Back to Utah

The original plan was to stay in the valley for another week or so and then climb Mt. Whitney. The only problem was that the weather sucked and I had no intention of getting struck by lightning again. After discussing it for a little bit Miles and I decided to head to Utah where we would be meeting Josh on the 16th.

We spent the next day driving from Yosemite to Joe's Valley in Utah and pulled in at 11 at night after 14hours of driving. The next morning we met up with Josh and Jana, it was their off week, and we did some climbing in the morning. Shortly afterward we packed up Jana's truck and took off for Escalante in southern Utah to go play around in some canyons.

Once in Escalante we decided to do Neon Canyon. The book said there would be swimming, rappelling and tight spots. It sounded great. We ended up having an amazing day and weren't disappointed. There were several long swims, made interesting by having a heavy rope strapped to my back. As well as an amazing final rappel into Golden Cathedral. After spending some time warming up finished the hike and made it back to camp. All in all a great day. Unfortunately, I don't have any of my pictures because I left my camera in Jana's truck. Oops.

A picture I found on the internet of someone rappelling into Golden Cathedral.

The next two days we spent exploring Escalante. The first day we drove to hole in the rock, which is 60 miles down a gravel road. By the time we finally made it we were all irritated and in a bad mood after bouncing around for three hours on the road from hell. It was only made better by the fact that we were able to swim in lake Powell. Warm water for once. It made up for the drive, but not entirely. The next day we checked out a petrified wood forest and made the drive back to Joe's Valley.

Miles and I have spent the last two days climbing in Joe's Valley. I wish that I could report a sweet send, but I can't. We've just been working harder lines, atleast for us, and climbing with an awesome couple that we met; Ryan and Kelsey. I think that we are going to hang out here for the next six days until Josh gets off work and then we'll be off to Wyoming. I can't wait to spend some time there. Everyone that I've met from Wyoming loves it. It should be good. Stay tuned.