Jughandle Arch/Petroglyph Canyon Loop

[pigburner]

I'd been too long away from red rock, so I planned a weekend trip to visit my daughter in SLC and hike a couple days with her in Zion. On Friday, we planned to hike into upper Keyhole Canyon (Jughandle Arch), across the white pass (Center of the Universe), and down into Petroglyph Canyon, just wandering wherever we felt inspired to go. Thanks to Tanya and Bo's book and Joe's Guide for a lot of information about the area.

The day was absolutely gorgeous, and although Zion was packed with people, after leaving the road, we saw only one person in Petroglyph Canyon. After dropping into the wrong wash, we encountered a sign directing us to the trailhead a little further east. This looked more like the description of the first slickrock climb to the viewpoint above Keyhole Canyon.



After scrambling into and out of Keyhole, we could see the white pass where we intended to cross over. It looked pretty steep from this angle, but the guide said it was reasonable. We'd check that out later.



The is a lot of wandering to do once you climb out of Keyhole. We found an easily scalable hoodoo where my daughter jumped for joy at being in slickrock country again.



There were moqui marbles all over, and pretty zen gardens in depressions in the slickrock.



I had seen what looked like a hoodoo and a ramp down to the upper part of Keyhole Canyon on Google Earth, and found the interesting hoodoo on the edge of the baby slot of upper Keyhole.



There were some pretty curves in the shallow slot, which we continued to follow up the canyon.



In one of the small pools, my daughter saw what looked like a black piece of spaghetti waving slowly in the still water, like it was alive. We picked it up and it would slowly curl up, drop it in the water and it would slowly uncurl. Some strange new form of life. On our way out of the park, we asked the ranger at the information desk about the moving stick, and she immediately told us about the horsehair worm, a parasite of crickets (and other arthropods). The cricket ingests the larvae, which grows to a worm and then takes over the brain of the cricket, directing it to find water and drown itself. The worm then eats its way out of the body and lays its eggs in the water. The eggs hatch and the larvae find their way to plants growing in or near the water, get eaten by a cricket, and so the cycle goes. A pretty cool thing to find. And there was a dead cricket in the pool with the worm.



After playing with the worm for a while, we continued following the shallow slot of upper Keyhole to just about directly below Jughandle Arch.



Then took an easy ramp south out of the canyon and up onto the shoulder that is the normal path to view the arch from below. Here we had a great view and could see the path up to the white saddle, which looked a little more reasonable from this angle.



A short walk brought us to the foot of the pass



where we found a steep, but pretty easy path to the summit along the many ledges. We never felt too exposed, but you wouldn't want to lose your balance here.



Once on top, it is a beautiful view of the white sandstone saddle and the peaks to the west.



And a nice view looking back down onto Keyhole Slot and the highway far below.



The saddle has some wonderful sandstone lines, forming a curved trail just begging you to follow it.



After enjoying the view for some time, we approached the far side of the saddle for the drop down into Petroglyph Canyon. It was steep, and going down always seems a little more iffy than climbing up. This is definitely not for someone that has a problem with heights.



We found the most challenging part of the climb down was the last 75 ft or so that my daughter was surveying here (along with the great cross-bedding on the other side of the canyon), but with care we found a safe route down. Thanks to Joe's guide for giving assurance that there was a reasonable route up and down this pass, as it gave us the confidence to take this path.



We followed Petroglyph up to a dryfall where the canyon narrows to a slot, then backtracked 100 yards or so to find the well trodden path to the ledge on the east side of the canyon that provides easy access into the slot above the dryfall. We followed the slot, scrambling over some rocks until we reached an obstacle too tall for us to pass and turned around.



Heading back down canyon, we passed some pretty pools and curves in the floor of the canyon and headed down to see the petroglyph panels.



We found the petroglyph panels to be overshadowed by the fiery colors of fall, another treat provided by Zion in late October.



We passed under the road and hiked east along Clear Creek back to our car, all the way marveling at the showy colors on display. What a great time to visit Zion!



The day ended with one last view from the Visitor Center parking lot. It was good to be back in Utah!

[cmgz]

Great post! I did this hike the opposite way, going from Petroglyph to Jug Handle. It was great but did take me a little convincing about some of the steepness too! You hit the colors perfectly.

[Sombeech]

Looks like a fun hike! Thanks for posting

[jman]

Thanks for sharing!

I've seen those worms before too. Didn't know the story behind it. Crazy.

The colors are amazing this time of year in Zion. I was there this last weekend and Russell Gulch/Subway was very festive. Great temps too.

[Glenn]

That was a very good report and I enjoyed seeing the photos - not just for the beauty, but also good reference in the future. I love the east Zion area and will have to add a trip to Jughandle & Center of the Universe soon.