The Southwest Tummy Tingles and Gust Brigade

Although we were in Moab just a month earlier and in Sun Valley less than 24 hours prior, we found ourselves in Moab again last March. Prompted by a niece’s spring break, we made use of the opportunity despite the inopportune timing of it. Jason and I acted as tour guides and took our small group of family to Canyonlands, Arches, and Dead Horse Point. The weather wasn’t ideal as the threat of rain was nearly constant. Mother Nature didn’t hold back, and we didn’t let that hold us back. In the end, the wind was peskier than the precipitation, yet it didn’t keep us from precipices. There were many tummy-tingling moments on this stormy retreat, and I’m going to tell you all about them.

Island in the Sky
Canyonlands National Park has three distinct districts separated by rivers. Island in the Sky, one of those districts, receives 77% of park visitors due in part to its proximity to Moab.

The Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park was first on our agenda. When we initially arrived, the park’s renowned prospects were hidden by a thick layer of mist clinging to its sheer sedimentary escarpments. Also, it was snowing. According to an employee, conditions like these are uncommon in the park and a special treat. We did a very standard thing in the un-standard weather, we hiked to Mesa Arch (0.5 miles RT) hoping for the vapor to clear before we undertook other treks that were more view oriented. Mesa Arch is always a popular trail, but at least it wasn’t at peak tourist flow on this particular afternoon.

Mesa Arch
Mesa Arch is one of the most popular hikes in Canyonlands because it’s easy yet rewarding.

Afterward, we took the group on one of our favorite hikes in the park, the White Rim Overlook, as the fog had thinned. With just 1.8 miles RT, you get a jaw dropping reveal of the White Rim as it loops between one 1,000-foot ledge and another, a ribbon of chalky alabaster twisting through the flushed desert. At the trail’s terminus, the massive boulders perched on the edge of that parched abyss beckoned, as they always do, and we stepped out farther than our self-preservation appreciated while remaining safe. What a cool path and endpoint! We were expecting a drenching during this hike. It didn’t happen, but the rain began in earnest just as we were finishing.

White Rim Overlook
Veiled in a wispy mantle, the prospects at Island in the Sky were obscured at times, but we loved the dreamy new take on this familiar place.
White Rim revealed
Within minutes, the outlook from the White Rim Overlook drastically altered as the drifting mist, like a frothy topping, melted away.

The next day was supposed to be windy and wet, as in 35 MPH and sopping. The wet came and went early in the morning before we made it out on a trail. The wind came and stayed. We decided to hike the Devil’s Garden Trail in Arches National Park with some extra spurs to Navajo, Partition, Pine Tree, and Tunnel Arches, a total of six miles. The Devil’s Garden has a few adventurous sections and provides many opportunities for arch encounters. It can get quite busy, but on this blustery day the tourist numbers were manageable.

Partition Arch
Partition is my favorite arch in Arches National Park.
peeping at Partition
…and I’m not the only one fascinated by it.

The wind was also manageable, except at Navajo Arch. At Navajo, the drafts funneled to about 50 MPH freezing our appendages and turning our hair into strand tornadoes. Another oddity at Navajo was the sea of rainwater filling its alcove and oozing out of its mouth, a memento from its recent drenching.

Navajo Arch
The wind at Navajo Arch was relentlessly focused.

Recall the adventurous sections I mentioned earlier? As the path nears Double O Arch, it runs along a fin about six feet wide with drop-offs on either side, one of them much more substantial. While this short section is completely doable for the surefooted, it may be daunting to those height adverse. My sister wanted to turn around when we were two-thirds through it. I reminded her we would still have two-thirds to do and none of the reward if we went back, which kept her going. It was quite gusty up on the fin, adding to the sense of precariousness, but I’d speculate that it’s always blustery up there. Double O is one of my favorite arches in the park, so I didn’t second guess the willingness of my feet to keep moving.

Double O
Double O Arch is 71 feet across making it Arches’ second-largest arch.
a Double O double take
From the other side, Double O looks like a completely different hole.

