Trips in the Henry Mountains

One of the more spectacular local sites to see out here is the Henry Mountains.  Located between Bullfrog and Hanksville Utah, they are a small range of mountains that contrast the surrounding canyon country quite well.  I've done a bunch of day trips up to this area, its only 20 miles from my house!

I took a few trips up this fall, the roads are in good shape (as long as you have a 4x4).  Being a forestry student I  checked out a lot of the trees.  There was a fire that traveled through the area about 7 years ago.  I am hoping that some of the Ponderosa Pine will start to regrow.  There are also a lot of Juniper, Pinyon Pine, and Aspen Groves. I have found the Henry's to be a  great break from the brutal Lake Powell heat in the summer.  Temps up in the mountains only reach into the 80s, which is much appreciated on the 115 degree days at lower elevations.  I've found more wildlife per square mile than almost any tract of land back in Iowa.

A few "facts" I've learned from talking to the locals out here:

• They are home to one of two surviving natural herds of bison, the other being the Yellowstone herd.
• There are two 11,000+ foot peaks Mt. Ellen and Pennel 
• They were formed by lava pushing up on the rock
• They were the last "discovered" and explored mountain range in the US
• "Its BLM land, so anything goes, like international waters" - don't trust everything people say 

So needless to say, there is a lot of cool stuff up there and I will just let the photos do the talking.  It would be safe to guess that this will not be the last posting about the area.

I found an old mining cabin, maybe future home?

The "Bullfrog" on the back of Mt. Holmes, as seen at mile marker 19 of HWY 276

Some Fall Color

A beautiful little grove

Pedestal Alley Hike

There are just a few actual established nature hikes in the Bullfrog District of Glen Canyon NRA, Pedestal Alley is by far my favorite.  Its an easy 3 hour hike.  I recommend doing it in the fall or spring, since the sumer here is quite hot.  The hike starts off of the Burr Tail, north of the Bullfrog Developed Area. It takes you across open desert land along a wash.  After about a half mile. You take a turn onto some slick rock and follow some well established cairns (little piles of rocks to denote the trail) for another half mile around a mesa and boom you're there.

The attached photos show the Pedestals, they are similar to the "hoodoos" that you might find at Brice Canyon National Park.  I thought it was interesting how the spires were of such different sizes.  I took these photos to share, but as with almost anything out west, its better in person.

This one was more than 60 feet tall

Escape to the Mountains

Last month I was able to get some time off and meet my family at Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a well needed break from the Lake Powell heat. We were able to go on some hikes in both the lowland areas and in the alpine areas.  As a forester, I was excited to see trees again. As with so many places I've been,I took a lot of photos but they hardly do justice to the landscape. This is an area  I could see myself working in in the future.

Quzel Falls Trail

New growth!

Up in the high country

I do enjoy alpine plants

Found a Moose in the woods.

Cataract Canyon

Big Drop #2

A Tour Group Riding the wave

The NPS Jet Boat on Standby

My view from the spotter tent

Sunrise at My Tent

The Hite Bridge

Well, I’ve made it back safe and sound from Cataract Canyon.  Eight days on the Colorado River was awesome.  I was able to see a lot of new areas that are in Glen Canyon and I got to travel through Canyonlands National Park as well. 

As I had stated in my previous post, we were sent to Cataract to do preventative search and rescue.  With the extremely high water flows, many boat were having difficulty navigating the Class V rapids. In addition to rescue, we still checked permits and other rangering duties.

We set a base camp down below the “Big Drop Rapids” at Ten Cent Camp.  This was a nice sandy beach that is right along the river.  From here we would respond to all the boats and rafts that ran the rapids above us.  As part of the operation we set up an observation post above the rapids and we took turns spotting for inbound boats.  Having this eye in the sky helped the rest of the team on the rescue boat to know what is headed down river.

