Tag: zion national park

Zion National Park- Hop Valley Trail Part 1

Zion National Park- Hop Valley Trail Part 1

Day three on the Trans-Zion trail. 

Distance: Roughly 13 miles depending on camp choice.

Difficulty: Ranges from easy to moderate.

Water: Available but advised to not filter and drink.

  

  

The Hop Valley Trail leading us to our camp-at-large permit site in the Wildcat Canyon was set to be our biggest day of challenges along the Trans-Zion; first of all it was our longest stretch of mileage in one day around 13 miles, and second it was the stretch that included no water sources and a dry camp once we made Wildcat Canyon. So we decided to get up early, break camp and hit the trail; which in our tucked away canyon camp with no sun until late morning ended up as an 8am wake up. Nearly as soon as we crawled out of our tent it changed from a still morning to a windy day with a tremendous wind that started breezing through the camp making our camp stove work double time to produce some luke warm tea water. 

  

We chatted about the regrettable case of our camp requiring us to backtrack nearly an extra mile that would have been avoided if we had moved our camp further south the day before, but we concentrated on creek hopping and planned to tank up on 6 liters of water each once we hit Camp 10; only we stumbled upon the trailhead before Camp 10 (*spoiler alert: first big mistake of the day about to commence) we were advised that Beatty Spring was nearby but weren’t sure if it was along LaVerkin or the Hop Valley Trail and so decided to head up the Hop Valley and hope it appeared. Two things: first the ranger said that this is the biggest spring along the route, that the vegetation changes considerably and you could probably hear the spring as it was so big; second, the Hop Valley sign had scratched into it the word Spring (thanks fellow hikers) however, it had an arrow pointing one direction with an X through it and a new arrow pointing the opposite direction. Leading us to feel we might have faulty intel. at best. Now, we should have stopped and consulted the map and figured this all out but in our excitement we pushed on hoping for the best. 

  

  

Hop Valley is, of course, a valley. To get into the valley the trail turns into a rocky uphill grind to get over the ridge between the creek and the valley. So we headed up continually looking to our right anticipating vegetation change to lush greenery and to hear the lovely tinkle of running water. After close to an hour of up and head careening right, we admitted defeat in finding the spring that was never along this section of trail to begin with. We assessed our situation, we were on the longest driest score of trail with less than 2 liters each. There is water in the Hop Valley but the warnings against drinking it (I kid you not here) ranged from “I would drink it filtered if I were dying, maybe.” to “If you are dehydrated, drink it.” (I really think these two opposing views were offered by the same ranger at different times, on the phone a week earlier and then in person the day we began.)My partner A.J. voted we push on and just plan to get water in Hop Valley and I voted to be cautious and head back to a large known water source, LaVerkin Creek. Prudence won out, and we ditched our packs in some scrub brush, fashioned very fashionable water carrying belts of cords and carbineers and headed back down the Hop Valley Trail. And then back over again once we had tanked up. (Mind you, still never finding the Beatty Spring even while we looked again, now to the left the entire way we went.) Curse you, only slightly mind you, Beatty Spring. Honestly, if the rangers had just said to ignore the spring as there is plenty of water in the same vicinity from the creek we would have saved a huge amount of time and effort.  

  

After finding our packs, having a quick snack and slathering on the sun screen we finally headed out to truly being the Hop Valley Trail. Staggering a bit under the nearly 10lbs of new weight. The trail begins with the rocky uphill climb, levels off in a rather narrow valley where we were welcomed by wild turkeys, and then descends further down another rocky bit to finally come into the large beautiful Hop Valley. The entire landscape opens up with water meandering along a sandy bottom, pastures and more gorgeous rock formations lining the valley walls as far as the eye can stretch. 

  

Regal trees pop up in unexpected places as you pump out the easiest set of miles over the entire day. You immediately cross the water (you will cross back and forth the entire way) and find the trail by the marker. We were warned the trail is sand, and sand it is. Heavy beach walking kinda sand, with your heaviest pack- yep. You quickly find the two camps as they are on the closest end of the valley, and can’t help but fantasize a bit about hefting your pack off, setting up camp and lying under one of the gorgeous trees in the grass reading a novel or taking a nap. Instead we pressed on enchanted by the wonder of our surroundings but one factor was become non-enchanting: the wind. A.J. had her contacts in and the strong steady headwind kicked up dirt into our eyes causing several blinking stops and it forced us to lean in further. This was the first portion of the trail that felt like we owned the place without another soul around and the flat terrain made for some relatively easy miles. There is evidence of cow grazing mainly in the way of old fence posts and cowpies. We didn’t see any more turkeys but it was fun seeing their tracks down by the water- huge feet! 