Since we were so close to the Dark Angel, Jason and I wanted to continue to it even if the others were too tired or afraid of the approaching dark to join us. However, curiosity beat exhaustion, and we all visited the angel. The Dark Angel is the last remains of a fin. It towers 150 feet above the surrounding stone and sand. The path to it from Double O Arch nears the boundaries of the park and provides context for how Arches connects to Salt Valley and Klondike Bluffs. Our devilish route, with all its add-ons, took us longer than expected, and we made it back just before dark, which is earlier than most Sabin hikes end.

Dead Horse Point
Precipices are ubiquitous at Dead Horse Point, one of Utah’s most visited state parks.

Before returning home the next day, we stopped at Dead Horse Point State Park. Dead Horse Point is located on a different portion of the same plateau crowned by Island in the Sky. The trails around its rim are more like walks than hikes, so we took a walk. Compared to the other days, the weather was mild during this outing. A couple jackets were necessary, but it was sunny and not madly windy. We did the East and West Rim Trails plus the spurs to the Basin, Meander, Shafer, and Rim Overlooks, 4.75 miles in all. You grow accustomed to the omnipresent drop-offs as you stroll these paths, and they don’t impact your tummy as much as originally. On a viewpoint sidenote, while the Dead Horse Point Overlook, which is at the end of the plateau, may have the best views, my favorite is Shafer. At Shafer, there are convenient rocks to use as contemplation or lunch spots.

On this impromptu trip, we encountered a range of tummy intimidators from direct drop-offs to precarious-to-pass fins. Plus, unusually wet and turbulent weather put a surreal and zesty veneer on one of our favorite fiery landscapes. Hooray for Moab tummy intimidation and variation!

Sun Valley

Utah has some of the best ski resorts in the country. So, why bother going anywhere else? Sometimes, curiosity beckons. That’s exactly what prompted us to head to Sun Valley in Ketchum, Idaho last March, a resort that is consistently rated as one of the best in North America. Although we originally expected a larger group to be traveling with us, homework assignments and motivation deficiencies resulted in our niece being our only companion. Less people didn’t equate to less enjoyment though. Allow me to catch you up on Ketchum.

proximity to powder
There are no lodgings on Bald Mountain, but we found an available condo just a few blocks away.

Ketchum and Sun Valley Resort are situated in Wood River Valley, one of the oddest gorges I’ve ever entered. Its encircling mountains look mismatched with varying patches of foliage and incompatible gradients, fluctuating from thick evergreens to bare slopes at mild angles to gnarly ones. The sides of this valley just don’t seem like they belong together. To complete the uncanny impression, boulder-topped mounds bound up sharply at odd points in the middle of town. If you are interested in skiing somewhere scenic and idiosyncratic, this is your place.

Warm Springs
The Warm Springs run is two miles long, and it feels two miles long.

From that peculiar dale rises Sun Valley Resort. Sun Valley is big, over 3,400 vertical feet and more than 2,400 acres. It felt big. Our first complete run, Warm Springs, took us nearly 45 minutes from lift to lift. We later learned that run is over two miles long.

It’s not easy being green.
The greens at Sun Valley are more like blues, and the blues are more like blacks. The blacks… well, the blacks are just blacks.

What else did we discover about Sun Valley? All the difficulty designation for its trails were made in relation to each other, and they are all skewed. Greens at Sun Valley would be blues elsewhere and blues would be blacks. For instance, Warm Springs is one-third blue and two-thirds green. However, it certainly isn’t a beginner’s run. In general, I think beginners would find Sun Valley overwhelming, unless they stuck to Dollar Mountain. Dollar Mountain is the small beginner’s area that is completely separated from the resort’s main portion on Bald Mountain.

Bald Mountain
The top of Bald Mountain reaches 9,150 feet.

