TommyBoy
12-08-2013, 03:07 PM
After freezing my butt off at Capitol Reef 2 week earlier I was expecting a very cold day. Luckily for our large group it turned out to be on the warmer end. The group met at the Canyon JCT at 0730 to drive up to the Many Pools TH. After about 2 hrs we reached the top.
71036
71037
After resting for a few minutes we made the short hike over to the head of Hidden Canyon
71038
The canyon turned out to be different from what I had come to expect from typical Zion canyons. There weren't a lot of big rappels, but there was a lot of scrambling down boulders and some downclimbing through this canyon that looked like a giant cleaver had hacked a straight line into the earth.
71039
71040
71041
The dead mtn goat was interesting though, I came down the drop turned around and there it was. It seemed to be recently dead as we could still see the disturbed dirt on the cliff face from where it fell. Also it hadn't started stinking yet which was nice for us.
71042
Due to two in our group who were slower the canyon took us longer than expected, fortunately we were able to catch one of the last buses out of the canyon just as it was getting dark. The only real cause for worry was that there was one pool near the end that could not be stemmed over all the way and we had to get wet. For the taller ones we could stem past the deepest point and only got wet up to our waists, but one unfortunate soul went for a swim. I was ahead of the group though so I didn't get any pics. Aside from a little worry about buses it turned into a great day and we all made it out safe and sound.
71043
71044
71045
71046
71047
71048
71036
71037
After resting for a few minutes we made the short hike over to the head of Hidden Canyon
71038
The canyon turned out to be different from what I had come to expect from typical Zion canyons. There weren't a lot of big rappels, but there was a lot of scrambling down boulders and some downclimbing through this canyon that looked like a giant cleaver had hacked a straight line into the earth.
71039
71040
71041
The dead mtn goat was interesting though, I came down the drop turned around and there it was. It seemed to be recently dead as we could still see the disturbed dirt on the cliff face from where it fell. Also it hadn't started stinking yet which was nice for us.
71042
Due to two in our group who were slower the canyon took us longer than expected, fortunately we were able to catch one of the last buses out of the canyon just as it was getting dark. The only real cause for worry was that there was one pool near the end that could not be stemmed over all the way and we had to get wet. For the taller ones we could stem past the deepest point and only got wet up to our waists, but one unfortunate soul went for a swim. I was ahead of the group though so I didn't get any pics. Aside from a little worry about buses it turned into a great day and we all made it out safe and sound.
71043
71044
71045
71046
71047
71048