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The Paria Plateau: Returning to the Sand Hills

Beyond the High Plateaus: The Tertiary History of the Grand Canyon District, Part II
Saturday – Sunday, May 2-3, 2026

After spending all day Friday driving across the Arizona Strip, I was up bright and early on Saturday morning to watch the sunrise from the edge of Marble Canyon and then drove up House Rock Valley along the base of the Kaibab Plateau to the western end of the Paria Plateau so I could spend the rest of the weekend exploring the Sand Hills on top. Aside from an amazing backpacking trip through Paria Canyon last spring, I have not been back to explore the Paria Plateau since 2019, which is a shame because it’s a place I used to enjoy visiting at least once almost every year, and sometimes many more times than that! As you can imagine, I was really looking forward to finally returning! After driving up onto the plateau via the Bonal Springs Road I spent the rest of the day following twisty, sandy, two-track roads that roughly followed the southern and western rims of the plateau while also stopping frequently to get out to hike and explore along the way.

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Arizona Strip: Grand Wash to the Marble Platform

Across the Arizona Strip | Friday – Saturday, May 1-2, 2026

After spending Thursday evening in Las Vegas I was up extra early on Friday morning and ready to leave Nevada for a long, hot and dusty drive across the Arizona Strip. I’ve always wanted to enter the Arizona Strip from the west via Gold Butte National Monument and figured this would be a good time to finally do it. I planned to drive all the way across the Arizona Strip to the Marble Platform on the eastern end which would give me the opportunity to see more of the Plateau Province that I started exploring more thoroughly back in 2024. After topping off my gas tank in Moapa for the long drive ahead, I followed the Virgin River to Whitney Pocket at the southern end of the Virgin Mountains and began my trek eastward.

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The Grand Canyon: Pipe Creek to Diamond Creek

Wednesday – Wednesday, April 8-15, 2026 | Low CFS: 8,030 – High CFS: 8,660

Less than a week after returning from a great rafting trip through the Grand Canyon from Lees Ferry to Pipe Creek Beach at the bottom of the Bright Angel Trail last year, I called up and booked the second half of the trip for April of this year so Diane and I could finish what we had started. Although Arizona River Runners wasn’t running their usual Hiker’s Special trip this spring, their sister company Grand Canyon Whitewater was offering the same trip, so we booked with them since it’s the same company- just with a different name on the sides of the rafts. On this trip we would be hiking down the Bright Angel Trail and then following the current of the Colorado River all the way down to Diamond Creek over the course of seven days, and we were looking forward to seeing this part of the canyon! However, as I have mentioned in the previous two Trip Reports, I had been battling a pretty bad cold for the past week and a half and was finally getting over it right as we left to drive to Arizona on Wednesday, so I was a little concerned about the hike down into the canyon since I hadn’t been able to do much hiking for the past couple of weeks, but I figured it would be OK since the hiking was all downhill…

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The Ribbon Trail to the Tabeguache Trail

Sunday, March 29, 2026

Although I was initially hoping to get more hiking in this weekend, I wasn’t feeling very well on Friday evening and decided to stay home to get some long overdue work done to my 4Runner on Saturday instead. Then on Sunday morning I thought I was feeling better, so Diane and I headed out early to hike the Ribbon Trail from the top to the bottom and finish up by following Andy’s Loop to the Tabeguache Trailhead. We chose this hike to get in as much elevation descent as we could near home to help us prepare for a hike into the Grand Canyon via the Bright Angel Trail that’s coming up in just over a week. It’s been a while since I last hiked the Ribbon Trail and usually I hike up to Little Park Road at the end, so this was a nice change of pace.

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Standing Up Country: Chimney Rock & The Maze

Lost in The Maze IV | Thursday – Sunday, February 26 – March 1, 2026

After taking Jackson on his first trip into The Maze about two years ago he told me that he was interested in hiking to the Harvest Scene at some point and we started thinking about plans for a future trip into the area. Although I have hiked to the Harvest Scene quite a few times before, I was interested in revisiting the loop from Chimney Rock again since that was my very first hike in The Maze and I didn’t remember it very well- plus, I wanted to hike it in the opposite direction so we would be on the Petes Mesa Route in the early morning. Last year after Jackson bought a new 4Runner Trailhunter we tentatively started making plans to drive out to Chimney Rock in late February so he could see what his new vehicle could do. At the time we initially started planning the trip I still had my Jeep and figured we could just head out there together over a long weekend since I have driven that road many times before, but then I ended up trading in my Rubicon for a 4Runner and figured that this would now be a good opportunity to see how my new vehicle would handle the road out to the Land of Standing Rocks, too.

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Tag: arches

The Paria Plateau: Returning to the Sand Hills

Arizona Strip: Grand Wash to the Marble Platform

The Grand Canyon: Pipe Creek to Diamond Creek

The Ribbon Trail to the Tabeguache Trail

Standing Up Country: Chimney Rock & The Maze