We also learned that most patrons of Sun Valley prefer groomed trails to fresh powder. Hence, powder lingers longer off the main paths there than at most resorts. Sun Valley hadn’t received any precipitation for a few days before our visit. Yet, we still found powder piled up on the sides of runs, and the trees were practically untouched. Those untracked trees were too tempting to Jason. Our first day, he took the group through a section of them he had gone down and enjoyed. When gaging the expertise needed for this particular hill, he had only considered its steepness and its density of vegetation separately, not as a combo, until he got us on it. He realized his oopsie somewhere amongst our downhill struggles. It’s okay, Jason; no one can think straight with powder on the brain. We made it through though, and he later admitted his chosen route was probably a double black diamond. Besides that unintended double-black-diamond dip, we stuck to Warm Springs that afternoon.

powder accumulators
Not many people ride the trees at Sun Valley making them havens for powder hoarding.

We rode for 3.67 hours from 12:45 to 4:25 and were rather spent by the end. That fatigue, in part, was due to our lack of lift-line breaks. It was a Thursday and there were basically no lift waits. The runs didn’t feel crowded either. If you visit Sun Valley during the week, expect to be welcomed by powder not people. Also, expect sunshine. Sun Valley is not a misnomer. That afternoon, there was not a cloud in the sky. With temperatures in the low 30s, it felt fantastic.

vacant and spacious
Apparently, Sun Valley is never crowded during the week, unless a holiday is involved.

The next morning, Jason went out early for an hour and a half to hit some black diamonds before he got saddled with the rest of us. He did Mayday Bowl and Easter Bowl. He also did some tree runs and some smacking of his face with a branch, resulting in a bloody nose.

Bald in Sawtooth
Bald Mountain is in Sawtooth National Forest.

Once reunited, the group had lofty schemes to try all sorts of stuff from eating at the Seattle Ridge Lodge to going to College. While our plans didn’t turn out exactly as planned, we did take the route from Upper College through Sunset Strip and 42nd Street to Lower River Run, which is green the whole way. The middle portion of this run was fun, but the rest was nothing special. The upper section was quite packed, the traverse too long, and the lower section almost flat. Perhaps repetition would have improved my opinion, but, as I was sick of trying to figure out maps and confront unfamiliar terrain, I requested we head back to Warm Springs. It was a good call. Warm Springs stayed my favorite run at Sun Valley as well as our niece’s.

Sun Valley
Sun Valley is a bit smaller than Snowbird and Alta.

Later, after some debating and indecisiveness, we decided not to go to Seattle Ridge for lunch. Instead, we got chips and drinks at the Lookout Lodge at the top of Bald Mountain, which could be the unusual offspring of a bunker and a saloon. Then, we headed down Ridge, Blue Grouse, and Middle River Run, a streak of blues. We rode from 12: 25 to 4:25, 3.67 hours again with our short break at Lookout Lodge considered. Temperatures got up to 33, and it was super bright and sunny. We tried taking our goggles off for a minute for a picture, and boy was it painful. If you visit Sun Valley, make sure you bring goggle lenses with a low VLT rating, or your eyes will be crabby!

bright but beautiful
Goggles are a must at Sun Valley unless you enjoy being blinded by the light.

Our final full day in Sun Valley, the group didn’t make it on the slopes until 1:15, but Jason went out in the morning by himself again for about 90 minutes. He checked out the Seattle Ridge area to see if we would like it. He thought the lodge was fancy and pleasant, but the traverse he took to access it (Gun Tower Lane) was way too long, boring, and busy. Despite his reconnaissance, we just ended up back on Warm Springs. I wanted to get a few pictures, but I didn’t want to get stuck with my camera for more than one run. Warm Springs was the only feasible route for that. For the record, taking pictures with a SLR on an abrupt hill while you are snowboarding is not ideal. It’s awkward to get the camera there and awkward to take it out… and really awkward if you lose it down the mountain. We went for three hours with only a 20-minute tinkle break. It was significantly more crowded than Thursday and Friday, but lift lines were still only a couple minutes long.

the challenge from Challenger
From the Challenger lift to the top of Bald Mountain, the terrain gains over 3,200 feet of elevation making Challenger the tallest vertical chair ascent in North America.

