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Grand Canyon Polychrome: Exploring The Esplanade II

Veterans Day Weekend | Wednesday – Saturday, November 10-13, 2021

I can hardly believe that it’s been over three years since I last set foot on the Esplanade in 2018! Back in 2019 Diane and I took the year off from visiting the North Rim so we could finally go see the Waterfalls of Havasu Canyon on the other side of the Grand Canyon, and then in 2020 we cancelled our planned trip due to the weather forecast and other things we needed to get done at home. I’ve been looking forward to getting back and was happy to finally return this extended Veterans Day weekend with Jerry. It felt great to be back on the Esplanade! The sky was clear and the high temperatures were in the 70’s while the lows at night were very comfortable in the 40’s. We even found some water in a couple shallow potholes. As usual, I’m not going to get into all the specific details of this trip, but I will share plenty of photos below. We found everything we were looking for and had a pretty great time, until we started climbing out of the canyon on Friday…

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Cottonwood Narrows & The Paria Box

Canyons of the Paria | Southern Utah Wanderings
Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Over the years I’ve driven down the Cottonwood Road along The Cockscomb many times and have always skipped stopping at the Cottonwood Narrows along the way since I was usually on my way elsewhere and most likely in a hurry. However, after visiting the Paradise Slot in the morning and then returning to the Cottonwood Road, Jared and I both decided that it was finally time to stop and check out the Cottonwood Narrows! I have to wonder why I’ve never stopped here sooner because this narrow canyon was very nice with easy access, too. It’s no wonder that it’s such a popular place! There’s really not much else to say about this hike, so here are a bunch of photos I took as we hiked from the northern trailhead to the southern trailhead and then back again. It was a great little hike through this narrow section of Cottonwood Creek!

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Exploring The Esplanade

The Hades Site | Veterans Day Weekend
Thursday – Sunday, November 8-11, 2018

Over the past couple of years I have been trying to spend a long weekend during the late fall searching for Grand Canyon Polychrome Pictographs on the Esplanade in the Grand Canyon. This year Diane and I met up with our friend Jerry and went on a three day – two night backpacking trip in search of the Hades Site. Diane and I left after work on Wednesday evening and spent the night in St. George so we could see if the ancient mug I found earlier this year was on display yet. Unfortunately, it was not on display when we stopped by the BLM Visitor Center on Thursday morning since it’s apparently in Cedar City right now for some reason, but at least we were able to sleep in later and not have to drive very far this morning.

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Coyote Buttes North

Vermilion Cliffs National Monument
Sunday, January 28, 2018

After spending an amazing day in Coyote Buttes South on Saturday, I slept well overnight in the Stateline Campground along House Rock Valley Road and woke up early to start hiking into Coyote Buttes North on Sunday morning. I didn’t have any specific location planned to photograph at sunrise, so I just started hiking about an hour before sunrise and figured that I would just take photos wherever I was when the sun finally came over the distant horizon. Nautical dawn was just beginning as I left the Wire Pass Trailhead and I wouldn’t need to use my headlamp for very long.

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Coyote Buttes North 2016

Friday, March 25, 2016

Earlier this year I realized that it had been a while since the last time I visited Coyote Buttes North, so I tried to get another permit for this spring and managed to obtain one for today. Little did I know at the time that I would be buying a new Jeep the weekend before this trip and it would make for a nice first road trip in the new vehicle. Besides getting to spend the long weekend thoroughly testing out my new Jeep on the highway and offroad, I would spend much of the day revisiting my favorite places in Coyote Buttes North, plus I’d spend some time exploring a few of the areas I had not been to before. By the end of the day I had hiked about 15 miles total and enjoyed every second of it!

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