Natural Bridges Overflow Camping, Grand Gulch, White Canyon
The May White Rim (tent) trip got cancelled, so instead we headed for the Natural Bridges area of SE Utah. Left on a Wednesday when it was still plenty cool (high of 59 in Utah) and by the time we left Saturday am it was high 70s. We had the Natural Bridges overflow camping area to ourselves until the last two days, so all was quiet.
Thursday we tried to explore Todie Canyon of Grand Gulch and we did, but we missed the main (badly marked) entry down in so made our own path until we could go no further. Tiring enough with all the climbing. Later we attemped Moon House, but Alzheimers stuck again and we couldn't find that one either (wtf?). We drove so far we thought we went too far, but in hindsight we think we were about a mile short of the entry. oops. Instead we did another wash hike there at camp to the main road.
Friday we drove north past Fry Canyon to White Canyon where we hiked not quite 5 miles mostly in Gravel Canyon. Perfect day, low 70s and hazy, was getting warm down there. Continued on up to Hite for fuel and saw that the reservoir is pretty much dry to the ground there. Drought? yes. No electric so ran the generator, only to find the batteries aren't holding a charge so left a day early on Saturday instead of Sunday. The generator does allow us to use the dish and still watch recorded movies -- Django this time. It was so nice we actually ate outside for the first time -- the power of the new Oilcloth tablecloth! Weather and bugs permitted. It was like camping.
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| Campsite, with the Bears Ears in the background |
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| Todie Gulch: Can go no further. Glad we had those walking sticks. |
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| Walked along one of those Todie ledges to get back. Making our own route. |
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| Long way down... stepping carefully in Todie Gulch. |
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| Scrambling up a sheer wall in Gravel Canyon |
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| Holding up the boulders in Gravel Canyon |
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| Had to make our own rock bridges in Gravel Canyon |
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| Down in Gravel Canyon |
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| Monument Valley from the Bears Ears |
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| Hite "marina" - dry all the way across. |
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| Dock at the "marina" |
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| Leaving our Utah dust in Cortez, CO. |
