Zion Traverse - Memorial Day 2011
Had a great trip from May 30th to June 2nd. Absolutely loved the hike and was stunned by the diversity of surroundings we found ourself in from start to finish. On Sunday the 29th we killed an extra day at Bryce Canyon and crashed in a motel in Springdale that night. We got dropped off at Lee Pass early on Memorial Day and stayed in Hop Valley on night one. We continued to the camping area on the Wildcat Canyon Trail for night two, before staying at Site 1 on the West Rim before descending into the main canyon. We also dropped our packs to check out the Kolob Arch and Angel's Landing.
The weather was fantastic - wasn't too hot and we didn't get any rain. My only regret is that we caught an overcast day while we were on the West Rim Trail. It made the 12+ miles we hiked that day considerably easier, but the clouds certainly took a little away from the views of the West Canyon (still spectacular). The trails were in pretty good shape. We only got held up for about 20 minutes trying to pick up the trail through a dried up riverbed on the connector trail between Hop Valley Trail and Wildcat
Unfortunately all I could afford for this trip after my last camera broke was a $100 point and shoot Nikon, so the photos aren't mind-blowing by any stretch. I fussed with the lighting and contrast some and got the photos to look at least a little how I remembered the views on the trip (kinda cheating I know). I also used a free program to stitch a few of my attempts at panoramic shots together. Hope you all enjoy!
A photo from Bryce Canyon:
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Day 1 (9 mi.) My group on the climb out out of the the La Verkin Creek area.
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Day 2 (11 mi.) The mostly pleasant Hop Valley (the sand was a pain to hike in).
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Day 3 (12.4 mi.) Lunch overlooking the North Angel.
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Thats me! At the start of a spectacular 5 mi. stretch at the end of day 3.
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A Panoramic shot of the incredible West Canyon (kudos to the free Hugin software that allowed me to stitch this one together).
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Day 4 (5 mi.) A very steep early morning descent before eventually arriving in the main canyon. It was an incredible hike.
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Hope you enjoyed the photos! Its tough to narrow down a couple hundred photos to just a few. Thanks to the Bogley members who helped me out with some of the questions I had leading up to my trip that helped make this one happen. It was more spectacular than I expected it to be.
