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Typically we don’t venture out on memorial day weekend but this year we decided to tag along with Tyler and Alene to Capitol Reef.  Alene left early Thursday to get a site in Fruita but the campground was already full, we ended up meeting up with her just outside the park and set up camp near the Fremont river just after sunset.  We spent the rest of the night hanging out under the huge cottonwood tree at our campsite and I shot  a few long exposures.

Friday morning we left our camp and drove south past Notom to hike Sheets Gulch.  The wind was really blowing and there was a bit of flowing water and a giant mud bog where Sheets crossed the main road.   Looking at the tracks of the last vehicle that tried to drive up the wash it was obvious they only made it 20′ before getting extremely stuck in the mud.

Rather than hike the sandy wash to access the slot of Sheets we back tracked to the north to hike up Pleasant Creek.  The wind was still rocking away at the trail head but once we made it around a few bends of the creek we were sheltered by the canyon walls.  The kids loved splashing in and out of the creek as we made our way up canyon. We only came across two other groups of hikers as we leisurely made our way up the canyon  a few miles then headed back to the car.

Downtown Notom

We made our way back to Capitol Reef and had lunch in Fruita. We all sat back and relaxed for a few hours while the kids ran around the park  then headed down 24 to hike up Grand Wash.

Once we were a bend or two away from the choke point and my 3yo really started to meander around the wash. We gave him 2 or 3 minutes to get it out of this system before my sister, 6yo son, and I started hiking again. We were just a few dozen paces up the canyon when we heard a series of intense cracks,  I immediately scanned the skyline around us and saw a huge slab of rock just up canyon hit the wall about 150′+ above the floor and break up into 500 pieces. A cluster bomb of sandstone rocks ranging from baseball to basketball size pounded the canyon floor a little over a hundred feet away. After we gathered our thoughts and waited for the dust to settle we hiked up to view the aftermath.  A 75′ section of the canyon floor was pelted with little craters each with a small pile of sand in the center.  Had we been just 60 seconds further up the canyon I have a hard time believing we would have survived. I did manage to squeeze off a few shots of the dust after the initial impact but I was using my 11mm and did some back pedaling so it seems further away than it really was.

and back to hiking….

Magic hour at the Castle

Last hike on Friday was a quick trip up to Hickman Bridge,  Whitney and I lagged behind a bit and waited for the sunset and it was worth the wait. That night the  sky was filled with clouds again so again no star trails.

Saturday morning we drove back to Fruita to hike Cohab Canyon. The kids did great hiking up the switch backs and we spent about an hour exploring the short side  slot canyons before half our group hiked back to the cars to pick of the rest of the group on the other side of the canyon.

Next up was Sulphur Creek, I dropped Tyler and Alene off at the trailhead and pointed them in the right direction. While they did the five mile hike  we  ate a large lunch and let the kids play a bit in Fruita then started hiking up Sulphur Creek from the Visitor Center. 2.5 hours after they started we met back up with Tyler and Alene at the lowest waterfall.

Tyler then dropped Whitney, April, and I off at the upper trail head and we started our five mile hike . We worked our way down canyon in and out of the creek  scrambling over rocks and waterfalls.   I have to say the Sulphur Creek is one of the best hikes I have ever done, its really does not get much better than this.

awesome log jam at the first waterfall

second falls

Sulphur Creek was awesome and definitely the highlight of the weekend. We met up with everyone in Fruita then drove into Torrey to grab some food and Ice. We made it back to our camp next to the Fremont just after sunset and got all the kids settled down.   The skies cleared up just before the full moon came up and I was able to shoot what I think is my best star trail shot yet.

Awesome trip.

Within 45 minutes of getting home from an 11 hour drive from California I had my gear packed and was ready for another 4 hour drive to the desert.  My brother in law Tyler picked me up and we arrived at the old Chaffin Ranch Geyser in the San Rafael Desert around 11pm. I immediately set up my camera and started on a star trail image with an old car in the foreground and let that run while I set up my tent.

The Geyser went off for the first time around midnight and it was fairly impressive shooting 18-20′ in the air.  In the morning we packed up camp and explored the area around the Geyser while we waited for it to erupt in the daylight.

After I got my daylight shots of the geyser we drove south over the San Rafael river to Three Canyon.  We parked near the head of the north west fork and rim walked on the edge of the slot and set a hand line on the exit crack.

Tyler checking out the exit crack.

The north fork of Three canyon was a short but interesting slot, there was a small amount of water that we were easily able to chimney over.   The first rap was 12 meters off an anchor made from webbing wrapped around a rock buried under sand.  We added a few more rocks to the pile and used the existing webbing and decent ring.

Second rap was about 20 meters and again we used the existing webbing and decent ring  that was set up on a small tree/bush.

photo by Tyler

We did a very short hike up Three Canyon before we hiked out the exit crack.

Heading up the exit crack (photo by Tyler)

Once we made it back to the car we drove down the 4×4 road to the Trin Alcove overlook area to take a few photos and eat lunch.

Final hike of the day was Moonshine Wash.

As always the narrows were pretty nice.. so nice in fact I think I may be headed back down here with the kids in a few weeks.  Tyler and I hiked down the lot to where the canyon opens up then climbed out of the canyon to visit the old moonshine tanks in the west fork.  To return back to the truck we hiked along the rim of the plateau that separates the two canyons.

Hiking out of Moonshine (photo by Tyler)

(photo by Tyler)