An amazing panel of pictographs at Big Bottom (across from Lathrop Canyon).
Day 2 Little Bridge Canyon to Camp at south/western end of First Loop of The Loop, 21 miles, 8 hrs 45 min.
We camped at the small canyon at mile 9. The black line at mile 11 is the Hike Over the Loop Trail. The miles indicate the distance to the confluence with the Green River.
This was a big day with lots of stops and big mileage. I am not sure why I pushed our mileage so hard as the 21 mile day left us with just 13 miles for the last day. There were numerous campsites we could have stopped at which would have cut a few miles off of the this day without turning day 3 into a marathon. I remember there being some mutinous overtones in the boat near the end of the day which were quelled by a glorious campsite and dinner.
Making breakfast. Have no idea what I was frying up. Have my jammie bottoms on over top of my hiking pants, must be chilly.
Looking back on the trip I remember a mistake I made was that I forgot to bring sugar for the morning coffee. To add a little sweetness to the coffee we tried dropping some of our chocolate, mini Mars bars, into the coffee. I recall that the caramel in the Mars bars not dissolving too well and leaving a sticky sludge in the bottom of the coffee cups.
Siobhan looking good after a long nights sleep. Drying the fly before packing it up. In the desert you have to be very careful where you toss the fly or the tent down.
The orange glow of the morning sun reflecting off the red rocks (Siobhan photo)
Fun looking rock outside of camp.
Tent all packed away.
Dad doing the work. Like that large cacti just off the trail. (Siobhan photo)
Where we had Terry our toilet set up. One of the best views from a toilet ever.
We were in the canoes and out onto the river by 9:25 am, not exactly an alpine start. Our first destination would be petroglyphs at Lockhart Canyon a little over 3 miles down river.
All ready to go. Mikah has the river map to know where to go, I have the guidebook and camera ready to go. Sure hope we do not capsize the canoes as nothing is tied in.
Looking back to Little Bridge Canyon.
Drying the dishcloths. Happy start to the day.
Early morning reflections.
Sometime during the morning some park rangers passed us in a motor boat. The rangers drew up close by and asked for the name of the permit holder. I shouted back and could see the ranger typing into what appeared to be an onboard computer. They gave a friendly wave and wished us a pleasant trip. I was pretty impressed that we had a permit checked on the river. I have hiked and camped through Canadian National Parks for a decade and have only ever once had my permit checked once and here we were on day 2 of our trip and we already had our permit checked. We would run into the rangers a couple more times on the trip.
Never get tire of the layers.
On the ground at Lockhart Canyon.
Petroglyph panel.
Close up of the panel. Unfortunately some people have added there own doodles and markings.
It was a bit of a fight to get back to the canoes.
Not an ideal way to secure our canoe. The water jugs are convenient but should be secured to trees.
We spent about 25 minutes exploring Lockhart Canyon before returning to the river. Our next destination would be Big Bottom where there was suppose to be pictographs, petroglyphs and Anasazi ruins. It was an easy 3 mile float down the river to Big Bottom. We had the canoes safely secured, we thought, by 12:35 pm. Big Bottom did not disappoint.
Inspiring scenery.It is hard to see but we have attached the canoes to our water jugs again. Wait to see what happens. Lesson learned. The picture is Photoshopped, I removed someone from the picture.
Tamarisks choked off much of the shoreline around Big Bottom but there were landing points right at the beginning and in the middle of Big Bottom. We chose to stop at the beginning were there was an obvious landing point complete with trail. There are many trails crisscrossing the area but they all lead to the many sights of interest that dot Big Bottom. Big Bottom is probably the place on our trip that had the most points of interest.
Siobhan happy to find a panel of rock art with three faces.
Mikah looking up at another painting high on the cliff.
Looking back across the river. Just on the right you can see some green through the cliffs. The green is Lathrop Canyon. There is a trail to hike out of the canyon back to the top of the rim.
