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Tag: big water

Easter Weekend Around the Paria Plateau

Easter Weekend | Saturday & Sunday, March 26-27, 2016

After spending Friday wandering around Coyote Buttes North, I returned to my camp near the Utah-Arizona state line in Coyote Valley to spend another night there. I slept in a little later on Saturday morning and didn’t crawl out of my tent until the sun came up. I would be spending the rest of the weekend circumnavigating the Paria Plateau and exploring some new areas along the way. After packing up camp, I returned north to the Buckskin Gulch Trailhead and hiked down the wash to explore the edge of the West Clark Bench (The Dive). Diane and I had explored part of this area on a hike from Wire Pass at the end of 2014 and I wanted to check out some more of the area this morning.

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Birthday Arch & Horseshoe Bend

New Year’s Eve | Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Yesterday was supposed to have been an easy day of hiking to Cobra Arch, but after adding another hike down the Paria River we ended up hiking another 11 mile day. I always seem have problems keeping my easy days short! Since we were planning on hiking back to The Wave tomorrow, I promised Diane that today could really be an easy day. We decided to visit Birthday Arch in Buck Tank Draw a few miles west of Big Water, Utah which was only supposed to be about 4-5 miles round trip. We woke up a little bit later this morning and found that it was snowing pretty good outside, but the weather wouldn’t deter us.

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Sand Cove & Yellow Rock

Friday – Sunday, January 31 – February 2, 2014

I had another permit to Coyote Buttes North this Saturday, so I decided to spend the weekend down around the Paria. The weather looked like it was going to be pretty nice so I was looking forward to getting in my first camping trip of the year. I only worked a half-day on Friday and then started driving through a snowstorm as I headed south through Utah. I finally got out of the snow shortly after passing through Monticello. I stopped for a quick dinner in Page and then hurried to make it up to the Paria Canyon Overlook in time for sunset. Unfortunately, I didn’t leave myself enough time and made it to the overlook just after the sun had set. I was a little disappointed at first, but soon realized that the canyon looked pretty good in the early twilight. I had originally planned on camping up at the overlook for the night, but it was much windier and colder up here than I had anticipated, so I decided to drive back down to the Stateline Campground for the night. That way I would also be much closer to the Wire Pass trailhead for an early start in the morning.

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Alstrom Point to Johns Canyon

Arizona Strip & Southern Utah Wanderings | Day 5
Wednesday, October 10, 2012

On Wednesday morning, after a great night sleeping under the stars on Alstrom Point, we woke up just as dawn was starting to break. I rolled out of my sleeping bag, grabbed my camera and walked a few feet to the edge of the cliff overlooking Lake Powell. Looking towards the sky to the east I had a feeling that there was going to be a great sunrise.

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Southern Utah Wanderings | Day 4

Tuesday, October 6, 2009 | Starting Odometer: 144260

It was a great start to a day. The wind had finally died down overnight and I woke up to a great sunrise over Lake Powell from Alstrom Point. Since it was my mom’s birthday and I had full signal up there, I gave her a call to wish her a happy birthday. I took some photos before packing up the Jeep and heading back to Big Water from some more gas.

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