Ok well here goes nothing, I'm not sure how to sum up such an epic trip but I'm gonna try! Over 600 miles of offroad across Utah in 7 nights and 8 days!
I started planning this trip a long time ago just in my free time and it was finally time to leave so I left Santa Barbara around 9am on Saturday to start the long trek towards the St. George area to meet up with Chandler and Chris at the trail head of a spot I like. I stop at the falls pretty much anytime I'm heading anywhere in Utah or Colorado cause it's a good halfway point but over the past couple of years I've noticed a huge increase in the amount of people that go there which sucks but we lucked out and got to the falls and made camp with only one other guy on the other side of the waterfall. I didn't take many pics cause we were busy just catching up and enjoying camp:
The crew left to right - Chandler, Chris and me:
And here's where the trouble started....the first day of the trip really getting going I said we should jump off the falls (I've been here countless times and swam in the falls a lot)....well Chandler and Chris jumped in no issues and I guess I just jumped too far and hit my right foot hard on the bottom which resulted in a badly sprained ankle! What a way to start the trip off, after this I wasn't sure if I should continue with the trip but there was no way I was gonna bail after so much planning so we took the low trail out from the falls which is always fun as it criss crosses in and out of the creek and has some fun sections and after that went to the local pharmacy to get supplies and a compression wrap for my ankle lol.
Now I didn't get as many photos of videos that I normally would because getting in and out of the truck was a real pain in the *** with my ankle so you'll have to excuse the lack of photos of us wheeling....
Anyway, my friends have a private ranch outside of Kanab, UT that they gave us access too which has an old movie set on it so we decided to make the stop and check it out. I wish we had more time to explore because it's a few thousand acre ranch that butts up to BLM land that you can only access from their ranch so there's literally no one back in that canyon but that's gonna be my next trip to Utah. The television series How the West was Won and Daniel Boone were filmed there along with these movies: The Yellow Tomahawk, Fort Yuma, Duel at Diablo, The Plainsman, Cutter's Trail, One Little Indian, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again.
Here are a couple of photos of the site before it burned down:
I damn near stepped on this beautiful little Great Basin Rattlesnake (Crotalus Lutosus)!
Next up we stopped at some slot canyons I had been to that are up this dry riverbed, every time I'd been here before I never saw another person but Memorial Day Weekend you gotta expect to see other people but we lucked out and there weren't many people there. Even with that they are amazing because most slot canyons you need a reservation and have to be with a tour guide and these are just out on public land up a dry riverbed.
Chandler gettin' into the lizard catching game haha
After that we high tailed it towards Lake Powell where we took a couple of easy trails to find camp by the water, I love this area so much because of how many different colors you see in the cliffs and buttes that surround you:
We ended up finding this awesome spot a little ways away from the water in this little sand dune beneath this giant cliff face it was a great spot:
Woke up the next morning roasting as the sun was just blaring down on us so Chris and I got up, packed up camp and headed to the water while Chandler made breakfast.
Ankle was starting to look and feel worse:
I started planning this trip a long time ago just in my free time and it was finally time to leave so I left Santa Barbara around 9am on Saturday to start the long trek towards the St. George area to meet up with Chandler and Chris at the trail head of a spot I like. I stop at the falls pretty much anytime I'm heading anywhere in Utah or Colorado cause it's a good halfway point but over the past couple of years I've noticed a huge increase in the amount of people that go there which sucks but we lucked out and got to the falls and made camp with only one other guy on the other side of the waterfall. I didn't take many pics cause we were busy just catching up and enjoying camp:
The crew left to right - Chandler, Chris and me:
And here's where the trouble started....the first day of the trip really getting going I said we should jump off the falls (I've been here countless times and swam in the falls a lot)....well Chandler and Chris jumped in no issues and I guess I just jumped too far and hit my right foot hard on the bottom which resulted in a badly sprained ankle! What a way to start the trip off, after this I wasn't sure if I should continue with the trip but there was no way I was gonna bail after so much planning so we took the low trail out from the falls which is always fun as it criss crosses in and out of the creek and has some fun sections and after that went to the local pharmacy to get supplies and a compression wrap for my ankle lol.
Now I didn't get as many photos of videos that I normally would because getting in and out of the truck was a real pain in the *** with my ankle so you'll have to excuse the lack of photos of us wheeling....
Anyway, my friends have a private ranch outside of Kanab, UT that they gave us access too which has an old movie set on it so we decided to make the stop and check it out. I wish we had more time to explore because it's a few thousand acre ranch that butts up to BLM land that you can only access from their ranch so there's literally no one back in that canyon but that's gonna be my next trip to Utah. The television series How the West was Won and Daniel Boone were filmed there along with these movies: The Yellow Tomahawk, Fort Yuma, Duel at Diablo, The Plainsman, Cutter's Trail, One Little Indian, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again.
Here are a couple of photos of the site before it burned down:
I damn near stepped on this beautiful little Great Basin Rattlesnake (Crotalus Lutosus)!
Next up we stopped at some slot canyons I had been to that are up this dry riverbed, every time I'd been here before I never saw another person but Memorial Day Weekend you gotta expect to see other people but we lucked out and there weren't many people there. Even with that they are amazing because most slot canyons you need a reservation and have to be with a tour guide and these are just out on public land up a dry riverbed.
Chandler gettin' into the lizard catching game haha
After that we high tailed it towards Lake Powell where we took a couple of easy trails to find camp by the water, I love this area so much because of how many different colors you see in the cliffs and buttes that surround you:
We ended up finding this awesome spot a little ways away from the water in this little sand dune beneath this giant cliff face it was a great spot:
Woke up the next morning roasting as the sun was just blaring down on us so Chris and I got up, packed up camp and headed to the water while Chandler made breakfast.
Ankle was starting to look and feel worse:
