Stuff I did in 2006

Chiricahua Mts
Marble Canyon
 Paria Canyon
Hole-in-the-Rock
 Larry Canyon
The Maze
 Arkansas
CabinCove

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Chiricahua Mts

I stopped here again on my way out to LA this spring. It's a really cool place to study oaks and lichens. Apparently mushrooms, too -- many eastern mushrooms can also be found somewhat unexpectedly in the rich forests of southern Arizona.
View from Silver Peak.
One of the many eponymous caves overlooking Cave Creek. Yuccas on slopes above Cave Creek.

Marble Canyon

This was just a stop on the way to Utah after visiting Ken and Christine in Tucson.
I think this is near 29-mile Canyon, taken from the south (east) rim.
Once you navigate the maze of dirt roads on the Indian Reservation you can be assured of having the entire place all to yourself.

Paria Canyon and Buckskin Gulch

These pictures were from a long day hike down Paria Canyon then up Buckskin Gulch. While Buckskin might be one of the all-time classic Utah slots in good weather, it is a frigid mucky mess after spring rains. After slogging through literally miles of waist-deep hypothermia-inducing pools, I heartily recommend considering waiting for more auspicious conditions than these!
Towering walls at lower end of Buckskin. Paria River
Yup <b><i>lots</i></b> of mud in Buckskin today. Paria River Paria River

Hole-in-the-Rock

These are all from Escalante National Monument near Hole-in-the-Rock, Davis Gulch, and Llewellyn Gulch.
A big side canyon of Llewellyn Gulch.<br>(There is an enormous drop-off just out of sight up-canyon.) The walls literally touch at the top there.<br>(This tunnel is actually visible near bottom center of the picture to the left.)
Cool rock formations in the slickrock near Davis and Llewellyn Gulches.
Desert paintbrush (<i>Castilleja chromosa</i>).
It looks tame from this angle, but this is one of the more intimidating stretches of the Hole-in-the-Rock Road. It sort of gives up dodging the cliffs and just climbs straight up the side of this big old sandstone dune. View of Lake Powell from near the top of the Hole-in-the-Rock trail.<br>(I believe the water level was quite low this year.)
That's me in Llewellyn Gulch just above the spring.<br>(It gets yucky rapidly below this point). One of the world's finer campsites. A truly stupendous view of nearly the entire Escalante drainage... and not a single light visible anywhere at night!

Larry Canyon

This is one of the many nice technical side-canyons of the Dirty Devil near Robber's Roost. My friends Courtney and Robert came out from Boulder to do this with me.
Courtney on the first rap at the entrance to the canyon. Courtney on one of the fairly interesting subsequent raps.
There's Robert and Courtney making it look difficult! Courtney contorting herself artistically in one of the signature slanted slots. Wacky wavy rock formations.
Towering walls somewhere in the lower sections. Another good view of one of the annoying slanted slots. View downcanyon from above the final (optional) rap, with Henry Mts framed in the distance.
More cool rock formations deep in the upper slots. View of lower end of canyon and distant Henry Mts from exit route.
Robert and Courtney ascending a fixed rope on the 4th class exit crack.<br>(It looks totally insane from the canyon floor, but turns out to be unchallenging.) Courtney and Robert on the final stretch of slickrock.<br>(There's still some slightly tricky route-finding up through the final cliff band above.)

The Maze

These pictures were taken while wandering randomly about trying to see all the bits I missed the first time I was here. There is pretty much infinite potential for exploration, and the (human) population is so strictly controlled that I hardly remember seeing a soul outside of a mile from the Overlook.
The Fins. The nearly total lack of water leaves this entire area all but completely deserted.
Half of the awesome panorama from Maze Overlook, showing everything from Pete's Mesa on the left to the Chocolate Drops in the middle, to Bagpipe Butte on the right.
Cliffs in a side canyon of French Spring Fork of Happy Canyon. Somewhere near the old disused trail running along the ridge between Jasper and Shot Canyons. The much less dramatic North Fork of Horseshoe Canyon still has some charm in solitude at sunset.
Brilliant orange firedot lichens (<i>Caloplaca spp.</i>), juniper, and mountain mahogany. This was a real treat: the great hellebore (<i>Epipactis gigantea</i>). Look for them in some seeps right at the canyon bottom in one of the longer right-hand side-canyons of The Maze. However artistic they may be, tumbleweeds are definitely not a treat for man or beast alike!
Sandstone bowl in that same side canyon off French Spring Fork. Arrowhead I found (and left unmolested!) near the eastern spring in Ernie's Country.
Remarkably dramatic petroglyph panel in North Fork of Horseshoe Canyon. Perhaps you need to be there to receive the full impact: The antelopes are huge. And see how the one on the left seems to be emerging from the darkness of the rock -- I thought it was a very impressive effect.) Late April is the <i>perfect</i> time to see the Claret Cups (<i>Echinocereus triglochidiatus</i>) and hundreds of other flowers come into bloom. There are new species to discover with every breaking day.

Arkansas

I still need to find a slide-scanner to post these pictures.

CabinCove

This is my mums' little piece of paradise in the Smokies.
The apple trees start blooming before the leaves are even out.<br><i>(photo: mom #2)</i> How inviting would this be on a sultry summer evening?<br>Just hanging out watching the lightning bugs and listening to the katydids sing...
A couple Cataloochee elk made our yard a regular stop on their pre-dawn rounds. They seemed to be quite partial to the apples. Now that's what I call a proper campfire!
I saw the sunrise quite a lot this summer.<br>You get some neat colors through all the morning haze in the Smokies. The morning mist starting to rise off of Waterville Lake -- within an hour, like clockwork, it would reach us and surround us, and we wouldn't see the sun again till afternoon.
Cascades somewhere in Big Creek. More picturesque water action in Big Creek. Lush reindeer mosses (<i>Cladina spp.</i>) on a bluff overlooking Nolichucky.<br>(Don't they have just the coolest names out here??)
Flame azaleas (<i>Rhododendron calendulaceum</i>) along the 5 mile stretch of the AT my mums maintain. Not a single square-inch of sunlight is going to be wasted on this slope.
Fire pinks (<i>Silene virginica</i>): they never fail to impress no matter how many times you photograph them!


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