2020 Winter Camping Trip Day10, 2020/12/5
This day we had two hikes: both off-trail in the Grandstaircase-Escalante.
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| Paria River |
The first one we started at Paria Box Trailhead. If you look at the National Geographic trail map, you will see that this area has no trails. Actually the map shows Paria Box Trailhead but no trails. So we followed GPS and sometimes "maybe a path?" route. Then there was a place with two choices: either go crossing Paria river, or go up to the gully. I proposed to scramble up the gully, but Mr.N wanted to cross the river. Mr.N actually crossed the river to assess. 20 seconds in the river, he said it was impossible. Firstly it was icy and too cold. Also it was too muddy. You can tell how the river looked like from the picture. So we decided to climb up the gully. At the top of the gully we found a used trail and followed it and reached a "hidden cache" I have no idea that was: a leftover from old Western movie set, or actual thief in the past hid his/her stash. Can you find a hidden cache from the picture below?
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| Hidden Cache |
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| cave |
Near the hidden cache we found an abandoned cave house, too. There are also broken material which is the same metal as the hidden cache. These might be the old movie set? In this area a lot of Western movies were filmed and sometimes movie sets were left. It is interesting.
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| Cave |
Glass on the door or window was broken. The "house" is a size of a bed room without nothing inside. Oh wow. Actually somebody used to live here? Or somebody used this for hiding something? Exciting!
We ate lunch near the cave with view. Then we headed for "red top" viewpoint.
What is the red top? See the picture! Now you have an answer.
Compared to the red top, how small a human is! You can tell from the photo. (here, I can hear Mr.N say "Because of you why it looks small") This Red Top viewpoint is one of my favorite hikes of this trip. Actually one of best hikes in my life.
The rock is very interesting color. As the name indicates, the top is red. Then grey on the right side. On the left red goes down as if it was a red water flew. In addition to red, yellow portion on the far left. It is unimaginable scene to me. I was thinking, "What a rock. Such a view exists in the world?! Unbelievable." I was wowed, and at the same time, I felt very lucky to be able to look at the amazing place. Luckily I am healthy, I had vacation provided by job. Appreciation came into my mild.
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| Red Top |
We lost words for a while and sat down and stared at the red top. It is difficult to describe how one feels in front of such idyllic place. The entire hike was only us. In the vast view there was not a single person visible. How precious it was.
We had some time left in the afternoon after Red Top hike, we decided to try another 3-mile hike to the Yellow Rock.
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| Yellow Rock: Going up |
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| Yellow Rock: Descending |
I had no idea at all why it is called Yellow rock at the beginning of the hike: but soon I got it. It is yellow. Of course no trail to go to the top, you just wherever walk up to the top. Yellow rock divided by squares are everywhere! Some portions are reddish like waves. The squares reminded me of rice fields on the hills. They are divided into squares, too. At the top of the Yellow rock, Yellow Rock valley can be seen. 360 view. Huh. What a day. I couldn't believe we had unbelievable 2 hikes in a day. Again, we sat down and enjoyed the scenery. Then sun was getting low, so we decided to go down. The orange light reflect on the yellow rock and it looked even more yellow. AMAZING. It was super beautiful. For this hike there was a local family at the bottom of yellow rock. They came to the trailhead with a pickup truck. 2 kids were on the back of the truck outside for fun. Mr.N said that those type of things are very "West" thing. Makes sense.
I loved so much both red top and yellow rock hikes on day10. This memory will reside in my heart forever.
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