Toroweap, Grand Canyon

This is the view upstream from Toroweap overlook, 3000' above the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park. I was there as part of a volunteer project, helping to remove non-native weeds from several locations in the area. Yep, digging weeds for food and scenery.

And here is the view downstream, that's Lava Falls Rapid down there though the picture doesn't do it justice. The cheese grater rock at the bottom right of the rapid is just visible if you look at the enlarged photo (click to enlarge).


There is a very steep route (really not a trail) that goes down to the river, 2540 vertical feet in 1.5 miles. I started down, but quit after about 300 vertical feet. There was a considerable stretch of downclimbing that I didn't want to deal with on a solo mission, so this is where I quit. The river is visible in the lower left of the picture, Prospect Canyon is across the river.

Not the spring weather I wanted

So it rained most of the night, about 6 am or so I noticed that the rain seemed to be tapering off; at least it wasn't so noisy on the roof of the camper. When I looked out the window a while later, well...

I had already decided to bail out on the Zion hiking idea. Two days of hiking in the drizzle was enough for me, too much snow and water up high, too muddy down low for the trails I wanted; but this was getting silly. There was 3-4" of heavy wet snow by the time I left, and more was coming down hard.

Watchman Campground, Zion National Park (click photo to enlarge)

East Zion

It's been a snowy winter for Zion National Park, above 5000' elevation there is enough snow to make hiking difficult in places. Similarly, the creeks and slot canyons are carrying a lot of water; Clear Creek had more water than I wanted to hike in (at least, without a wet suit and neoprene socks!)

Two Pines Arch

Pine Canyon waterfalls