Horseshoe Cyn Maze Dist Apr 8-9, 2010

[JKWE]

We arrived at the Horseshoe Cyn trailhead Thursday afternoon. Had a sparkling clear night sky for telescoping and talking with new friends. Hiked the canyon the next day.

View from our spot at the trailhead parking lot.

Dino was here:

Wall art

Lots of sandy walkin at the bottom.

Great Gallery

Friday night - too tired to telescope, besides it was cloudy until early am hours.

A few more pixs at:
http://www.shutterfly.com/lightbox/view.sfly?fid=ce711f8bdad894ac6276141d224b0f78#1271385292684

Saturday, We drove the short 50 miles to Hans Flat Ranger Station to check out back country availability in the Maze District. Then reversed out and down to Hite to access Maze. The Flint Trail access was closed by rocks. The rangers said they will wait for the freezing temperatures to abate before clearing the slide. They had tried clearing once recently but things slid again.

Since this was our first time going into the Maze, we took their advice on how trailer challenged the trail would be after that location, and reserved Teapot Rock campgd -- leaving the trailer there for a base camp. We'll post Maze pictures on a separate thread.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

We were the group that tried to break through the Flint Trail the weekend before you. The 'rockfall' beween Teapot junction and the bottom of the Flint turned out to be a non-issue, if you were in a full-width it might get tight but we didn't so much as slow down. The Flint on the other hand was not rock-blocked but snow blocked. We were able to bust through the drifts just about to the last few switchbacks but the sun was going down and we were camping at the Maze Overlook.

Great pics!

 

[JKWE]

Wish the NPS had known the true closure reason then. Too bad! We did want to drive Flint. Now we'll have to go back. :victory:

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Wish the NPS had known the true closure reason then. Too bad! We did want to drive Flint. Now we'll have to go back. :victory:

They knew. We were in contact with them both before the trip, during the trip and after. They told us the rock-fall was completely blocking the trail between the Flint and Teapot, we drove right through, no tracks beyond that. Fresh tracks in the snow on the Flint switchbacks too. We expected a much worse rock fall, we even packed rock-bars, pics and shovels to help clear it. I can see why the NPS 'dumbs' down the difficulty but it really was a non-issue for our group. Again in the family Suburban it would have been a tricky rock spot to maneuver through, in anything smaller it was just a spot to be careful.