Great Basin National Park, Again

The Saturn may be giving me a headache now, but her majesty never fails to look good amongst the forests and mountains.

Teresa Lake.

The twisted, knotted and enduring Bristlecone Pine (well, this one is dead).

The Glacier below Wheeler Peak (summit sits at 13,159 feet). 

Loved exploring the forest surrounding the Bristlecone Pine Grove.

Good morning Mule Deer. Keep on enjoying those beautiful Aspens.

For my third visit the Great Basin, I did some new exploring. The snow is finally melted enough to hike up to the Bristlecone Pine grove, where you can hike around and learn about these very resilient trees. They are one of the oldest living organisms on the planet. Some of the pines in this area are as old as 3,500 years. Given a very slow growth rate (they live in altitudes around 10,000 feet), they are very dense and can survive in very harsh conditions. Fascinating trees!

Great Basin National Park: 5 out of 5 stars
Still one of my favorite parks. Even in the summer, there's very few people (especially of the selfie stick, don't get out of the car breed). It's free to enter, you can backcountry camp wherever you want (and build a fire), and the stars are better than most other places in the country. Check it out!

Fun Fact: After forest fires (typically from lightning strikes) burn down the pines and elms, Aspens come in and thrive in the open environment. Once they grow large enough, they provide sufficient shade for pines and elms to seed and grow again, at which point they take over until the next fire comes to start the cycle again.

Hiking, Rappelling and Climbing, Oh My!

The approach hike to the canyon was rough, but the views made it tolerable. 

The Namaste Wall. Single pitch climbs that go FOREVER.

Take a seat in a hole, shake out your arms.

First rappel into Keyhole Canyon.

Charlie thought he could swing over the water to the other side. He didn't make it.

Last photo I took before soaking my camera.

Canyoneering is awesome. The biggest perk might be the ability to escape the insane crowds throughout the rest of Zion. Despite double bagging my camera in dry bags, it still got soaked and died on me after our first canyon. a few days in the desert sun and a bag of rice thankfully brought it back from the dead. Phew!

Day 1 consisted of Keyhole Canyon and Pine Creek Canyon. Both very fun, very wet and very cold canyons. The water isn't exactly clean, but you get used to the grime and smell quickly. Day 2 was a 10 hour marathon through the Behunin Canyon. Much dryer and much hotter. The approach alone was 3 hours up and around the West Rim Trail. We slept very well that night. Day 3 we climbed at the Namaste Wall to suffer on super tall, overhung sport routes. Parting ways with the group was tough, but I'm on a mission. A conquerer of the useless!!

Canyoneering

Just a quick update here. Met up with the guys in Zion for Justin's "bachelor party". Despite almost zero canyoneering experience, we successfully navigated through 3 canyons. I'm currently in Great Basin National Park. Once I get some time and wifi, I'll edit a bunch of photos and provide a better update. Talk to you soon!

Oh Zion

Made it back to Zion! The rest of the bachelor party gang will be here late tonight so I took a nice stroll down the Narrows. This hike will always be such a treat. It's not often that your hiking trail also happens to be the river which created the canyon through which you are hiking. 

The Narrows (Zion NP): All the stars 

It's a rare hike that actually cools you off rather than make you sweat. If you don't like getting wet, this hike might upset you. 

Colorado Crimpin'

20 minutes over the Colorado border and I'm blessed with this surreal view...

Dave crimping hard on Crimpfest [5.12a]. He got the send and Jacquie and I got very close. A fantastic climb!

Jacquie working her way up a wonderful 5.11c. The view of Pikes Peak in the background was pretty wonderful too.

A nice sunset view during the hour long hike back ton camp.

Made a stop in Colorado to climb and camp with Jacquie and a crew of her climbing friends. We explored a crag by the name of Devils Head. So many awesome climbs! With an hour approach from the parking lot, the walls were empty and the views were breathtaking. Definitely a place I'm psyched to go back to soon. 

Devils Head: 5 out of 5 stars.

Packed full of 3 and 4 star climbs, especially in the 5.11 and 5.12 grades. No crowds and great views make it even better. Even if you're not a climber, it's worth a visit for all of the hiking trails in the area.

Saturn vehicle parts: 1 out of 5 stars.

After having recently fixed a coolant leak, I'm now dealing with an acceleration/hesitation issue which is now affecting my gas mileage significantly. Although new spark plugs and air filter helped, the issue is still prevalent. Might be a fuel filter or fuel pump issue. A few cryptic codes from a scanner didn't help much. Just relieved it made it over vail pass without exploding.