Tag: Utah
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Return to Indian Creek: It’s Just as Hard as Last Time!
I went back to Indian Creek this past May after a year and a half of first going. I think I climbed three routes total, completely flailing on at least one of them. This was also climbing on top rope. My dirtbag buddy, Neil was there to put up the routes and I was there…
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Getting Festy
My life is guided by permaculture and as a permaculturist, I am part of a certain counter culture. That being said, even within the counter culture of permaculture (culture culture culture) there are many different expressions. Cultures, as it turns out, defy simplicity (like most things). So, there is a faction of new-aged counter culture…
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Phipps Wash and Arch: The Magic of Discovery
I will unfortunately not be able to provide maps of my final dispatch from the Grand Staircase today, but I will try to update again later once I have access to my mapping program. Honestly, though, the walk out to Phipp’s Arch is a bit of a local’s secret, and I don’t want to give…
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Return to Escalante 3: Calf Creek Falls
Another dispatch from the Grand Staircase, and it’s a classic. Lower Calf Creek Falls is probably the most well known, easy to find, easy to navigate trail/destination in the National Monument. It’s where the locals will tell you to go if they size you up as a tourist. I’ve driven passed the trail head the…
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Return to Escalante 2: Box Canyon
Another trail dispatch this week! I’ll make it quick because this trail was rather straight forward. The Grand Staircase National Monument has two general bio spheres. There is the low, hot canyon lands and the high, chilly mountain gulches. The area surrounding Hole-in-the-Rock Road is mostly hot, dry canyon lands, whereas the area surrounding Hell’s…
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Return to Escalante: Fence Canyon
Ironically, while I was in Central America, all I could think about was the desert. Costa Rica and Nicaragua were amazing and lush and green and teeming with life, but I think that I am really a high desert/mountain person at heart. At least right now. Who knows in the future how I will feel,…
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Return to Moab Part 2: Is This a Canyon?
It was Creeksgiving as they call it in the climbing world, or the time when many-a-climber makes the journey to Indian Creek, that grand valley between highway 191 and Canyonlands to climb their faces off during Thanksgiving. For this reason, all the affordable campsites were occupied, there was no room for us at the inn.…
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Return to Moab Part 1: One Good Day, and One Bad Day
It’s been over a year since I was in the desert. I’ve been asking myself to get back there ever since I left. Auspicious things seems to happen in the desert. Last time I was there, I experienced the extreme paradoxes that life has to offer: the feeling at once of being exactly where and…
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Bear’s Ears, Batman!
Way back in October I visited the Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument in Escalante, UT. I had heard about Escalante from my sister, who had spent time there while she was working for the Canyonlands Conservation Corps. The Escalante is no doubt one of the most amazing spots in the U.S., boasting our darkest and quietest location,…
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Risk, Uncertainty and the Relentless Pursuit of Self-Actualization
Climbing and, indeed, all alpine-oriented sports are inherently dangerous. I clearly don’t need to state that fact. As any piece of climbing gear or climbing guidebook will tell you, CLIMBING IS DANGEROUS. Just this past September, we lost Kyle Dempster and Scott Adamson in Pakistan. In almost any climbing magazine, there will be a special section dedicated…
Molly McCahan 