alcove spring

H's favorite Utah national park is Bryce Canyon National Park but I think mine is Canyonlands.  Comprised of three different areas (one of which, the Maze, we haven't even gotten to yet) with distinct terrain, the variety of scenery is mind-blowing.  We've hiked nearly all the trails in the Island in the Sky District, with the Murphy Hogback lollipop being one of my all-time favorite hikes, leaving only the longest ones yet to do.  Because Island in the Sky is located on top of a mesa, most of its hardest and best hikes are out-and-back and involve going down (and back up) the cliff walls.  We've done Gooseberry, the aforementioned Murphy, and the Syncline loop; with Alcove Spring just checked off the list, we only have the Wilhite and Lathrop trails left to do.

I can't believe we'd never seen this view before

Alcove Spring is the third longest of the big Island in the Sky trails.  Our main concern was how much time Milton would be stuck at home - he's not as used to it with H having been WFH for the past fourteen months - and not only is the trail long, but it's about an hour drive to the trailhead, and then another hour again back home.  We were out the door at 7 a.m., under mostly clear skies with the forecasted high of 77 F and a whopping 1% chance of rain.

The Alcove Spring

For folks who just want to see the giant alcove (and its spring), it's less than half a mile from the parking area, although it does involve crossing some steeply canted slabs.  After the alcove, however, things get very steep as the trail descends from the mesa to the canyon floor below.  This was by far one of the least trafficked trails in the whole park but it was still easy to follow, coming down through the weakness in the wall, to the desert meadows and into the wash.

Steep slabs are my jam

The trail across the meadows was terrific to walk on: hard-packed dirt or sand with rolling hills and barely rocky.  Once we got into the wash, it was a little more work with softer sand.  The views were better up in the meadows too: you get tunnel vision in washes and while the soaring cliffs were awe-inspiring, the shorter walls of the wash were not quite as magnificent.

H crossing the meadows

We didn't make it all the way down to the Zeus and Moses climbing spires, shorting ourselves by a couple of miles because it was getting warmer and it was going to be uphill all the way back.  I would like to go back and get all the way down there but it will have to be in cooler temperatures for sure.  We saw one other hiker on our way back out the wash; later, when H was almost back at the top, he saw another couple who were just peeking at the views - not enough exertion to consider them "hikers."

We gotta go all the way back up 

You know a trail is steep when it takes the same amount of time to go up and down.  The Alcove Springs climb back up to the rim is steep and took us about forty minutes each way.  I actually don't mind the really steep ups: I keep my head down and don't look up to see how much further I have to go, just concentrating on each step bringing me up in elevation.  Before you know it, the whole climb has  passed and you're back at the truck, ready to crack open a celebratory beer.  (Or maybe that's just us.)

Hike stats: 9.31 miles; 3:31 hours / 2.6 m.p.h. moving average; 3:52 / 2.4 overall average; 1,560 feet of elevation