Speaking of the rescue boat, it was very impressive.  A 400+ horse power jet driven boat. This boat was able to drive up the rapids to get where ever needed.  It was always fun and a bit frightening to cruise up such a powerful river.  You can imagine that there was a lot of bouncing around and walls of water crashing over the boat, aka fun. On a few occasions I was allowed to drive it, and I was glad that I had an experienced river ranger guiding me through navigating the white water,

We ended up doing a few rescues of people in the water.  Everyone was okay after getting on land and catching their breath.  I can speak from experience that floating down the rapids in just a life jacket is not fun, I was very glad to see our boat come to pick me up and pull me back in.

At the end of the week long shift, I was asked to drive one of the boats out of the canyon to Hite.  This was a very special boat.  It was a “J-Rig” that had served as the fuel dock for our jet boat.  This was just a floating gas can, and of course the engine had died, leaving me with a 15 horse power back up engine… It was a long slow trip to Hite, UT. I was very glad to be back in Bullfrog (jokingly called civilization). After eight days on the river I needed a shower real bad. I was also very glad to see some of my favorite Bullfrogers again.

So its 4^th of July weekend now back at Lake Powell, and I’ve been busy already.  Time to get ready for another shift.

Off into the Great Abyss

Its been a few weeks since my last entry. I have been loving life at Lake Powell. Work has kept me quite busy, but that's how it goes. We have a great group of people to work with. It makes all the difference.

Recreationally, I've been working on my tan and other beach activities. We are looking into brewing our own beer "Bullfrog Brew" as a hobbie. The fish are starting to bite, just never when I have my pole in the water.

Currently I am at Arches National Park, crashing on another ranger's couch. Tomorrow morning I am headed off into the abyss (Quote from John Wesley Powell, the original Colorado River runner). I am joining rangers from Canyonlands on an assignhment at Cataract Canyon on the border of Glen Canyon and Canyonlands. We will be doing search and rescue for 7 days and camping out on the river. Its going to be a lot to learn, but I am quite excited. Cataract Canyon has world class rapids and with the current snow melt from the rockies, the river is flowing fast.

I will be taking a few photos to share upon my return to civilization.

Untill then, take care.

Happy Trails

Welcome to my Blog... Yep I am going to try to blog about my adventures out west.  I am on my way to Utah to work as a park ranger again this summer.  Last summer, I found myself traveling throughout the western states visiting all sorts of amazing places and exploring.  While I do have friends and family on sites like Facebook or Twitter, I wanted a place where no one had to log in or anything to see my pictures or hear about me wrestling with bears. (Though you can log in to subscribe to my updates)

I don't intend this site to be a daily police log of my work, but a U.S. Park Ranger does experience some interesting adventures.  I hope to share some amazing pictures, interesting thoughts and exciting stories of  my travels in the wilder parts of the west.

Since leaving Glen Canyon at the end of 2010, I have been back in Iowa taking an EMT class and visiting friends and family.  I enjoyed the EMT class that I attended at SCC in Burlington.  It was extremely  informative and I am leaving it with confidence that I can better help those I encounter who get sick or broken.   I enjoyed working through the scenarios and drills with my classmates, it seems that teamwork is a great way to learn practical skills. As part of the class I did ride-along time with the Burlington Fire Dept.  That was a great experience.  I enjoyed seeing how the local firefighters operated both during calls and downtime. As a taxpayer of Burlington, the BFD is money well spent.

When I wasn't in class or ridding on ambulances, I was able to visit many of my friends in the Iowa area.  Iowa City, Des Moines, and Ames were all frequent places for rendezvous.  Attending my little brother's graduation from ISU was a great way to conclude my Iowan adventures for a while. So after many wonderful memories, it is difficult to leave everyone again, go all Oregon Trail and head west.  In this day and age, people's paths seem to cross in many locations across the map.

Well, I must get back to packing boxes.  I'm always amazed and disappointed in myself for the amount of junk I acquire, but don't worry there will be future posts where I'll rant about my hypocritical environmentalisms!

Happy Trails!
-James