Category: Galleries

Backpacking in Zion National Park

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Narrows1

This was a backpacking trip in July with Hoan, Huy, Corey, and Jason into the Kolob Canyons in the northeastern part of the park.

I arrived a few days earlier and so I wandered up the Zion Narrows for a few hours. This incredibly deep and narrow canyon runs for many miles and the river itself is the trail.  You spend most of your time wading the river to follow the Narrows through. It’s very much fun. It’s also very difficult to photograph — so I want to go back and try again.

You can arrange to backpack from one end to another and stay overnight at one of several designated spots midway through.  I’d love to come back here and backpack the whole length of it someday.

Some views from a couple miles upstream into the Zion Narrows:

Narrows2

Narrows3

These are the grasslands several miles to the northeast of Zion Canyon proper:

Zion-Grassland

One of the many towering walls in Zion Canyon:

Zion-Central

Lunch stop in Bear Trap Canyon in the Kolob Canyon area. No bears encountered but this canyon probably could trap one.  It ends abruptly in a tight space with a nearly free-falling creek:

Kolob

Falls

Toyota Supra Meets Tree

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Set1

It was the first rain of the season, Halloween night, 1995.  Saw plenty of accidents that evening before meeting up with the Maeckels.  Thought I was being careful enough until I came around a corner for the on ramp to the freeway and found myself pointing the wrong way moments before striking this tree.

I took it as some consolation that the cops were talking about all the slipping and sliding that they had themselves been experiencing that night.  Then somebody lost control on the same on-ramp while we were standing there waiting for my tow truck.  They nearly struck the police car before regaining control and continuing on.

In hindsight, the stock tires on my Supra were very wide and intentionally half-slick, for enhanced traction on dry pavement – not so much on wet pavement.  The rear would sometimes slip on even a slow speed ninety-degree corner if I had just been through a puddle.

I’ll certainly never leave such slick tires on a car I drive again.  Not worth it!

Set2

 

Backpacking to Evolution Valley

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This is a video montage from a backpacking trip over the 4th of July weekend to Evolution Valley in Kings Canyon National Park, starting from Florence Lake – with Corey, Hoan, Huy, Jason and Brendon.

(re-edited down to 13+ minutes in August of 2020, 205 MB download)

Trail Map between Florence Lake and Evolution Valley (Kings Canyon NP)

 

Ski Road Trip to Jackson Hole/Yellowstone

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This is a video montage from a December 1990 ski trip/road trip from various parts of California to Jackson, Wyoming with Hoan, Huy, and Corey and picking up my brother Glenn from Reno on the way.

The weather was so cold that Jackson Hole shut down lift operations for a couple of days and so we ended up renting snowmobiles to go into Yellowstone National Park.  That was a lot of fun but we ended up paying nearly the cost of a snowmobile in late charges after Huy inadvertently drove his over an embankment.  Oh, and did I mention that I pissed off a bison into charging?  We also made an attempt at snow sledding one day using a plastic tarp – but gave up after a while due to the intense wind and cold.

 

(re-edited in July 2020, 7.5 minutes, 114 MB download)