canyoneering trip outside Zion - Oct'20

Hi,
5 of us (Californians) were thinking of doing a canyoneering trip in the Zion area (outside the park) in early Oct. Canyons we had in mind were: Water, Birch Hollow, Yankee Doodle, Boltergeist, and maybe Rock canyon.

I had a few questions:

1. With all the COVID19 craziness - are things (hotel, restaurants) open? Anyone thinks this is a bad idea?
2. Can I drive through Zion to get to Birch?
3. With the Algae situation - Any concern with any of these canyons?
4. Any other canyons to recommend

Any further advice is welcome

Cheers.

I'd have no concerns at all. Utah is not locked down like most blue states. For the most part Utah is rolling along pre Covid with a few reasonable precautions thrown in.

I've traveled all over the Western US during Covid and bottomline is blue states suck and red states don't. If you're in Wyoming or Idaho, outside of seeing a few masks, you would never know Covid exists. In Utah you will see a few more masks and social distancing to some extent. Nevada and California totally suck during Covid.

Hope that helps. YMMV

:2thumbs:...fires here don't help the situation...need to escape and breath some fresh air.

Ditto what Ice said. In the last two months I've been traveling around the west and noticed that pretty much anywhere in rural red states masks are almost non-existant. About the only people wearing masks in small town Utah are out-of-towners passing through.

Guaranteed you won't see a "Closed due to Covid" sign in any business window in rural Utah.

Thanks!
I assume the algae situation is not a concern even for Rock canyon.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nkanarik

Thanks!
I assume the algae situation is not a concern even for Rock canyon.

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Algae is also a non-issue unless you drink the water.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Iceaxe

I'd have no concerns at all. Utah is not locked down like most blue states. For the most part Utah is rolling along pre Covid with a few reasonable precautions thrown in.

I've traveled all over the Western US during Covid and bottomline is blue states suck and red states don't. If you're in Wyoming or Idaho, outside of seeing a few masks, you would never know Covid exists. In Utah you will see a few more masks and social distancing to some extent. Nevada and California totally suck during Covid.

Hope that helps. YMMV

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life points lost.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nkanarik

Thanks!
I assume the algae situation is not a concern even for Rock canyon.

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The North Fork of the Virgin River is the one with the Toxic Algal Bloom, they haven't reported any blooms in the East Fork.

Filtering water from the tributaries that feed into the East Fork should be fine if there is still a concern.

https://deq.utah.gov/water-quality/h...al-blooms-home

^^^ Yes, and when you leave indoors, you are outside every time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scott Card

^^^ Yes, and when you leave indoors, you are outside every time.

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ummm---we're gonna need some fact checkers on this.

Paging Babylon bee, Babylon bee to the red courtesy phone.