Utah and Arizona Hiking Trip

So to start have no pictures from phone, shot all video for this with GoPro sine it is waterproof and will edit and piece together when I get back.

The day started out rough, since we didn't get to bed until 10:30, we had to meet our shuttle driver at 5:50 in the visitor center parking lot. Was able to leave jeep there overnight since we had a permit. Got quickly and quietly out of camping spot around 5, headed to front of campground for light and no one to bother, used restrooms and tidied up gear. I had my large pack to carry our tent and camping gear since didn't think we would be able to use hammocks. With that and other gear my pack was about 40lbs, way more than I would have liked, our tent wasn't made for backpacking so a little heavier. Hope had a day pack with her hydration system and her clothes in a wet bag to stay dry. I also had our food and cooking and eating items and my hydration pack. I had 5 liters of water and Hope had 4.we each had our life straw bottle but there was a bacteria in the water that can not be filtered by anything and the only fresh spring water spot was 9 miles on past the campsite so had to make sure we had enough for day 1 to drink and cook with.

When we got to visitor center couldn't find our driver, he did call us and find us. Turns out we were only 2 as two others had canceled. The drive up to the top at Chamberlain Ranch was interesting. The first part was through the park then through the mountain tunnels, blasted through in 1937. Is quite remarkable. Then our driver warned us about the last 45 minutes, was a beat up dirt road, said since only us it would be bumpy, is better with more people, he was right. Was very scenic though on way.

When we got to top and stepped out we were in shock, temp was at least 20 degrees cooler at that higher altitude. Said we gained about 3000 ft. Hope had a sweatshirt to put on and I pulled out my rain jacket to warm up. We then started our 16.1 mile hike around 7:45

The first part was all dirt road maybe for mile to a mile and half through the Chamberlain ranch, we then passed through a gate marking the national park land. The whole time the Virgin River was off to our right. After a bit we came upon our first river crossing, Hope for the first few did her best to keep her feet dry for awile, since she is younger, more limber and probably in better shape was able to jump across rocks while I just said screw it and got my feet wet. First few were basically ankle deep. We continued on for a few hours this way, would stop and video, Hope would do some rock climbing and we sat and cooked some food since we didn't get any breakfast before. After about 4 miles we hit our first Narrows section, it is at this point you will be walking through water. In this section, it was mainly ankle to upper leg deep in sections. Nothing too bad. It was the rocks everywhere and the weight of the bag that was causing me problems. I couldn't climb and jump like she could with the extra weight very easily. Also before the trip started i told her to get walking sticks, she said that's for old people, after first couple of rapids and rock crossings I offered her one for balance and to help check deepness as we went down, she kept it the rest of the way.

We had markers we knew we should hit so we would know how close to our campsite we were. All we could go off was time, as in the canyon the GPS on my watch for mileage goes crazy. We were looking for a waterfall but around every bend we went no waterfall. We were getting tired and knew our campsite 7 was at least 2-3 more hours after waterfall. Hope pulled out her phone on one of our rest stops and was able to get our map position through Snapchat! We could see the creek that was right after waterfall and knew we were finally close. Still took about another 30 minutes before we hit the waterfall.

At this point we were both tired, her back was hurting and my quads from trying to balance in the rapids crossing rocks constantly were on fire. We were moving slowly, ne much slower than her, she would get ahead a bit sit and rest and I'd catch up. Eventually we got to campsite 1, at this point think it was about 5 pm so we had been out there for almost 9 hours, we did stop alot and eat so probably close to 6-7 hours of hiking. Since campsite 7 was supposed to be 9 miles in we were barely getting a mile an hour. The pace was slow at end but the constant zigzagging back and forth made a mile take a lot longer.

This whole time we saw no one, no one at site 1, no one at site 2 ( All permits, about 40 a day, sell out almost immediately so was kind of shocked). So when we got to site 3 ,still no one, it was a nice site and we were at peak exhaustion from the little sleep and long strenuous hike and figured we still had 45 minutes to an hour before we would hit 7 so decided to camp at three for the night. At first we just took our packs off and rested for about 15 minutes, made dinner which helped immensely, started feeling a little more revived, set up tent and got ready for an early night. We were in tent by 7 and I was out by 7:30. Not sure how long Hope stayed up but probably not much longer.

Was a fun and exciting start to hike, scenery was incredible but the hike itself was no joke.Read more