Fun little window.
Mikah dong a bit of rock climbing.
Siobhan just taking in the view.
An amazing set of ruins. It is called a moki (moqui) house in the guidebook.
It is pretty big, but really if it is a dwelling, it is not so big.
An amazing panel with quite a few different pictures.
Hands frozen in time.
That these hands once belong to people who lived here, hundreds if not thousands of years ago is quite awe inspiring.
This is biological soil crust. These black mounds are living organisms. In desert environments hikers are asked to stick to existing trails to avoid damaging the living organisms in the crust that can take decades to regenerate after just one errant foot step. To learn more visit NPS article at Biological Soil Crust of Southeast Utah.
We spent an amazing 40 minutes exploring the area at Big Bottom. But we had a long way to go on this day so we headed back to the canoes and were greeted by a little surprise.
Hmmm, that is not how we left our canoes. The park rangers who were in the area passed by our canoes and took the time to properly secure our canoes to the trees on the shoreline. Lesson learned for us.
Back on the water
This rock is on the east side of the river about 2 miles from Big Bottom and is aptly named Coffee Pot Rock. If you look closely at the base of the coffee pot on the left, you can see an Anasazi Granary.
One of two granaries on Coffee Pot Rock. Now how did they access the granary?
I still remember taking this photo. My kids probably think I am nuts, but I loved the way the column on the right had collapsed breaking the nice lines of the strata.
This is passing by Sheep Bottom (on the right). I need to look up why the bright white line has not been stained red by the rock above. One possible explanation is the pores in the limestone are large and allow the iron washing down from above to pass through.
Our next stop would be at Indian Creek to see some more Anasazi structures. It would be about 3 pm when we arrived and knowing that we still had a few hours to go was starting to cause stress among the crew.
Ok, so we used the water jugs again. There were no trees available.
A tamarisk free zone. Does not provide much for tying the canoes to. But with such a sunny day I was not overly worried about flash floods.
The ruins in the cliffs high above.
Mikah made their way up the ruins for a closer look.
I followed Mikah’s lead to get a better look at the ruins.
We kept our stay at Indian Creek was kept short as it was getting hot on the shore. The temperature on the water was much cooler. A couple of miles after Indian Creek while making a long left hand bend we came to the mouth of Monument Creek. Looking high on the cliffs we could see a couple of Anasazi structures.
Mikah looking up at the Anasazi structures.
A second structure just right of centre.
Back on the river, 4:20 pm. That is one big wall.
I remember this rock, it reminded me of the Starship USS Enterprise.
We had one more stop to make before we made camp. At the beginning of a river feature called The Loop there is a break in the high cliffs which after a quick scramble provides a look over the other side. We tied up the canoes once more and headed up for a look. It took us about 15 minutes to work our way up to get a view of the other side.
Good docking at The Loop.
Trail is up the drainage and to the right.
View where we will still have to paddle today.
We would get another look at this spire tomorrow from the river on the other side.
The other side. Nice to have an elevated view.
Another view of the other side.
Heading back down again.
It was another two miles to where we would camp. I did not mark it on the map but in the guidebook on page 239 it mentioned “When you reach the western part of the first full bend of The Loop and begin to head south, there are several good campsites upon ledges with no tamarisks on the right or west bank.” We would go all the way to southern end of the first loop and camp in a small canyon at mile 9 on the map (indicating 9 miles to the confluence of the Colorado and Green Rivers). While nerves where getting a little frayed it was a beautiful campsite. We had the tent set up by 6:30 pm and were eating dinner, pasta and sausages, by 6:55 pm.
6:40 pm and the tent is all set up.
Siobhan waiting patiently, maybe, for dinner.
As good as it gets in the backcountry.
Siobhan digging into her pot of dinner.
After dinner but before we went to bed a guy in a small motor boat chugged past our campsite in the dark. Other than the park rangers he was the only person we saw on the river during our trip. Good night from The Loop.
