Wayne Thomas (one of my grad-school roommates) and I have recently started what I hope will become a long tradition of mini road trips around my neck of the woods here in northern Arizona and southern Utah. Wayne hasn’t explored much of this territory, at least not off paved roads, and it has been really great having the opportunity to share my favorite places with him.
For this fall’s trip I was able to take advantage of other friends Mike Holland and Shane Knight coincidentally heading out at the same time, and so we tagged along. I’d had a different plan for Wayne and I, but Shane is great at getting me to go places I otherwise might not have even had on my radar, and Mike knows everything about everywhere in these areas. For this trip Mike was planning to take a few of us through some slot canyons in the Robber’s Roost network – including at least one big rappel – and since that is not something I would even remotely consider doing by myself, it was too good to pass up.
The first day of the trip Wayne and I were on our own. We made some stops in Flagstaff for groceries, freeze-dried meals, some other supplies, and breakfast before blasting north. I had a few possible campsites in mind, depending on how far we got before dark, and we managed to make it to the best one – on the edge of Tables of the Sun – just as the sun was setting. I had checked the weather forecast and knew that we might pass through some rain, but what I didn’t think about was the fact that a large storm had passed through a few days prior (remnants of a tropical storm that came up from Baja California) and apparently dumped a few inches of snow on the area. That was still melting, which meant the ground was still soggy and the bits of the Chinle layer I had to drive up – in rapidly decreasing daylight – made for a few tense slippery moments.
We set up camp – a tent for Wayne, the usual back of my truck for me – ate dinner, and went to bed pretty quickly. It was chilly and damp, and we’d both had had a long couple of days.
The morning’s activity, after breakfast and coffee, was to teach Wayne how to make tintypes! He had observed the process before, but had never done it himself. Unfortunately my portable setup is far from ideal for teaching – it’s very hard for somebody to peek inside the box to see what I’m doing – but we gave it a go. Wayne composed the image with my 4×5 view camera, and for the first plate of the day I did all the prep and developing. For the next plate Wayne was mostly on his own; I loaded the sensitized plate in the holder, since that is pretty tedious and hard to see if you aren’t familiar with how it works, but he did every other step, including coating, sensitizing, and developing. And he did a great job! He was much more calm and less stressed than many students – and his first mostly-solo plate was not bad!
That all took longer than I had naively planned, so we packed up and hauled ass north through Glen Canyon. We’d said we’d meet Shane at 2:00 at Stan’s in Hanksville, and we managed to get there only about 15 minutes late. We soon had the ritual milkshakes in hand, as well as more ice and some of my favorite Utah beer (Squatter’s Full Suspension Pale Ale).
Since we had four different vehicles coming from different places and with different schedules we all agreed to meet up at a cool little campsite northeast of Hanksville for the first night as a group. Wayne, Shane, and I got there early, so we went for a hike around the mesa.
After our hike we could just chill out, watch cars fly down rough the road (seriously, slow tf down, and where is all this traffic going, anyhow?!), and wait for Mike, George, and Jimmy to show up.
The next morning…er, afternoon…we headed off to the trailhead for our big slot canyon hike. For various reasons we got a pretty late start, which for those who knew what was coming was a slight concern, but Wayne and I were blissfully (?) ignorant. Fortunately Mike and Shane knew the route pretty well, and somebody had put in some cairns on the slick rock, and it all worked out ok.
At some point fairly early on we came upon a section where if we made a small rappel we could avoid getting wet. Had we known we eventually wouldn’t be able to avoid it we needn’t have bothered with getting our climbing gear on, but then again it was good practice for the big one to come.
There were quite a few spots narrow enough that we had to remove our packs and slip through sideways, as well sections where we had to try to hold our packs above our heads to keep them out of the water. Given the depth of the cold water, the slope of the canyon walls, and the slippery mud, this was really a challenge, especially as we got increasingly fatigued.
After the rappel we were able to put on dry clothes – especially socks and boots – and snarf down a snack and some water before starting the trek up out of the canyon.
The next day we had planned to go down into the “Goblin’s Lair” at Goblin Valley State Park, but turns out they operate that now on a schedule, with timed entries for each group, and there weren’t any slots open for that day at a time that worked for us. So we drove around and explored more of the area north of Hanksville. I’d been in here quite a few times, but as is often the case with Mike, and with Utah in general, there are always unexplored roads to discover and new-to-me sights to see.
After a final beautiful sunrise we made a few short stops to check out the Mars Research Station and go for a small hike through the badlands around there, then said our goodbyes and headed…back to Stan’s for milkshakes! Then we said our goodbyes again, and headed…to Flagstaff for Indian food for dinner! Then Wayne and I said our goodbyes again and headed home.
Big thanks to Mike for leading us on this adventure and providing climbing gear and expertise! Thanks also to George for help and encouragement in tight spots and good vibes in general. Always huge appreciation for Shane and everything he brings to the trips. And of course I’m grateful for Wayne and his enthusiasm for exploring this area that I love (and for his patience with The Dawson Way of doing things). Thanks also to all four of them for helping to document the trip in photos!
