Category Archives: Camping

A Hike in Utah with some thoughts on polygamy

June 28, 2013Americana, Camping, UtahSteve Stern

In October 2003, Michele and I went to Utah to do some hiking. We weren’t going to backpack, just hike. When we got there, Utah was packed. Especially Zion where we had hoped to have a couple of day hikes. The Park Rangers suggested that we hike in an area south of Zion that – as I recall – had been annexed or was going to be annexed.

To get there, we had to drive south into Arizona, around part of the Cannan Plateau and then back north at Colorado City Arizona and Hildale Utah – which seem to be the same actual burg on both sides of the state border – into Squirrel Canyon leading into the actual Cannan Plateau, itself. What was shocking, what I hadn’t remembered from reading Under the Banner of Heaven, is that Colorado City/Hildale are the home to an inordinate number of polygamists.

I don’t have pictures of the large number of huge, cheaply built, homes – the backs had lots of windows lined up making them look like cheap hotels – with playgrounds behind them. I also don’t have pictures of the little girls dressed like pioneer girls or mothers dressed in burqas without the head covering (uh? mumus?). I felt uncomfortable taking photos of these people who were different and clearly wanted to be away from everyone. They weren’t hostile, but they were not indifferent either, and friendly was not in the picture.

As luck would have it, a couple of days later, Michele picked up a paper with a long article on the town and it’s inhabitants which had become somewhat of a local problem. It turns out that polygamy being illegal has worked out very well for these particular polygamists. The husband is married to one legal wife – legal being defined as State sanctioned in this context – his other wives, considered non-wives, by the State, are single mothers. So this guy, let’s call him Brigham, is living with a bunch of women of whom only one is his lawful wedded wife. The rest are still living with him and are getting State support. The more illegal wives Brigham has, the more State support money comes in to the household. In effect, the State is paying him to marry – as far as Brigham is concerned – as many woman as possible.

I don’t want to say that it is a scam, but it surely is an unintended consequence of making polygamy illegal.

During the many times I have argued with people over Gay Marriage, people sometimes argue against it because they claim it is a gateway issue. What I mean by that is they sometimes say, Well, I’m not against Gay Marriage, but it would open the gate to, other, non-traditional marriages like polygamy. Leaving aside that polygamy is pretty traditional, if a group of women want to marry the same guy, so what? Why should we – we being our representatives in this case – try to stop it. If the women are girls or they don’t want to marry this guy, then that is a different story. But if it is consensual, then why should the State stop it. And, if the marriage isn’t consensual, having polygamous marriages out in the open would make them easier to police.

Having the polygamists hiding does nothing to improve anybodies’ life and, in this case, it is costing us money.

Back at the Squirrel Canyon, our plan was to camp near the trailhead but the trailhead was also near the town and camping there felt like intruding. I had the feeling that sending us there was a little like the Federal Government pissing all around the area to establish their ownership. Either way, it was a great campsite with a great view and nobody around and we both still felt slightly uncomfortable.

The hike, however, was great. Up a narrow canyon to a spectacular plateau.

Where, while sitting on a outcrop, having lunch, we heard and then saw a Big Horn Mountain Sheep. Hearing the hollow clacking of hoofs on stone was even better than seeing him, that is, until we actually saw him.

We had hoped to do a loop but it was getting late so we backtracked to our camp.

The next day, we packed up and moved to a campsite closer to Lake Powell.

Coyote Gulch Part 2

June 13, 2013Camping, UtahSteve Stern

Meanwhile, back in the Escalante River Basin, at the bottom of Coyote Gulch, just before it enters, the Escalante River, is a waterfall. To get around it, we have to traverse across a sloping face and then climb down a faux semi-Indian ladder. It is a very easy traverse except for two things, it is sandy because everybody who makes it has wet, sand covered, shoes and the traverse has about fifteen feet – or so – of exposure with the bottom being a pile of nasty looking rocks. It is physically easy and psychologically pretty hard.

But, at the bottom, is the Escalante River – probably a stream anyplace east of the Mississippi, but a river here.

In Coyote Gulch, it is easy to step across the stream that has carved the canyon, but the Escalante is a much bigger deal and requires wading in most area.

On the first trip that Michele and I took to this area, we hiked down Little Death Hollow – a spectacular, very narrow, canyon – to the Escalante River and then worked our way down stream to Silver Falls Canyon. It was not very far on the map, but, because of all the wading required, it was an arduous full day of wading and bushwhacking. Another time, while wading down river between Fence Canyon and Twenty Five Mile Wash, we ran into a dead, decomposing, cow in the middle of the river. It was one of those existential moments when logic and emotion collide. We were almost positive that our water filters would allow us to safely drink the water down stream from the cow – we had no choice – and the thought of drinking, even filtered dead cow water was pretty threatening.

In this case, we wandered up river to Stevens Canyon and checked out Stevens Arch.

Then we hiked up a huge – 500 or 600 feet huge! – sand slope almost to the top of the Kaiparowits Plateau.

