Well this "Ring of Fire", May 20 1932 hrs., has nothing to do with the hike.
MORE PHOTOS HERE
This is not always the best time of year to hike the GSENM. Not too buggy & the water was low in the Paria River this year. Also we started at 9 a.m., not too hot.
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| In order to see the two scenics above and below, don't miss the well marked route uphill at the caricature. Above is "Rock Garden". The parentheses mean THE AUTHOR's name. By the time you near these fins, which remind me of Canyonlands Nat'l Park, you should be seeing and heading east toward Yellow Rock. |
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| Castle Rock |
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| The Hidden Cache, above and below. THE AUTHOR says that the access is 800 meters from the car-park to The Box plus 300 meters more to the second drainage on the right. That's where the trail to the Hidden Cache starts up on the left side of the drainage. Look, never mind the meters, just hug the right side as soon as you enter The Box (OBVIOUS!) so that you won't miss the trail up the drainage. Discover the cache then back to the river and upstream you go. If you see "Red Top" sandstone formation at the top of a drainage you missed HC trail by two drainages and are too far upstream. If you get to the fence and the first Cowboy-glyphs you are way too far. That's how far we got before we went back. |
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| The next three below are Yellow Rock which (like The Wave and White Pocket) is a very photogenic geologic area near the Paria River. When you get near Yellow Rock you will see it on your right. Can't miss it. Just head for the southern side of this huge phenom. You can't possibly miss it if you go up at the caricature with the top hat and stay on the most main trail. YOU MAY OR MAY NOT SEE A TRAIL TO YELLOW ROCK-JUST HIKE CROSS-COUNTRY CAREFULLY. |
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| The obvious beginning of southern access to The Box (just north of the Cottonwood Wash mouth), where the Paria River cuts through the Cockscomb. It's not very long but it is very cool. Is it 800 meters from the car-park? A mystery. Anyway, the trail head is marked on the west side of Cottonwood Wash Road about 11 1/2 miles north of Rt. 89 (between Page and Kanab). |
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| Incoming, 5/20/12, 7 p.m. + This hike was gleaned from THE AUTHOR's "Hiking and Exploring the Paria River". The only day hikes he mentions in this area were like 20 hours for us. So by checking his various maps which don't make sense we made this little loop hike up. It could easily be done in 4 hours certainly, but we had an extra hour to get lost with Kelsey. So we used up 5 1/4 hours on our debut. The only thing that really needs attention is the descent east from Yellow Rock to the Cottonwood Wash or to the road by the same name. From the south side of Y Rock head due east until encountering cairns. Some of the descent is very steep. From the wash or road it's about an hour south to your car, once you get down. Where the road veers sharply left to bypass a geologic reef I would recommend hiking cross country right and nearer the wash for less mileage. SYNOPSIS: Enter The Box from the south and the car-park. After seeing the Hidden Cache and two graffiti panels (R) on the Paria River exit right and uphill until Yellow Rock comes into view right. Exit the south exposure of Yellow Rock to the east until finding cairns leading to a steep descent. South in the road/wash 1 hour. OR- Not Tired Yet? If not you may add 2 hrs. to your hike easily. Instead of going south after the descent turn north in the wash and hike Hackberry Canyon. This is a nice narrow (but not a narrows) canyon which usually has spring water running in it. Bear west as you are northbound to catch Hackberry. The eastern bigger wash continues as Cottonwood. About an hour north after the descent from Yellow Rock, on the left on a bench just above the wash floor are some dinosaur tracks. Small rock (3 ft. wide X 5 ft. long X 2 ft. high). This would be 15-20 minutes after the large "rock tower" on your right as you travel upstream. So to the dino tracks and back adds 2 hours. The tracks are outies not innies so they are tough to photograph. They are still cool Grallators. |
