January Highway 89 Trip

[Dayhiker]

Last week I did a quick trip over to Kanab to explorer parts of Highway 89 that always seem too hot to me whan I have been there is the past. The morning of the firt day was spent getting a walk in permit for North Coyote Buttes. After that I headed down to check on House Rock Valley Road's condition and then to Rim Rock Hoodoos. I had wanted to go check out Cobra Arch but they said the road was washed out at about 1.5 miles from the trailhead
Rim Rock Hoodoos
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From there I went down to Page for lunch and to check out Horseshoe Bend. Even though I have been in and through Page more than a dozen times I never knew that this was here.
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After Horseshoe Bend I headed up to Stud Horse Point for the late afternoon sun. The sun was so low that lens flair was a constant problem.
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From there I headed back to Kanab.
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End of Day 1

[Dayhiker]

Day 2 was all about North Coyote Buttes and the Wave
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From there I headed back to Vegas.

[gnwatts]

Nice shots

[tanya]

Wow! Love them! Highway 89 Rocks!

[ibenick]

Very cool. :cool2:

[jdgibney]

Awesome! Glad to see I made a cameo in there :) Great shots, I am still trying to whittle my shots down to a managable few from my trip.
Thanks for sharing, and good to talk to you out there!

[accadacca]

Nice TR! :2thumbs:

[Dayhiker]

Wow! Love them! Highway 89 Rocks!

It seems like every time I explorer something along it I fine something new and I've been through there at least a dozen times since the early 80's.

[Dayhiker]

Awesome! Glad to see I made a cameo in there :) Great shots, I am still trying to whittle my shots down to a managable few from my trip.
Thanks for sharing, and good to talk to you out there!
It was good to talk to you. Too bad we didn't know that we were both on the forum. It's a good shot of the wave that you are in, too bad we can't tag people in the images.

[Dayhiker]

Thanks for the comments.

[Cosmic Kid]

Great pics...I've never been to the Rimrocks, but it looks amazingly similar to areas of the Bisti Wilderness in northwestern New Mexico

[peakbaggers]

How hard was it to get the Wave walk-in permit? About how many people were vying for one when you entered the drawing? How was the the Round House Valley road down to the Wire Pass trailhead?

[jdgibney]

I can't speak for the permits, but the road was fine, dry that day, though pretty rutted in spots. It hadn't rained in over a week, I believe, at that point, but it was 2 weeks ago...

[peakbaggers]

Thanks for the road info. Was thinking about trying to get into the Wave area around President's Day on a walk-in permit. Anybody else have any info on what the competition is like for permits recently? Don't really want to drive 400 miles for nothing.

[Dayhiker]

For this trip I was there on a Monday and there was just two of were there for the permits, but it was also off season. Just remember that if you want a permit for Saturday, Sunday or Monday you need to be there on Friday Morning and since you are looking at around President's Day I'd call them (435) 644-4600 about their hours.

[Dayhiker]

Great pics...I've never been to the Rimrocks, but it looks amazingly similar to areas of the Bisti Wilderness in northwestern New Mexico

Although its been about 5 years ago that I was at Bisti Badlands and De-Na-Zin Wilderness I don't remember the Hoodoos being that tall. Also Rim Rock is a very small area compared to Bisti.

[wes242]

Nice shots! Funny I wouldn't have thought there would have been that many people at the wave the sameday, unplanned together that are all on this site. I might have said more then just a HI as we walked by you and your dogs :)

[peakbaggers]

Thanks for that info. On that Friday before President's day, they should also be drawing for the following Tuesday because they're closed Monday, so you have a shot for 4 days altogether. Improves the odds a little as long as 100 people don't show up. We've had online permits twice before but could not get in because of weather conditions. Doesn't do much good when you have to reserve 4 months in advance. Don't know anyone who can predict the weather that far out, :roll: so decided to try to get in off season on a walk in. Also tried walk in during busier season one time & failed to get a permit three days in a row. The last day, there were only 16 people, but still didn't get in. :cry1:

[Cosmic Kid]

Although its been about 5 years ago that I was at Bisti Badlands and De-Na-Zin Wilderness I don't remember the Hoodoos being that tall. Also Rim Rock is a very small area compared to Bisti.