 

  

There are not a lot of signs pointing the way, but there were tons of boot prints. It didn’t always pay to follow the boot prints as several times they led in a way that clearly many people thought was the way but actually wasn’t. With the sandy sand on the trail and the compact sand along the water, I would suggest keeping the trial within sight but walking along the water instead; knowing that you are in a valley and you came in one direction and have to leave in the other direction. Now when you get to the end of the valley it is inexplicably confusing. The water will decidedly turn left and head between two rock walls, the trail will appear to keep heading straight ahead, and then there is a trail marker that appears to point straight up a hill where there are countless boot prints all around. If you stand directly in front of the trail marker and face the way it is pointing you will find it isn’t really pointing up the hill, and the trail is so worn that it is pretty easy to decide to keep heading in the correct direction; I can only assume the marker is where it is due to the boundaries of private property that are clearly marked in the area. We did encounter one other party of a man and woman heading in the opposite direction, we found out from them that the wind was forecasted to hit up to 65 mile per hour gusts and turn in the night to come from the North. It is funny how the wind felt much harder to battle after that news; but I kept saying wind is easier than rain to deal with.

Zion National Park- LaVerkin Creek Trail

 Time of year: Mid-April

2 nights as the first portion of the Trans-Zion trail from Lee Pass to the Groto. 

Distance: About 8.5 miles one-way. 

Difficulty: Easy- very wide well-established trail that is well marked with all camps numbered with signs. Some up and down on the trail and some creek crossings. 

Water is continually available once you have descended down to the creek which will take no more than an hour or two depending on speed. 

 

Less Pass Trailhead consists of a series of parking spaces with a sign clearly marking the trailhead. You descend immediately down along a mixed rocky/dirt trail. 

My hiking partner and I excitedly headed down the trail. We encountered several other hikers early in the day who were out day hiking to see the Kolob arch. We even trailed and criss-crossed for several hours with a small group of horse riders along the trail. The terrain and views are magnificent, with early spring flowers and tree buds at our boots and the gorgeous expanses of the canyon walls and peaks when we looked up. You certainly can’t help but feel intimidated and humbled when you first step onto the trail and look around and the cathedral-like expanses of stunning rock that surrounds you. The trail immediately enchants with lizards scrambling into the sunshine atop boulders, random butterflies and moths floating by on the breeze and an interesting varied landscape with new plants around every winding curve of the well-established trail as it heads down to the Creekside. 

  

We passed along all of the camps during the course of the day, if your goal is to see and play near the arch, camps one and two are disappointingly too close to the Lee Pass trailhead; they appear to best serve those who are hiking out to Lee Pass and wish to spend one last night on the trail. All of the camps are very well established and will easily accommodate the group sizes that they are rated for. They all appear to have several clearing options for tents, logs/rocks arranged conveniently for sitting around your cook stove, the Creekside nearby for water, and trees for hanging food and shade. No campfires allowed. Camps 7 and 8 were very close together, ideal for multiple groups wanting to be close to each other and are near the water. Camps 9-12 are all close by the water. If I go back along this section of trail I would ask for Camp 10, it is near a tiny waterfall feature of the creek, it is on the opposite side of the creek from where the main trail travels and it is ideally situated to both reach the Kolob arch as well as continue onto the Hop Valley trail if going further on. 

  

We spent two nights in Camp 12. It took us about 5 hours to go from the trailhead to Camp 12 including multiple stops to enjoy the scenery and to have water and food. Toward the end we did make multiple crossings of the creek which have many stepping stone options, but it was much easier to navigate the weight of the packs by using hiking sticks for stability when crossing. It was a very nice camp that met all of our needs with nice trees and close proximity to the creek. It was pocketed away more in the canyon than we expected making it late morning before the sun made it into our camp. We saved the arch for day two so we would have an exciting landmark to go explore when we woke up. The day two hike back to the arch over familiar trail was great fun and going to see the arch with lightly weighted packs and plenty of time made it feel a bit like a vacation within a vacation. 

   

Once you turn off of La Verkin trail up toward the arch it is only another .5 miles until you get to the viewing area. The arch is still very far away and there are multiple trees that make it a bit obscured but it was still a neat feature to get to check out. We chose to continue on and hike the trail up the creek past the arch to find yet another small waterfall. It was fun tripping along the streambed exploring further afield, but in truth, there isn’t much change to the landscape as you continue. When we had our fill of the arch trail, we headed back to our camp, and I must admit it was great to head back knowing camp was already setup for us. We chose a leisurely afternoon of washing out our clothes, taking a creek bath and an early dinner. After dinner we donned our flip flops, and took a flip flop walk further up the trail toward camp 13, we chose to turn back after about a half hour as our footwear wasn’t ideal but did see even more glorious rock formations that really shone in the late afternoon light. The weather was amazing the first two days reaching the upper 70’s during the day and the low 40’s at night. The nights were cool with the sound of the creek soothing our weariness and the stars were stunning.   

   

 We turned in early knowing we needed to pack up early and head out of La Verkin the next day to tackle the longest stretch of our Trans-Zion journey the next day. While it was great fun having the same camp to come home to two days in a row, it would have shaved a good mile off of our longest stretch if we had moved from camp 12 down to 9 or 10 for the second night which are more closely situated near the Hop Valley trail head.