Paria Canyon - 38 miles hike, 3000 miles drive (!)

I finally found some time to write about our trip to Paria Canyon. It was an awesome trip with a couple of funny moments and some new things about US culture that I did not know before... but back to March 9th....
On that Friday the whole group met at the Center for Outdoor Activity to load the Van with the group gear and the personal backpacks (almost everything was provided). we then drove about 24 hours from Minneapolis to Kanab, UT... here you go with a map: The distance of 1530 miles corresponds to the distance on the road (not air!) from Winterthur to Gribraltar plus 200 kilometers into Africa :-) A nice short road trip though!



Once in Kanab, we unpacked all the stuff and splited the food, gas stoves, one tent and the pans. We set up camp at the entrance of Paria Canyon, called White house. We then prepared our first meal: Hobo - vegetables and meat with a little oil, salt and pepper and wrapped in aluminium foil. It was awesome (see pictures)!
The next morning we started our trip with a backback of about 35-40 pounds each. Well, my shoes wouldn't get dry until the very last day when we went home again... yep, we walked throught the canyon. That meant in the riverbed or alongside the riverbed. First the canyon was wide open and not deep, but this started to change with the second day. The second night we spent on a little hill close to Buckskin Gulch. This was awesome; total silence during the night between two step walls and a clear sky above... We then went on the next and the following day and got to the deepest point of the canyon where the walls are probably 400-500 feet high (see pictures to get a sense). Along the way we also filtered water from springs into the bladders and our bottles. In the middle of our hike, we stopped and took a side valley up to Wrather Arch - a huge arch (see Dan standing at the bottom of the arch). The last day was pretty much outside of the canyon again; the landscape opened up and it was mainly flat (if we had not taken some detours ;-) ) We arrived at Lees Ferry on Thursday at noon and we were all exhausted - everyone was longing for a cold drink and something sweet to eat. We went back with the Van to the Coral Sand Dunes State Park campground, where we could shower for the first time after 6 days :-). We ended the hiking week with a feast (I got to know S'more) and a last night outside under the sky where you can see the milky way and several shooting stars.
The next morning, we headed back in direction to Minneapolis, not directly though. We stopped at Bryce Canyon for a quick look - back again for me after three years! :-) After this amazing stop, we headed back north east, crossed Utah, Colorado, the city of Denver, Nebraska, Iowa and finally Minnesota. We passed an amazing landscape in Utah, the Rockies in Colorado, flat and neverending Nebraska (sorry, but there was nothing - and I mean realy nothing but flat and dry land), and a snow stom in Iowa before we got back to Minneaoplis after 24 hours...



Some sidemarks:

- we hiked 38 miles (60.8 km)...
- the weather was awesome: up to 25 degrees celsius, the nights were cold but ok in the sleeping bag or the tent...
- I got to know s'more, hobo...
- I learned what it means to be mooned - from a guy in another car and inside the van (upon request I will post the video ;-) )...
- I don't know if I have ever managed not to shower for 6 days...
- I am happy that I was not sued for sexual harassment...
- luckily it was still to cold for rattle snakes and scorpions...
- only Sean's heel hurt and Matt's flat feet ;-)
- everyone did stink...
- we saw a mormon family... funny though!
- Road trips are fun, driving half across the continent is not as bad and boring as it seems...
- I enriched my vocabulary with sophisticated words: queef
- coffee is essential on a tip like this...
- it also works abroad: one week without alcohol



Hey buddies - thanks for this amazing week out in the nature! See you on facebook...