Utah road trip help

[Alasdair]

Ok I am heading down to Southern Utah with girlfriend and dog for a couple of weeks. Anyone got any suggestions on good one pitch climbing? Anything up to .11 is fine. Also what are some good hikes that we can get out and do with the dog? I have been there three times before but only with a mountain bike. We have no solid plans other than camping out and keeping it real low key. Give your best moderate climbing ideas, favorite hikes, best things to see and best ways to kill the day.

 

Thanks

[AFIVE]

Indian Creek, Long Canyon, Mexican Mountain Road all have single pitch splitters in 70 degree temps right now. I'm heading there in 3 days! There are guidebooks out there for these areas.

As far as the hike...Comb Ridge is cool for hiking around killing time. Cliff Dwellings and great rock art pannels. Buckhorn Wash is a good spot to get onto Comb Ridge...being that it is like 80 miles long or something. The town of Bluff UT is nearby and could steer you in the right direction.

[Johnny_Tuff]

The sport routes in Kolob Canyon in Zion (northern part of the park) are awesome; definitely worth seeing even if you can't/don't climb them (one of them is ".10d"--basically 5.9+ the whole way, steep with enormous holds. The .12a, Namaste, is amazing, too--no moves harder than .11-, but it's overhanging for 14 bolts--takes two ropes to get off, although a 70 could do it, but don't quote me on that). Nice enough hike, too, although I dunno what Zion's dog policy is.

[G-spotter]

Also what are some good hikes that we can get out and do with the dog?

 

Supercrack, maybe? How hard does the dog lead. Are we talking Biscuit here?

[111]

If youare going by Moab, there is Wall Street(sandstone cracks), and The Ice Cream Parlor on Cane(Kane?) Creek Road which has some easier single pitch sport and crack, as well as an incredible 25m splitter layback .11c that is topropeable

[dmarch]

How about some bumper belays off the potash rd?

[RyanTriplett]

you can explore Brian Head mountain area. a geologic "crazyplace" with bizzare black basalt, welded tuff, meta-stuff, etc ... crags all over. there is even conglomerate in nearby Parawan. good hiking and mountain biking too. probably about 30 minutes from ceder city.

 

other than that the usuals. depends on what you are looking for.

 

Indian Creek & Moab

VRG

Gorilla Cliffs

[griz]

for hikes... buckskin gulch will blow you away. about 12-14 miles of this...

 

 

info

 

you can scramble or rap into the middle section of it if you want to keep it a day hike. kelsey has a good guide book for this stuff.

 

Also, once you enter there are only 3 ways out. the start, end and a spot in the middle so be aware of the weather and flash flood risk.

Edited April 20, 2006 by griz

[tlinn]

I was just in Zion last week after Joshua Tree and Red Rocks. Iron Messiah was very highly recommended to us so we went there an got a photocopy of the topo at the ranger station. By this time my climbing partner`s foot had started to swell up really badly . He had been pricked by a yucca plant in Joshua Tree and his foot had become badly infeted. Anyway, we were blown away by the scenery and it supposed to be an awesome route. The hardest pitch has a move of 5.10c and the rest is pretty cruisy. I believe it is 12 pitches in all and you can rappel the whole thing with two ropes. Have fun! Utah rocks but the beer sucks!

[DirtyHarry]

I was just in Zion last week after Joshua Tree and Red Rocks. Iron Messiah was very highly recommended to us so we went there an got a photocopy of the topo at the ranger station. By this time my climbing partner`s foot had started to swell up really badly . He had been pricked by a yucca plant in Joshua Tree and his foot had become badly infeted. Anyway, we were blown away by the scenery and it supposed to be an awesome route. The hardest pitch has a move of 5.10c and the rest is pretty cruisy. I believe it is 12 pitches in all and you can rappel the whole thing with two ropes. Have fun! Utah rocks but the beer sucks!

 

I agree Zion is the shiz. I don't have such glowing reviews of Iron Messiah though. I thought it was pretty mediocre and I don't remember any 10c. Its pretty funny though, there is lots and lots of killer free climbing at Zion, but nobody does it. People either stick to aid climbing or the two or three publicized free climbs, like IM. But there are so many good Grade IV free routes there if you don't mind some wide cracks and sandy pitches.

[Recycled]

I was in Zion last week too. It seems like most of the climbers were on the main big wall routes. I scrambled around various parts of the park and didn't see any climbers outside of the main canyon. Nice weather and temps.

 

No dogs are allowed on the shuttle bus or on "backcountry" trails. Elsewhere they need to be leashed. Apparently there are places you can board your pets if you want to wander into Zion or a day or two.

[corvallisclimb]

I was in zion a couple weeks ago and there was a ranger busting people for smoking weed, useing night vision and taking video for evidence. This was on BLM land at the free BLM site outn side of zion aka mosquito cove. He put two guys that where way more unsuspecting looking than us in jail for 5 days because one had a 10 sack and the other had a little pipe.

[DirtyHarry]

I've heard about that shit happening there. Can't be too careful in Utah.

[archenemy]

I was in zion a couple weeks ago and there was a ranger busting people for smoking weed, useing night vision and taking video for evidence. This was on BLM land at the free BLM site outn side of zion aka mosquito cove. He put two guys that where way more unsuspecting looking than us in jail for 5 days because one had a 10 sack and the other had a little pipe.

that's just wrong. campers do a lot of legal things at night that maybe they don't want ranger bob watching through night vision googles. is this night vision hunting common?

[cj001f]

canyons, canyons, canyons

[klenke]

The Wave is the place to visit once in your life if you're down in S. Utah/N. Arizona. The Wave and Buckskin Gulch/Wire Pass (as shown in the picture above) are in the same location. More information on my Wave page.

You'll need a permit and they need to be obtained way in advance. You could try and and visit The Wave and Buckskin w/o one but you may not find it (you get a map when you pick up the permit).

Permits are necessary because the place is beautiful and completely degraded by other human presense. I was lucky in that I visited it in the late afternoon when no one was there (it's typically too hot in the summer afternoons). Flash flooding can also be a concern--especially in the late afternoon.

 

The Wave

 

"The Second Wave"

 

"The Welter"

 

Buckskin Gulch-Wire Pass

[slothrop]

My God, Klenke, what are you doing there? I don't see any brush at all. Beautiful!

[G-spotter]

Bet you he can tell you the prominence to the nearest foot though.

[Thinker]

Al, why are you dragging a dog along on a trip to the desert?

 

Talk about a buzz kill............

 

and maybe even buzzard bait......

 

You'd have access to 10x the scenery and privacy without the dog in tow. And the dog would probably be happier at Tails End Pet Resort than it would be in the sweltering Utah heat.

 

fwiw,

 

D

[Distel32]

If you do go to Bluff, swing by the Recapture Lodge and ask Jim Hook about Monarch Cave. My family has spent 9 months in the Bluff area and everything around there is amazing.

[lummox]

there is climbing around st george. even a pay-per-day private crag in veyo. pretty much soft rock. some tuff up high near brian head but that will be all fucked up with snow.