Once in a Blue Moon | The Arizona Strip
Stud Horse Point, Water in The Wave & The North Rim of the Grand Canyon
Labor Day Weekend | Friday - Monday, August 31 - September 3, 2012
The Original Trip Report on ADVENTR.CO
The phrase 'once in a blue moon' has long been used to describe rare or absurd happenings, which is definitely how I would classify this extended weekend trip. As an added bonus, this weekend was also host to a Blue Moon on Friday night, which won't happen again until 2015. A few months ago I scored another set of permits to Coyote Buttes North, and after asking Amanda if she wanted to go again (she declined since she knew she would probably be working that weekend), I asked Jared if he would like to come along for the weekend. He was up for the adventure, so we planned the weekend around our trip to The Wave.
I only worked a half day on Friday so that we could leave a bit early and make it down to the area in time to catch the sunset. Jared drove down from the Salt Lake area to meet me at my house so he could load his gear into my Jeep and drive down with me. Once the Jeep was packed, we hit the pavement and started driving south. Very quickly into the drive I noticed my Jeep was feeling pretty bouncy whenever we hit a bump. It turns out one of my rear shocks was bad and causing this little issue. A bad shock is far from a reason to cancel a trip, but I did have to drive a little bit slower on the highways than I would have liked...just to be on the safe side.
As we reached Page after our long drive, a storm was approaching the area over the Vermilion Cliffs and creating some scenic conditions. We found a place to pull of the road and take a few photos. There were crepuscular rays filtering down through the clouds over the Vermilion Cliffs.
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Rays by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
Rain was falling in the distance and lit up by sunlight.
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Rain by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
We grabbed a very quick dinner in Page and tried to continue to our destination on Stud House Point for the sunset, but along the way we started seeing a lot of interesting light and lightning from the approaching storm, so we made a detour to the Wahweap Overlook so we could take a few photos.
Light striking the bands of cliffs in Lake Powell.
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Layers of Light by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
My only decent photo of lightning all weekend.
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Vermilion Lightning by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
After trying to get some decent lightning photos from the Wahweap Overlook we decided to try and make it to Stud Horse Point in time for sunset. It was close, but we did make it there in time. As we arrived it started to rain, but I put on my rain jacket and still tried to take some photos, even with the lightning and thunder nearby.
There were just too many clouds in the sky that blocked the sunset, but there was a very short window of time when a little light got through.
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Stud Horse Point Sunset by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
When the sun was down we sat in the Jeep and waited for the rain to stop so that we could setup camp. I'd guess we waited between 30-60 minutes before that happened. When the rain was done and camp was setup we waited for the clouds to clear so we could try to get some photos of the hoodoos under the light of the Blue Moon. It didn't take long before we were both taking photos of these interesting formations under the moonlight.
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Stars & Clouds by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
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Otherworldly by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
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Alien Landscape by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
We stayed up until about midnight taking photos under the moonlight before finally going to bed. Even with our late night, we were up the next morning in time to catch the sunrise. There were no clouds in the sky above to help add color to the scene, but there was a little golden light striking the formations.
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Golden Hour by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
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Morning by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
When the sun was up, we had a quick breakfast, packed up camp, and then made our way to House Rock Valley Road so that we could get to the Wire Pass Trailhead. Apparently, this area received quite a bit more rain than we did on Stud Horse Point the previous night because many of the small wash crossings had cut into the road a little in places. We ran into our first issue when we reached the Buckskin Wash crossing and found that it was completely washed out. The cutbanks were about 2 feet tall, which would normally cause no problems for my Jeep to get through, but as I walked across the wash I sunk in some of the quickest quicksand I have ever come across. With nothing to winch to nearby, there was no way I was trying to get across here in my Jeep!
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Buckskin Crossing by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
Before admitting defeat, we noticed that there was another side road to the left that went to another crossing of Buckskin Wash that looked much better. We took that side road and easily crossed the wash just a little bit further downstream. However, less than a quarter mile later we came across another badly washed out section of the road, but it didn't look as bad as the Buckskin Wash crossing we had just bypassed. There was another cutbank here, but the bottom of the wash was solid ground which would pose no problems for the Jeep. As I walked around the crossing before driving across it, I didn't find any soft ground that I thought would be a problem for the Jeep. So I got back in the Jeep and went to drive cross. I used a little momentum to get up over the cutbank, but as soon as my front tires crested the top, they sunk into some quicksand and the belly of my Jeep settled on the firmer surface of the cutbank. My rear tires also dug themselves into some holes. The Jeep was stuck and not moving under it's own power...
