On Saturday, October 1, 2022, we began our day by driving from Page on Highway 89 into Utah to Cottonwood Canyon Road. Even if you never set foot outside your car, the fascinating scenery along this road’s overland desert crossing is more than worth it. So, we packed our cameras, water, food, maps, and hiking gear and began our drive. The unpaved road's conditions were good on this morning, and we had an amazingly scenic adventure. There were some areas that had a bit of standing water, but we had no trouble navigating through them in the Jeep. We actually performed a rescue about halfway through our journey. A car was really stuck in one of the deeper water-filled areas and was blocking traffic in both directions. We took out our rescue gear and traction boards and were able to get them out of a very deep, muddy mess.
We had planned to drive the entire length of Cottonwood Canyon Road to Kodachrome Basin, but only made it as far as Grosvenor Arch. The road was completely washed out just beyond the arch from the previous day's
rain. So, we spent some time exploring Grosvenor Arch which is actually two separate arches towering from the same base, forming an otherworldly looking pinnacle. We walked on the trail that took us directly
below the arches and spent some time looking up at the sky through the rock suspensions that seemed to be defying gravity. The sky was so blue it almost looked like a night sky. We then retraced our steps back in the direction we just came from on Cottonwood Canyon Road and made a stop to hike through the Cottonwood Narrows.
The hike through the Narrows is about a 3-mile round trip. We passed through the narrow canyon bound by Navajo Sandstone walls rising 200-300 feet above us. Beautiful old, gnarled Pinyon and Juniper trees cling to ledges along the canyon and in some places even narrower slot canyons enter the main canyon. We explored as much as we could due to
some very deep and slippery mud on the trail. Once we were finished in the Narrows, we continued our drive back out of the canyon.
We found a scenic place to stop and set up our field kitchen and make some dinner. We explored that area for a while and came across some really interesting rock formations. We then continued our drive out of the canyon. We stopped to take in another amazing sunset and then returned to our hotel for the night.
Music:
The Beacon by Zachariah Hickman; RU-vid Audio Library
Lazy Boy Blues; RU-vid Audio Library
Rock Tune by Audionautix; RU-vid Audio Library
Ancient Legend by David Arkenstone; Album: Visionary
16 сен 2024