Sun Valley is indeed sunny, nearly blinding without goggles. It is also challenging, enormous, and enduringly powdery. The runs are long, but the lift lines are not. Would we go back? Yes, indeed.

Hell’s and Winter’s Revenge

Utah’s last winter was relentless with a constant barrage of storms. While the season’s grip on most of Utah was unyielding, we headed down to our favorite sunny section of the state, Moab. We don’t often visit Moab in February, but it’s not that hard to convince us to go anytime. We were joined by the families of a sister and later a brother. Here’s how our winter trip away from winter turned out.

Hell's Revenge
Hell’s Revenge is rated a 6 out of 10 on difficulty without its optional obstacles yet it remains one of Moab’s most popular 4×4 trails.

Our first full day, we went on a Hell’s Revenge jeep adventure with Dan Mick’s Jeep Tours. Dan Mick is a legend in the jeeping community, and we were lucky enough to have the man himself as one of our drivers. His son Richard, a talented helmsman, was our other.

Moab the magnificent
Whether you are on foot or on wheels, Moab is magnificent.
Hell’s Gate
Hell’s Gate, a horseshoe-shaped add-on most jeepers skip, heads steeply down a ravine and then back up it.

The Hell’s Revenge 4×4 Trail is 6.5 miles long and only recommended for experts, hence our hiring of drivers. My sister’s family hadn’t done any jeeping before, and they were surprised by the ruggedness of the “expert” terrain. Going up the Baby Lion’s Back, a thin sandstone fin and the first substantial obstacle encountered on the trail, our niece’s delight grew in proportion to her mom’s terror. That pattern remained constant our entire tour. We did Hell’s Gate, an optional side loop through a treacherous gully, and added extra obstacles including the Escalator and Mickey’s Hot Tub. The Escalator was the craziest of the three. It was also crazy to have a legend like Dan Mick driving us. And yes, Mickey’s Hot Tub was named after him because he was the first person nutty enough to drive in it.

Mickey’s Hot Tub
Mickey’s Hot Tub is a deep pocket in the sandstone, one of the few in the area vehicles are allowed to crisscross.
The Escalator
The Escalator is a sequence of natural steps climbing up a slickrock wall that are almost undercut. According to our guides, it is the most difficult obstacle along Hell’s Revenge.

The next day, we hiked in Arches National Park, a place my sister had never been despite all her years in Utah. Although temperatures were only in the high 40s, the sunshine made the outdoors quite pleasant with a jacket or two as we trekked 2.5 miles RT to Tower Arch. Tower Arch is always a favorite of ours due to its lack of popularity. We also checked out Double Arch along with the Windows and Turret Arch on the Windows Primitive Loop, which is 1.2 miles and definitely not less popular. We finished that hike in the dark, which freaked my brother out a bit. It’s a productive day when you make your brother a little nervous in pursuit of a completely harmless activity.

Tower Arch
Tower Arch’s 92-foot span is willowy yet solid.
inside the tower
The same arch from a different angle can appear completely changed.

Along with cherished trails, we introduced the group to the Love Muffin Café and some of our other favorite Moab eateries.

a spire of solitude
One can find the solitude at Tower Arch that many of the other arches in the park lack.

On the way home, we stopped at the Athena Launch Complex near Green River, a place we promised a niece and nephew we would take them. We didn’t ruin anyone’s exploration with information about the purpose or identity of any of the fragmented remains at the compound. Instead, we let the group discover and brainstorm the functions of the lingering pieces before finally revealing all we had learned at and after our last visit. See my post on that last visit if you are curious about this intriguing defunct site.

Double Arch
Double Arch attracts tourists and filmmakers alike.

Our short but unclouded outing to Moab let us temporarily ignore the ferocity of winter and introduce family to some of our beloved routes and restaurants. It was naturally delicious!