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Quicksand! by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
First we tried grabbing a bunch of rocks and placing them behind all the tires so that I could try and back out. This method has worked well for me in the past, but did absolutely nothing this time. As I placed rocks behind the passenger side front tire, they would just disappear into the soupy quicksand! Next we looked around for a suitable anchor to hook my winch up to. We contemplated wrapping a tow strap around a bunch of sagebrush, but we doubted it would hold. The only tree that was possibly big enough to hold the weight of the Jeep was right behind the Jeep. It was also on the edge of the wash, so we feared that it might just pull right out of the dirt if it didn't have good roots. With no other options I hooked the winch to the tree and hoped that it would hold and swing my Jeep around backwards. Luckily, with the winch rope hooked up to the tree, it fit in the small gap between the top of the front bumper and the bottom of the fender flare. I was concerned about ripping off my fender flare by pulling the Jeep at this angle, but the rope barely touched it as we pulled. That couldn't have worked out any better!
Here's a photo Jared took as I was winching my Jeep around.
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Quicksand Recovery by xjblue, on Flickr
Surprisingly, the small tree on the side of the wash never even budged and my Jeep slowly spun around until all four wheel were on the solid ground in the bottom of the wash. This recovery worked out perfectly. In the photo below you can see the tire grooves in the deep quicksand that had trapped us.
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Getting Out by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
With no other options to get around this crossing, we headed back north to the highway and drove through Kanab to make our way south to the other end of the House Rock Valley Road. This route was well out of our way, but also less likely to be washed out. We eventually made it to the Wire Pass trailhead and started hiking much later than we had originally planned. As we hiked across the desert we noticed that there were pools of water everywhere from the recent rains. That really got me excited as I have always wanted to visit The Wave when it was full of water.
Pretty soon we reached the entrance to The Wave.
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Entrance by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
After hiking into The Wave I was pleasantly surprised to find a large pool of water. I quickly got out my tripod and started to take a few photos while the water was calm. I'm glad I did, because during the rest of the day the wind would pick up a little bit and I would not find the pool this calm again.
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Water in the Wave by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
A closer look at the reflection for a more abstract photo.
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Wave Reflection by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
Since we were blessed with nice partly cloudy skies all day, I wanted to return to Sand Cove, which I had visited back in May with clear blue skies.
I just love these lines here.
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The Racetrack by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
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Racing Stripes by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
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Merge by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
There were pools of water everywhere, so I made sure to keep an eye out for interesting reflections.
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Second Wave Reflection by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
Later in the evening, some darker storm clouds moved in to the area. We even got a few on and off sprinkles of rain, but nothing that soaked us. There were still enough breaks in the clouds to let sunlight through on occasion. I really love a sunlit foreground with dark clouds in the sky.
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Dark Cloud by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
I have never really got a good photo of Top Rock Arch before, but now I have a couple to choose from.
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Top Rock Arch by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
A sunburst as the sun dips below the surrounding cliffs for the evening.
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Burst by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
Jared photographs the remaining sunlight high up on Top Rock as the darkness slowly creeps upwards toward him.
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Jared for Scale by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
Setting sunlight catches the tops of a few teepees and the distant cliff in North Coyote Buttes.
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Catching Light by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
As the sun was setting, the light reflected off of a large cloud above us which gave us a very red/pink glow for a few minutes.
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Coyote Buttes North by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
This was part of the large cloud reflecting the setting sunlight back down to us. It kind of looks like the sandstone butte is erupting.
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Eruption by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
Looking the other direction at the same cloud.
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Pink by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
Once in a Blue Moon | The Arizona Strip
I'm not good enough for my own gallery...still working on getting better.
I do have some of my photos on display and for sale at Grand Valley Books on Main Street here in Grand Junction, though. So if anyone is ever here in downtown GJ, stop by and check them out :)