A Top 10 Hike

We agree that today’s hike is in our top 10 favorite hikes.  This makes it in pretty exclusive company since we have taken over 350 hikes in the past 4 ½ years (a hike being generally defined as “needing a backpack,” which excludes walks we might take in town, etc.)

Several things made it special.  One is that we created it ourselves.  During our first year our hikes were usually on established trails, with clearly delineated trail heads.  Increasingly, however, they have become more off-trail hikes, create your own adventures.  Currently we rarely hike on a trail, preferring to go our own way where we will not run into other hikers and where we don’t know what is around the next bend.

Another special part of the hike was that it was a loop, not an in and back hike.

And, finally, and most important, the views were breathtaking.  

Briefly, the hike left out campsite in the Pahoong Springs area around St. George Utah, and climbed steeply on an old road to the top of a ridge.  We walked this ridge for about a mile and then descended, by boulder scrambling, into a canyon of red rocks.  We got to the bottom and then, also by boulder scrambling, climbed out of the canyon on the other side to another ridge that went for about a mile back to our campsite.  

Our campsite.

The route we took to the top of the ridge:

On that steep old road:

View from the top of the ridge, down toward our camper

View to the other side of the ridge:

There was a fence line on the top, so we followed it.  According to our maps (from the BLM office) both sides of the fence appeared to be public BLM areas, but we stayed to our side nevertheless.  

I held onto the fence poles at times for support.  Vicky used her poles:

At the top, we got a cell signal.  How weird is that?  So I made an important call to our home security service, and Vicky sent a thank you note to Stella and Marina and threw them a kiss.   This was unexpected.  A cell signal?  Here?

We walked for about a mile high on this ridge.  It was beautiful.  You could see 360 degrees for miles and miles:

Then we descended into the canyon.  We knew we had to make it clear across to the ridge on the far side:

Here is the general route we took:

Here is a photo from the other ridge, once we had made it.  It shows our general route from the ridge far away to our current ridge:

View through the canyon to our camper far below.  It’s really there.  Honest.

Photos of our trip along this second ridge back “home.”

View of the ridge we walked from our camper.  In the foreground is an abandoned or stolen vehicle that we will report when we get to another signal.

What a thrill.  For most of the hike we did not know if we could make a loop.  So we were always cognizant of being able to retrace our steps.    Our rule is we never go down unless we can go back up, and we never go up unless we can get back down.  We had to pick our way down and out of the canyon.  Another rule has to do with falling.  Our guideline is that it is OK to fall if all you do is bruise your bum, but it’s not OK to hurt yourself enough that you can’t keep hiking.  There is plenty of fun to be had in the outdoors without taking chances.  Lots of adventure without risking harm to anyone.  

We always turn back if one of us invokes the “safety rule.”  All that is needed is that one of us says “safety rule” and the other immediately gives that person full authority to implement it without discussion.  Basically, we are more likely to injure ourselves on the stairs into our camper than when hiking.

All alone today.  We could see “civilization,” but it was too far away to have an impact on us.  A beautiful day.  We created a hike that possibly no one else has ever taken.  And now that memory belongs to just the two of us.  

Back to the 1950s and Monument Valley

We left Valley of the Gods because rain and cold weather was approaching.  We figured we might as well travel on this type of day rather than sit inside our camper looking out the windows and taking turns saying: “What a miserable day, we should've used the day to drive to another place."

Our general plan was to head toward southern California, stopping along the way in the St. George, Utah, area.  

Our first stop along the way was Monument Valley.  This beautiful place was the setting for many of the John Ford/John Wayne western movies of the 1930s through the 1950s, including my all-time favorite film, The Searchers, filmed in 1956.

At that time travel into this valley was fairly difficult for the stars and crew.  But Ford liked it because he liked how his films looked when filmed there.  He was famous for “filling up the screen.”  In other words, instead of focusing on just the actors and action, he wanted the background to also be worth filming.  Monument Valley, with its tall and majestic monuments, fit the bill.

The other two well-known and well respected Wayne/Ford collaborations here were Stagecoach (1939; the film that made John Wayne a star) and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1948; the second of Ford’s cavalry “trilogy”). 

When filming, the crew stayed at a small lodge called Gouldings Lodge.  It is now much larger, and more upscale, but has a museum and a small house that was Wayne’s headquarters in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

Monument Valley is on the Navaho Indian Reservation, so many shots of the monuments are not as pristine as they were 60-70 years ago because now many homes dot the area.  Ford was well liked by the Navajos because he employed as many as he could as extras.  But because it is in a reservation, one also can’t camp in the area or hike without a permit.  You can take bus tours of the area.  Commercialized.  Oh well.

At the end of The Searchers, Wayne stands at the doorway to the home where everyone but him belongs.  Unbeknownst to Ford and the crew that he was going to do this, he struck a pose in honor of an older western star—Harry Carey—who often stood with his hand on his elbow.  Before this shot, Harry Carey’s widow, Olive Carey, had previously entered the cabin, and was watching, so Wayne decided to honor her by doing this.  Everybody was very moved by the gesture.

At Gouldings there remains “John Wayne’s Cabin,” which was used for the external shots of Wayne’s character, Nathan Brittles, in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.  Here is the best I can do to imitate Wayne.  Pretty pitiful, I know,

Monument Valley is also the place where Forrest Gump runs.  In honor of that, Vicky ran too.  She had no idea what I was up to when I asked her to walk down the road and then run back up it.  But, being the good sport she always is, she trusted that there was a good reason. 

That night we spent in a dispersed site in the Vermillion Cliffs area of the Grand Staircase.  We would have spent more time there, but we rain and cold weather was still predicted. 

So we went on the next morning to the St. George, Utah, area.

And here we are now.  Weather is breaking, and should be warming.  We have a beautiful and spot and will spend a few days hiking and exploring.

What we have done is to travel below the well-attended National Parks in Utah, and above the Grand Canyon area in Utah.  There are thousands of square miles of land where we can camp and hike.  We have explored only a tiny bit, but will come back in future years and spend more time in this area.

 

We find Stanley Kubrick's lost movie prop

Kubrick to prop man:  "You left it WHERE?"

When we discovered it in a wash we had an irresistible urge to beat the ground with some coyote bones to the music Thus Spake Zarathustra.

How weird.  In the middle of an unusual wash, almost perfectly formed.  Perfect square corners.  Did it fall down at the Dawn of Man?

Vicky approaching it, with trepidation.

More hiking photos from the Valley of the Gods

First, another photo of our second campsite here:

Hiking:

In the Valley of the Gods

A place made to order for us.  Remote, quiet, and plenty of hiking opportunities.

The road is 17 miles through this valley.  People drive through here from mid morning to mid afternoon.  Some stop for a few minutes and take a photo, and occasionally someone stops for a few minutes to walk out into the desert.  But so far, we have seen no one else camping, although we cannot view all of the 17 miles.

We didn't know how long we would stay, but after six nights, I think it is safe to say we will probably spend two weeks here, until we run out of water.  The hiking is incredible.  We hike toward high cliffs, along the base of those cliffs, out into the desert, and along beautiful washes.

We stayed in our first campsite for four nights, and then moved down the road 2/3 of a mile to another that is a bit more off of the road.  We will stay here until the spirit moves us.

First campsite:

Second campsite:

 

Some photos of the valley and of us hiking in it:

Map of our hikes so far: