Pictures and Approximately One Thousand Words: Favorite Outdoor Moments, 2014

Pancake Hike: A foot-plus of February frozen stuff transforms local trekking grounds at Loantaka Brook Reservation into an aerobic wintry wonderland. After several hours and several miles passed punching through ice and high-stepping across snowy terrain, we return home, hanging soggy outerwear and socks to dry. Ravenous, we feast upon a towering stack of  pancakes slathered in butter and dripping with maple syrup.    

Kitchell Pond, Loantaka Brook Reservation.

Desert Treasure: In late March, Catalina State Park, a five-thousand-acre-plus tract north of Tucson, provides more than a handful of happy hiking moments.  The park’s eclectic trail system leads us to prehistoric and historic archaeological ruins, spectacular macro-views of the Sonoran Desert and Santa Catalina Mountains and equally spectacular micro-views of desert and riparian flora and fauna. And this: a needlessly awkward descent on polished rock to a series of sublime natural pools.

Sonoran Desert, Santa Catalina Mountains.

Clockwise Hike: The Bog Springs/Kent Springs Loop Trail in Madera Canyon, south of Tucson, takes us up a drainage to idyllic Bog Springs, across an oak, juniper, and pinyon pine-covered slope of Mt. Wrightson, and on to a riparian garden at Kent Spring.  Having heeded guide book admonitions to hike clockwise, thus making Kent Spring Road a steep, rugged-but-manageable penultimate descent, we are somewhat surprised to encounter two (mature female) hikers moving counter-clockwise on the trail, thus making Kent Spring Road a steep, rugged-barely-manageable initial ascent. The (mature female) hikers are wearing khaki shorts, bold floral-print blouses, and big floppy hats.  And they have questions: Is there potable water at the springs?  No.  Is Bog Springs just ahead?  No. Do we think they can complete the loop hike and return to Tucson in an hour for an early dinner date?  No!  Oh.  My. Goodness. 

Clockwise Hiking, Madera Canyon.

Sublime Destination: After wending our way along the Middle Fork of Taylor Creek in the remote and consequently less congested Kolub Canyons Section of Zion NP, we find Double Arch Alcove at trail’s end.  Late afternoon light, flame-coral rock, and spring-green vegetation conspire to create a luminous photogenic moment.

Double Arch Alcove, Zion National Park.

Déjà Vu, Indeed: We revisit a four mile round-trip hike to Spectra and Rampart Points at Cedar Breaks National Monument.  The trail skirts the rim of a stunning rock amphitheater, excellent views improved by gnarled grandeur of Bristlecone Pine and fickle steel-gray skies. Our New-Jersey-Elevation-200-Feet Lungs soon remind us that we are hiking at 10,000-Plus-Utah-Feet. And the breeze is picking up.  Rarefied air and threatening weather prompt nostalgic reenactment of a favorite moment from a previous visit. Once upon a hiking time, our vigilant, imaginative young son urgently suggested we “go low” during a pop-up thunderstorm: that we shelter in a naturally-occurring drainage on the rim, a steeply pitched culvert that would likely fill with angry water and discharge the family unit off the precipice... into stunning orange-red rock oblivion below. 

Stroll Down Memory Lane, Cedar Breaks NM.

Rise and Shine: We emerge from rustic lodge room at Bryce Canyon National Park and move through charcoal darkness to Sunrise Point. Predictably, a crowd is congregating at the railed overlook, and so we settle comfortably on a propitiously-placed log a few hundred feet removed from the official viewing area.  The show begins with a subdued rosy hint from the east, gathering heat and intensity before erupting into an extravagant display of color and light playing upon the expanse of hoodoos, spires, and tectonically confused rock arrayed before us. 

Sunrise at Bryce Canyon.

Rock of Ages: The view from Widforss Point on the Grand Canyon’s North Rim is splendid, enthralling. But even as we gape at geologic achievement on a panoramic scale, our attention is drawn to Kaibab Limestone beneath our feet, where an incredible 250 million-year-old story unfolds. It seems that we have parked our well-worn hiking boots on the accumulated detritus of a warm, shallow inland sea! Behold the crinoids: small white disk-shaped fragments, fossilized remains of ocean-going bottom-dwellers, impossibly embedded on this lofty canyon overlook.  

What We Saw at Widforss Point, Grand Canyon NP.

Hoofing It Up: We are eastbound on the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway, travelling a man-made marvel of bridges, culverts, and retaining walls through a breathtaking natural landscape of terraces, canyons, and rocky ramparts. We are just past the Zion Tunnel when, what to our wandering eyes should appear, but a ungulate cavalcade of goats, clickety-clacking across the pavement and up the roadside rockface. Tin can tourist moment?  Yes.  But these are great goats! 

Great Goat Crossing, Zion National Park.

A Trail Less-Travelled: In late August, we take a hike in the Kolub Terrace Section of Zion National Park.  Our mostly level path meanders down an abandoned recreational vehicle road, across sun-drenched meadow, and through shade-dappled pine forest, jogging left and right and left again to Lava Point, a perfectly fine place to enjoy views of Zion’s Northgate Peaks and North Guardian Angel.  As we perch atop jumbled volcanic boulders and gaze upon striking, striated, steeply-faced, bleach-white sandstone formations before us, conversation quickly progresses from “Look over there” to “I wonder what it’s like over there” to “Let’s go over there.”  And before one can say “Ranger rescue might be required,” we have abandoned our perfectly fine place and are picking our way across one of the striking, striated, steeply-faced, bleach-white sandstone formations.  Unnecessarily harrowing. Visually stimulating. 

 Off-Trail at Northgate Peaks, Zion National Park.

Twilight of the Tarantulas: An early evening stroll to Lower Emerald Pool in Zion Canyon turns into something a bit hairy-scary with multiple unanticipated tarantula encounters. The pathway is creeping and crawling with these misunderstood, mostly-nocturnal creatures—most likely males cruising for female procreative companionship.  We later learn that a male fortunate enough to find a receptive female may well be consumed by said female in the post-connubial afterglow.  Go figure.

Zion Canyon Afterglow.

Mr. Bee says,"Another year in the hiking books... Happy Trails in 2015!"