There we shimmy up through a crack in the top of the wall to the plateau above the canyon.

What I most remember – what I most love – about the Escalante River Basin is the intimacy. The Colorado Plateau is one of the most spectacular places on earth and, in a just world, the whole thing would be turned into an International Park, but it is not uniform. Bryce and The Grand Canyon are great places to hike but a visitor can pretty much see the whole shebang by walking a couple of hundred feet from the car. Bryce, especially, is an one act play. A great one act play, but – still – an one act play. Zion is knockout with lots of hidden nooks and crannies to be explored. But, like Yosemite, it is very busy with over 2.5 million people visiting each year.

Escalante is different. It is really only accessible by walking. Sure, there are a couple of places where one can get a hint from the road but the road is on top of the plateau and it is only by walking down a canyon to the river that the intimacy and complexity can be enjoyed. In the rush to protect the Colorado Plateau, this area was missed: it is way out of the way – it was the last part of the lower 48 to be mapped – it is very rough with almost no roads, and it doesn’t look like much from the top. But, down in it, lies a treasure.

A Backpacking Trip into Coyote Gulch

June 6, 2013Camping, PhotographySteve Stern

When I was photographing on film, I became very good – in my humble opinion – at telling a story with a slide show, especially stories of trips. At some point, I quit making slide shows and concentrated on making just the right art shot. Over the years, I have reverted back to telling stories which, I think, I do much better and which is, really what this blog is about. So now I am trying to get some of those old – mostly trip – stories down here. Michele and my first trip down Coyote Gulch is one of them.

Backpacking in the Escalante River Basin requires a leap of faith bigger than any place I have ever hiked. First, it is a long way from the Bay Area. We have to drive for about sixteen hours, past all kinds of great places to hike and backpack; the Sierras, the Ruby Mountains, Zion, Bryce. When we finally get to the town of Escalante, it seems unremarkable. A small, isolated, farming town in southeastern Utah. The trailhead to Coyote Gulch – the Hurricane Wash cutoff, really – is about 35 miles down a dirt road off of Utah Highway 12. It isn’t dry enough to be called a desert, just Drylands – very red Drylands, it is true – heavily sprinkled with shrub brush, and interlaced with the occasional cattle corral or small water tank.

From the trailhead, on a bench of the Kaiparowits Plateau where the red Drylands – seemingly – go all the way to the horizon, we start walking down Hurricane Wash. We carry enough water to comfortably walk down to Coyote Gulch – about 3.5 miles – where we will find water (if we don’t find water, we will have a very uncomfortable walk back to the car). As we walk, the land slowly, slowly, becomes more wash-like. We pass petrified sand-dunes about – and that is a very big about – 65 to 55 million years old.

We are walking down-section which means that, as we walk downhill, we are also walking back in time. The wash gets deeper, a little rougher, and the sandstone gets older.

When we get to the corner of Hurricane Wash and Coyote Gulch and see water in this dry landscape, it is a little bit of a shock. The green against the red walls of the canyon is almost neon in its intensity. The running water is not big enough to be called a stream or a brook but over time – alot of time – it has carved a canyon that is probably over 300 feet deep. There are Cottonwoods everywhere, the still water areas are covered in Equisetum, and lots of unidentifiable – to me – bushes.

After wandering around – in awe – we cooked dinner under some Cottonwoods, and spent our first night in an covered alcove (feeling very Indian). About mid-night, we were woken by a stealth bomber flying over. It was very loud and very slow: not at all what I would have expected, especially having lived near a B-52 base while stationed in Texas, years ago.

The next morning, we headed deeper into the canyon. It must have been cold because Michele is still wearing her long underwear which makes me wonder what time of year we took this trip. If it had been in the fall, the trees would have been changing color, so it must have been Spring but it also must have been earlier than Memorial Day that we had carried warm clothes. Either way, it was cold in the early morning and Michele had her long underwear on when we started out, following a well worn trail.

I have hiked or walked – dabbled, really – in alot of mountain ranges, but nothing prepared me for hiking in the Escalante Basin. It is like hiking in a miniature Yosemite dyed red. Except that there are small waterfalls and arches. Oh! and ruins. and petroglyphs.

99 to 65 million years ago – according to Hana Doggett – this part of the world was an inland sea running all the way from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic. Eventually that seabed was filled with material washing down from the higher ground both to the east and west and, then, it lifted, becoming a low flatish area with lazy, meandering rivers. It got lifted again, higher this time and the rivers, staying in their meandering beds beds, wore down those beds as the areas around them lifted up. Eventually, it became one of the most stunning places on earth.

Back when we first reached the corner of Hurricane Wash and Coyote Gulch, we dropped our packs and sat by the side of the mini-stream to take a break. As were sitting there in stunned awe, a German – or a guy with a heavy German accent – ran by yelling, YELLING!, Oh my Gott! Oh my Gott!. When he saw us, he stopped and said This is amazing, do you have any idea how amazing this is? and then ran off. We didn’t know where he came from or where is was going, we only knew that we agreed.