The first two times I was at Bisti I only saw hoodoos that were no more than a foot or two tall. When I went two years ago, I went much further into the badlands and saw hoodoos on the order of ten feet and many very long petrified logs. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me on that trip. Now that I know where the Rimrocks are, I will definitely hit them up the next time through Page. Did you check out Angel Peak badlands on your trip to DeNaZin? They are easily the tallest badlands I have seen anywhere.

[PhotoHound]

Beautiful work!

[Dayhiker]

Nice shots! Funny I wouldn't have thought there would have been that many people at the wave the sameday, unplanned together that are all on this site. I might have said more then just a HI as we walked by you and your dogs :)

I have a tendency to be a bit anti-social around people when I don't know how they feel about dogs. You were sitting up above when my dogs and I walked into the Wave and I was more concerned that they/we would interfere with what you were doing and I didn't want to disturb you. I knew someone was out there from the forums because they listed their license plate here and you signed the registry just before I did.

[Dayhiker]

The first two times I was at Bisti I only saw hoodoos that were no more than a foot or two tall. When I went two years ago, I went much further into the badlands and saw hoodoos on the order of ten feet and many very long petrified logs. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me on that trip. Now that I know where the Rimrocks are, I will definitely hit them up the next time through Page. Did you check out Angel Peak badlands on your trip to DeNaZin? They are easily the tallest badlands I have seen anywhere.

I only stopped at the picnic tables at Angel Peak on a hot June day in 2007 but since I didn't have a map of the area and didn't see any trails down I just took a few photographs from the rim. At Bisti I am not sure how far back I went. I seem to remember 6 miles round trip. Same at DeNaZin and I visited both on the same day. Now I have to digging through the archives for photos to refresh my memory.

Have you been to the Wahweap Hoodoos near Big Water? It's on the way to Rim Rock from Page. Tanya has a trail description http://www.zionnational-park.com/wahweap-hoodoos.htm. I've been there twice from the North and never from the way she describes. But it is worth the hike and since it faces roughly East it is a good early morning hike. Also Stud Horse Point is in that area but with different type of rock.

[Cosmic Kid]

There are no hiking trails down into the Angel Peak badlands...you have to drive 3 miles along the rim and then the road descends down to the floor of the badlands. The navajos have really started to irrigate a lot of that area for farming, especially around Angel peak, and it is beginning to lose some of it's wildness. That entire San Juan Basin area is just loaded with badlands, and believe it or not, it is the (south)eastern edge of the Colorado Plateau. No I haven't been to the Wahweap site. I'd never heard of it until I saw photos on Bogley two days ago, but it is now on my list. Thanks for the link to Tanya's site--she has provided really good directions--I hate when I'm somewhere and have to spend a lot of time just to find my way around.

Don't know if you have ever heard of tent rocks--they are kinda like cousins to hoodoos. I have never seen them in Utah--in fact, a local Los Alamos hiking guidebook claims that the Pajarito Plateau (where Los Alamos is) is one of only three places in the world that has them--and they are in a lot of canyons here. There is a BLM national monument called Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks a little south of Santa Fe. If you ever make it back here it's worth hitting up and you can see the entire place in about 90 minutes--very photogenic place. It even has a very short narrows section as shown below.

The narrows

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and some Tent Rocks

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[Dayhiker]

I was at Tent Rocks back in the 90's just after it became a National Monument (pre digital cameras). It hasn't been high on my list to revisit because no dogs allowed and finding a place in Santa Fe to day board dog has been a pain the last couple of time. I also spent 4 days one time based out of Los Alamos exploring Bandelier NM, Jemez and the Valles Caldera. I have been back through there a couple of time since then including one time where the fire danger was so bad they closed all the pullouts and baned smoking in the area. And up until the big fire in 2000 there was a vets office in White Rock that I would board dogs at. I think the last time I was through there was 2005 going from Chaco to Santa Fe with a stop at Bandelier. Central Ave Grill still there? Use to be the best place to eat in town when I stayed there.