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Wednesday, June 21, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Off-season hiking in the Southwest
By Craig F. Eisenbeis
Correspondent
With snow still clinging
to most of Central Oregon’s
high-country trails, my wife
and I headed to the South-
west on a three-week road
trip. Not only did we find
warm, (mostly) sunny skies
and snow-free trails, but we
missed some pretty rotten
weather here in Sisters.
The hikes I’m highlighting
here are fairly easy day-hikes
that can generally be accom-
plished in a couple of hours,
but upgrade these park vis-
its to far more than a simple
drive-through. Truth be told,
my wife doesn’t exactly share
my enthusiasm for hiking;
but she’s still a pretty good
sport about it. At home, when
my usual hiking buddy can’t
make it, my wife sometimes
fills in. So, she’s no stranger
to the hiking world; but, when
she’s along, I usually try to
select hikes that will make her
willing to hike with me again.
St. George, Utah, was our
first extended stop and proved
to be a good base from which
to explore the area. Bryce
Canyon National Park was the
site of our first real hike; and
it was actually a pretty tough
one. At a little under three
miles, I strongly recommend
combining the Queen’s Gar-
den and Navajo Loop Trails at
Bryce Canyon.
We’d visited Bryce Can-
yon before; but, until you’ve
hiked down among the can-
yon’s hoodoos, you haven’t
really seen Bryce Canyon.
Normally three miles would
be no big deal, but this hike’s
drawback is the 600-foot-plus
climb back out the canyon!
The next day, the “basic”
hike at Zion National Park was
little more than a stroll: a two-
mile round trip on a mostly
flat, paved trail. The last time
I was there, I went much far-
ther up into The Narrows,
but that part of the park was
closed due to high water. The
Narrows is a very narrow, col-
orful, scenic slot canyon with
walls that sometimes close in
to obscure the sky. Always be
careful to heed park warnings
about travel closures. It seems
that hardly a year goes by
without the deaths at Zion of
people who are caught in flash
floods.
The longest stop on our
trip was a week-long stay at
Sedona, Arizona, which we
typically visit each year. The
hiking opportunities in Sedona
are almost endless, and we’ve
logged quite a few Sedona
trail miles over the years. Still,
we always find something
new to explore. It’s difficult to
feature only one Sedona hike,
but Devil’s Bridge was a new
one for me.
I hiked this 4.5-mile trip
with a Sedona friend. Since
I had another hiking partner,
my wife opted out, especially
since this one involved some
vertical exposure and a bit
of hand-over-hand climbing.
Devil’s Bridge is a picturesque
arch of sandstone, tucked
away among the many other
scenic wonders of Sedona. My
friend took me on a route that
made it seem like there was
no one else around — until
we actually approached the
bridge, where we encountered
a fair number of other hikers.
This was a great hike,
which couldn’t be complete
without venturing out onto the
bridge itself. However, if you
don’t like heights — or suffer
from vertigo — I don’t recom-
mend this stunt.
In addition to hiking,
Sedona offers great dining,
shopping and lots of other fun
things to do. We already have
our reservation for next year.
After our week was up, we
bid farewell to Sedona; and
our next stop was Canyon de
Chelly National Monument
on our way to Santa Fe, New
Mexico. At Canyon de Chelly,
the walks were scarcely more
than a few hundred yards to
scenic viewpoints. So, that
doesn’t really qualify for a
hiking column; but it was our
first visit there, and it was cer-
tainly worthwhile.
We stayed four days in
Santa Fe and found two excel-
lent hiking opportunities at
nearby national monuments
we had never even heard of
before. The first was Kasha-
Katuwe Tent Rocks National
Monument, where we saw
rock formations unlike any
others we’ve seen. An easy
half-mile trail provides plenty
of closeup views, but I recom-
mend utilizing more of the
approximately three miles of
available trails.
We took a 1.7-mile loop
trail through the unusual rock
formations that were formed
from volcanic tuff that was
originally more than 1,000
feet thick. Boulders strewn
atop the easily eroded soft tuff
provided enough protective
shelter from the elements that
the tuff beneath each boulder
eroded into conical hoodoos
resembling teepees and castle
turrets. Some of the forma-
tions still have their protective
cap rocks; and others have
lost theirs, condemning them
to more rapid erosion in the
geological near-term.
Another highlight was a
mile-long spur trail through an
extremely narrow slot canyon,
so narrow, in fact, that – at
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PHOTO BY CRAIG F. EISENBEIS
Hikers descend into Bryce Canyon, Utah, on the Queen’s Garden Trail.
many places – it is only wide
enough for one person to pass
through at a time. Although
dry most of the time, the can-
yon is as deep as 600 feet and
can be subject to the flash
flooding that created it.
Another unheralded high-
light we discovered in the
Santa Fe area is Bandelier
National Monument. Nearly
1,000 feet below the New
Mexican high desert, El Rito
de los Frijoles (Frijoles Creek)
flows through an oasis in a
deep cleft in the earth. The
canyon walls are made up of
tuff like that at Tent Rocks,
but this tuff is pockmarked
with Swiss-cheese-like holes.
Centuries ago, the ances-
tors of today’s pueblo people
began taking advantage of the
holes in the cliffs by enlarging
them to create shelter. To view
the park, and many of these
ancient dwellings, there is a
loop trail of only a mile and
a quarter, with an additional
half-mile trail (each way) to a
large cliff/cave dwelling. The
catch here is that, in addition
to the 2.5-mile hike, there is a
140-foot near-vertical climb
up a cliff on four wooden lad-
ders similar to those used by
the original inhabitants!
We started this hike in the
rain, with lightning flashing.
A thousand feet below the
canyon rims, however, we
weren’t too worried. At one
point, however, rain and hail
came down in such a deluge
that we sought shelter in one
of the ancient habitations –
excellent shelter, just as it was
hundreds of years ago.
We visited many other
sites, but those I’ve mentioned
here are truly exceptional and
deserve your attention the next
time you travel the Southwest.
Even though we spent three
weeks and 4,450 miles on the
road, there was still a heck of
a lot that we weren’t able to
do. It’s astonishing just how
much there is to see in this
part of the country and how
many places there are to enjoy
– especially if you are willing
to get out of the car and spend
a little time on foot.