After our tour of several southern Utah National Parks it was time to settle in to Canyonlands for a few days. We left our camp along the Colorado River outside of Moab fairly early and stuck out for the White Rim Trail.
November brings some colder and wetter days to central Oregon. It was time to head south, for a week, southern Utah was the destination. It’s a bit of a drive to get there so the first day was all windshield time. We ended the day just as dark settled in at Cathedral Gorge State Park in Nevada. It seemed like a nice spot but it wasn’t until morning that we were able to get oriented. The sun was just up as we headed out but we stopped to take a look around before hitting the road. It looked like an interesting place surrounded by highly eroded hills.
A sign indicated that this picnic ramada was built by the CCC’s in 1934. 1934! They have apparently done a bit of maintenance on the willow thatch roof every so often, but what a testament to the value of the work done in those days.
After that it was on to our first destination, Zion National Park. Arriving on a Saturday we found the typical crowds encountered in most national parks these days. We were still able to find a place to camp that allowed a place to base a days worth of exploration out of.
The view from camp was entirely acceptable.
After a pretty steady run of rivers it was time to stay ashore for the weekend and head to Steens Mountain. Steens Mountain is a huge fault block mountain in southeastern Oregon. From the west it’s a steady incline, from the east a steep dramatic drop off. The western side is also riddled with dramatic glacial canyons you can only appreciate with a good hike. We arrived for the weekend just before dark on Friday night at South Steens campground. There were about four other camps, not bad for a Friday night. Just as we set up and had the fire started the rain set in and we spent the rest of the night in the camper.
Next morning we were off to hike up the Big Indian Gorge. I’d only been here once before quite a while back. It wasn’t a wilderness then, but it was probably a little more wild. Anyhow, we made our way toward the gorge, a big glacial carved canyon cutting deep into the west side of the mountain. Note the new snow from the night before. It is June, right?
