Cottonwood Rd and Lake Powell Weekend

[Win]

I decided on Friday that we should head over to Lake Powell for a nite. The plan was to do a hike somewhere along the way. I went and checked at the Paria office in Kanab but they're closed Sat. I did find a GSENM road condition printout, seemed House Rock and Cottonwood were both impassable.

We got to Cottonwood and it said "closed ahead". I knew from how wet it was my plan to do Yellow Rock was not going to work. We just went in 3 miles and hiked down a drainage that contained a lot of fossilized oysters. Pretty cool. When we finished that we went a bit further up the road and just walked up an old wagon trail. We were above a very interesting small Canyon and decided to comeback on Sunday to explore.

Well, Sunday's weather did not cooperate, it was 37 and blowing 20-30 when we reached Cottonwood on the return. Another "must do" added to the list.

Win

The fossilized oysters:



The wash we found them in:



Where we ended, a 30 foot pour off:

[Win]

Later that day at Lake Powell, from the overlook. Next stop was Wahweap for a cold one.

Win

[tanya]

Fun pictures ... too bad you could not do what you wanted to! We followed Kelseys book when we did Yellow Rock and had some problems. Then we came out where we had to cross the Paria several times. It was so PAINFUL!!!! -- Whatever you do... you don't want to cross it while its cold.

[Cirrus2000]

Hey Win, too bad you guys didn't get to where you wanted to go. Still, it looks like a pleasant day out!

I went up to Yellow Rock the day after my Buckskin/Paria hike last year (didn't want to do too difficult a day-hike after the 45 mile trip). Actually, the date was March 5, so same time of year. I just wanted a short hike, so I only went to the top of Yellow Rock and came back. It was one of my favourite short hikes ever - great payoff for not too much work!

[sparker1]

You gotta love Cottonwood Rd. So many things to do, many places to just get out and explore. It's also one of the places I saw mountain lion prints once while exploring up a small cut into the Cock's Comb.

[Rented mule]

Yellow rock is on my springtime list of do's! Great! Thanks! Hi, Cirrus!
In the Paria, about a mile down stream from the old town site of Pahrea,
there is an old movie set built into the cliffs. "McKenna's Gold" was supposedly filmed there. Gregory Peck, Telly Sevalis, and Omar Sharif.
They rolled gold paint onto the slickrock, (imagine the environmentalists today? no way!) hehe And build a foam shell with moke steps going up the cliff. This was supposed to be the hidden apache canyon of solid gold.
There are still some chunks of fake painted gold along the paria river banks that you can scoop up from the movie set. Way cool! I rented the movie and it, of course was filmed in several locations in the area including Coral Pink Sand dunes state park. Something else to look for on a jaunt up the Paria. Cheers!

[RedRoxx]

That is one of my favorite drives in Utah. I was first on it oh, maybe 15 years ago???
My favorite jaunts are Yellow Rock, the Paria Box loop, going the other way up on Carlew's (sp?) ridge. I've backpacked the Upper Paria using Willis Creek a coupla times, and Hackberry thru Round Valley Draw. Upper Paria has some nice side canyon stuff, esp Kitchen and Starlight and Deer Creek.
For Hackberry Stone Donkey slot is very cool, and any excursions up on the benches.

Up on the Cocks Comb I once drove Last Chance Canyon all the thru to Smokey Mtn Road, in a modified Jeep. Not recommended. One of those seat of the pants trips. Very beautiful and turned out ok tho.
I like the top of Kaparowits too, lots to explore there. I like the smoking coal beds, although they smell bad. And Left Hand of Collett Canyon--

[oldno7]

Win, sounds like a nice day out. Thanks for sharing.

[Win]

That area is amazing, we'll be back there soon. They are in the process of shoring up parts of Cottonwood Rd and there are large haul trucks working there during the week. They had scraped the road and probably took a foot
of clay off, it must have been a mess.

The Paria was running pretty good and even Rt 89 was starting to flood just East of Kanab. Not sure how much better it will be for a couple of weeks.

Win

[oldno7]

wheres Yo's harness and rope for that 30 footer?

[Win]