the Pelican Cone is a minimum of 22 miles, and with only a few hours during which my hiking partner & I had to cover those miles, we just cruised at a comfortable pace, content with whatever route the day presented. If the summit of the Cone proved unattainable, there was always a stellar consolation prize: The Pelican Spring Cabin, which required a mere additional mile or two, rather than the added 8 miles needed to summit the Cone.
As we strolled along with this comforting fact in the back of our heads, we gazed about the vast green valley and chatted about the stunning scenery. We wondered to one another if the numerous bison grazing on the never-ending grasses in the valley were “out to pasture”, content to just graze in peace in the final years of their lives.
It was rutting season, after all. During this time, most of the young virulent bulls were out in Hayden and Lamar Valleys, testing their testosterone in heated battles with others of prime physical condition. Such battles reward the strongest with the ability to mate with fertile females, ensuring the stability of the herd through the ancient process of natural selection.
I hiked in the lead as we made our way along the western edge of the vast valley. As we crested a small knoll, I stopped suddenly, staring out into the sage brush before me, startled by an out-of-place character whom I had no expectation of encountering in this setting. A doglike beast stood about thirty yards out, staring intently at me, as I stared intently at it.
Upon first notice, I thought it a dog… a German Shepard or some mix thereof, as it stood with head raised, noble in stature, solid black, with a collar… I literally thought to myself in an instant “whose dog is lost out here”… Then, I honed in on its piercing blue eyes, which locked in unison with my own for a few seconds. I instantly revised my original interpretation of this creature’s identity, and quietly spoke the word “wolf”…
Both the wolf and I visually recorded and mentally processed the necessary information about the being before us. After a few long seconds, we each seemed satisfied that we were probably safe from attack, and we slowly backed away from one another. At this point, we noticed that there were others, in fact, there were six wolves in the pack, that we later found was known as Mollie’s Pack. This pack is known to inhabit the wooded areas in the northern region of Pelican Valley.
The wolves followed the lead of the wolf closest to us, and as it trotted up the hill, toward the wooded area above, it turned to look back at us several times, curious, but content to continue its retreat into the safety of the trees. We stood silent, aside from a few utterances about how “cool” this was or how “unreal” the whole episode seemed.
Once the wolves were gone, we gloated about for a few minutes, unable to contain the emotion of the experience. It was both Eva & I’s first time seeing a wolf. I had always assumed that my first sighting would come through binoculars, or a spotting scope, as close wolf sightings in the wild are not commonly reported.
After some time spent in such fashion, we continued our mission, not quite ready to exclude Pelican Cone from the possibilities for the day. Another hour of hiking brought us to the Pelican Cone Trail, at which point we reluctantly decided that we’d rather enjoy the remainder of the day than relentlessly pound out miles in order to record a successful summit.
So we made our way across the Raven Creek Trail to the Pelican Spring Cabin, where we just chilled in the shade for an hour or so, before making our way back to the trailhead. An early exit to the trail led us to the Lake Hotel Sunroom for a cocktail, before we parted ways. Eva was staying at the Hotel, while I was making my way back to Wapiti, on the eastern side of the park, just a short drive from the cowboy town of Cody, Wyoming.
I drove back to my humble abode, had a nice lil dinner and called it a great day!
That Monday, as I enjoyed my first cup of coffee, I thought back on the summer’s adventures in our first national park. The sighting of the wolves seemed to complete something for me and I couldn’t help but feel that somehow they signaled a completion to my Yellowstone adventure for this year. I also felt the cool breeze that had recently became common in the Yellowstone area, reminding me that summer was over. Fall was on the way…
It took little time to decide upon a mission for the day, as I had already been considering a departure from Yellowstone. However, this mission was not quite what I had considered just a few days before, when I debated my next destination. My birthday was coming, and what hike should I do for that increasingly remorseful event…? I had been kicking a few ideas around my head. Climb the Grand Teton, hike to Delta Lake, head to Glacier & try a jaunt to Goat Haunt… or just stay in the area and retry a summit hike of Yellowstone’s Electric Peak…?
Or, should I just break south & get back to Zion?…
Just like that, I sipped the final lukewarm dregs of my first cup of coffee, and decided upon the Zion option… I packed up in a jiffy, poured the remains of the french press into two Yeti travel mugs, tossed them in the console and hooked the MapRoom onto my truck, and headed out!
The drive took all day and went into the night. I arrived at my little Zion retreat about 2am on August 30. Upon waking the next day, I took care of some overdue chores at my camp and enjoyed the morning from my little piece of paradise. As the day wore on however, the heat index surpassed any numbers that I had experienced during that summer. My body began to feel the exhausting effects of the triple digit heat, and I began to wonder if I had perhaps made my southern trip a few weeks too soon.
No big deal, I’ve spent a few hot seasons in this Land of Zion… So it wasn’t that hard to come up with a relief from the maddening heat. Without delay, I headed to the Zion Visitor Center, where the backcountry desk provided me with a permit for a Top Down Hike through the Zion Narrows.
A quick visit with my boy @jonnyzion secured a shuttle ride to a trailhead at Chamberlain’s Ranch, where I would begin a 16-mile hike through on of my favorite slices of the Earth… The Zion Narrows!
Ah… it’s good to be back in Zion….
Guide to Zion
Zion
Activities
Visiting
Facts
Map
Geology
History
Relevant Links
National Park Guides
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