Two nights after the German ran by, we camped near a small ruin with petroglyphs, the next night we camped in a grove of Cottonwoods near where Coyote Gulch enters the Escalante River.

To be continued.

Death Valley Easter Trip 2013: some other Views

April 15, 2013California, Camping, Death Valley, PhotographySteve Stern

^{JR on the Eureka Dunes by Coco Gonzo}

Last Saturday, Michele and I joined JR at Gina and Courtney’s house for a spectacular dinner followed by their slide show of our Death Valley Easter Trip. Actually, I should say slides shows because we also saw JR’s shots and Michele’s pictures. The slide shows were about an hundred times more fun than it sounds.

First off everybody’s trip was slightly different, meaning that everybody’s point of view was both literally and figuratively different. I wasn’t where Courtney was to see the shot of JR and, if I had been, I might have been looking somewhere else. I know I was looking somewhere else when Gina was demonstrating how windy it was at the edge of Ubehebe Crater.

^{Gina leaning into the wind by Coco Gonzo}

Second, nobody got much in the way of shots of themselves, I didn’t, and it was fun to see pictures of myself (some of them, some were pretty horrifying at how fat I have become).

^{Replacing the top radiator hose by JR}

^{Steve leaving Red Wall canyon by JR}

While I was fretting over the waning light as we crossed over the last Chance Range on our way to camp in North death Valley Wash, JR was looking at the great view down onto Crankshaft Junction.

^{Looking down at Crankshaft Junction from a pass in the Last Chance Range by JR}

He got higher than anybody on the Eureka Dunes and caught the sinuous road leading down to the dunes from the North Death Valley Road.

^{From the highest ridge at Eureka Dunes by JR}

And, on his early morning walks, JR saw and photoed every sunrise and even photoed himself seeing the sunrise.

^{JR from Lake Hill, Upper Panamint Valley by JR}

Lastly, this was a special trip and it was fun to re-live it through the eyes of other people who were on the trip.

Death Valley Easter Trip 2013: Going Home

April 11, 2013California, Camping, Cars, Death ValleySteve Stern

After coming down from Red Wall, we drove to Stove pipe Wells to pick up a couple of beers and then over Towne Pass – 4950, or so, feet – to the Panamint Valley and up the Lake Hill Road to camp in the dark. I’m only calling it Lake Hill Road because that is what the Park Offroad map calls it, but Michele and I used to call it the North Panamint Road and, for awhile, I favored the War Eagle Mine Road after the mine at the end. Anyway, it is an easy road to drive in a car, even in the dark, and offers lots of flat – if somewhat exposed – places to camp, so setting up in the dark is close to effortless. Our last dinner out was a crisp celery salad by Michele and Gina and hearty lentil stew by Courtney and JR (seen here heating the water before starting) .

I woke up the next morning about the same time as JR (6 AM, or so). JR went for a hike up Lake Hill for his morning constitutional and I sort of meanderingly packed the cars while Michele, Gina, and Courtney slept in.

We were on the road early, waiting until we got to Lone Pine – in the shadow of the Sierras, or what would have been the shadow except that it was morning and the Sierras were to our west – for breakfast.

Then we started north, driving along the Sierra Nevadas. Since we left Minden, Nevada, the elephant in the car – if that is possible with a car full of liberals – has been my poor, abandoned, Range Rover. When ever we had a cell phone signal – which was rarely – I tried calling the garage where it had been towed but all I got was an answering machine. Now that we were back in civilization, I was able to get through.

The poor baby was at Hollar’s Automotive And 4 Wheel Drive and Mr. Hollar said that he did not have good news. He had run a block test to see if I had exhaust gases leaking into the cooling system, which would indicate a blown head gasket, and the poor Rover failed. We are talking about $2,500 failed! I wasn’t really surprised, although I was shocked, three hose failures in a couple of miles indicated something serious is probably wrong. I asked him if it was even worth fixing and he said Well, it depends on how much you love it. My first thought was that anybody who would say that was a pretty good guy to work on a car I did, in fact, have real feelings for.

At some point during the trip, I think just after we abandoned the Rover, Courtney said something along the lines of That Rover put us all through this so it could get to a good repair shop and now it has found it. It reminded me of a similar comment by a fellow Obama campaign worker in 2008, while we were running tallies on voter contacts, I think God made us suffer through Bush so we could get Obama. Both sentiments seem improbable, but then I think of the quote of $4,000 to $7,000 I just got for the same work done here in the Bay Area; I think of how different our country has become under Obama than it was just ten years ago under Bush; I think of all the places the Rover could have blown a head gasket; and I think, Well, maybe they are right.

Part One: Here

Part Two: Here

Part Three: Here

Part Four: Here

Part Five: Here

Steve Stern's Fieldnotes from a Random Walk through Life (with pictures)

Category Archives: Camping

A Hike in Utah with some thoughts on polygamy

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Coyote Gulch Part 2

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A Backpacking Trip into Coyote Gulch

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Death Valley Easter Trip 2013: some other Views

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Death Valley Easter Trip 2013: Going Home

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