Hang'em high canyon is a Sedona AZ classic located low on the cliffside just north of the enchanted town.
There are many great canyons that surround the Sedona area and Hang 'em high canyon has an interesting appeal to it.
THERE WAS NOBODY ELSE AROUND!!
I found that aspect in itself to be rewarding and nice as we didn't have to fight for parking.
#LifeKey
I was surprised to see the number of people parking around the trailheads of Sedona.
One side of me is happy people are getting out and enjoying the weather and the outdoors, but another side of me say the half mile of cars lined up, just for the hike to Devils Bridge.
This in itself made me grateful to think that I am happy, canyoneering has not got to the place where we are waiting in line for a roller coaster ride through a canyon with the equipment supported by the participants= Canyoneering.
Hang'em high canyon was a easy half day canyon and a nice stroll through the desert of north sedona.
It was a cliff canyon, meaning that we could see the bottom from the top but it had its moments of scenery and fiery red walls.
I would not consider this a destination canyon but it was a nice half day of solitude with friends and some fun raps.
There are a number of canyons within this region and I am looking forward to coming back .
The Tusher range is a alpine terrain that was formed through volcanic activity and lifted to the beautiful place that it is today.
Delano peak is just over 12,000 of elevation and has a beautiful depiction of the range from its peak.
I was surprised to see how beautiful this place was and how the grassy region was rather colorful
the minerals in the rocks made this place pop with color
The landscape reminds me a bit of the Andean Range and I enjoyed seeing how this all came together.
There are some great hiking trails out here as well
you can hike to Delano peak from a few different areas and you can also get out to other peaks.
The skyline trail is quite unique in itself as it provides more terrain variance.
July -August seemed to be a great time to visit this place.
high winds kick up here pretty quickly so I recommend being prepared for that when you show up.
Spring Creek Canyon is a non technical canyon just outside of Zion National Park.
This canyon is non-technical and required just a bit of very short climbing and a couple spots to scramble over boulders.
Other than those obstacles, this is a great half day for people into seeing narrow canyons without a lot of effort.
You first hike for some time on a nice trail that takes you right
into the canyon
There are a couple of stream crossings to make but you can
avoid getting your feet wet when doing do.
avoid getting your feet wet when doing do.
The canyon had some interesting narrow sections and some nice red walls
The canyon went back a few miles into the kolob section of Zion and it appeared that there was a way up into the park from Spring Creek.
Spring creek makes for a casual half day hike in a canyon and has some spots with some charm worthy of such a day.
if the nearby kanarra canyon is crowded this is a good alternative place to visit
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| Heather overlooking the Waipio Valley. Big Island Hawaii. |
Waipio Valley is located on the northern Hamakua coast on the Big Island of Hawaii. The valley is named after the river that runs through the valley (wai-piʻo means curved water in Hawaiian).
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| Waipio Valley, Big Island Hawaii |
Waipio was once a densely populated place and home to some of the former Kings that have
lived on the island but but it has become a magnificent valley with a beautiful rain forest and rich in history.
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| Waipio Valley, Big Island Hawaii |
There are a few people that live in the Valley itself but the main attractions are the waterfalls that people can hike into, the black sand beach on the coast that people can drive right up to ( if you have a 4x4), and access to the Muliwai trail which leads to the Waimanu Valley.
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| Heather hiking down the road Waipio Valley, Big Island Hawaii |
Hiking down the Waipio starts off with a steep road leading directly into the valley floor. This road is one of the steepest roads inside the United States and only 4x4s can endeavor to take on the road.
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| Heather about to cross the river in Waipio Valley, Big Island Hawaii |
Once down at the bottom, there is a dirt road that takes you to the black sand beach and the river crossing that needs to occur in order to access the Muliwai trail.
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| Waipio Valley, Big Island Hawaii |
continuing on the beach you will have excellent views of the waterfalls from a distance and beautiful views of the valleys actual depth. it is quite impressive to be down in there.
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| river crossing in the Waipio valley. Big Island Hawaii |
We continued on to the Muliwai trail and started our ascent up the dirt and switch backed trail
which took us to some amazing views of the Waipio Valley and the top of the plateau.
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| Heather overlooking the Waipio Valley. Big Island Hawaii. |
We continued on to the Waimanu valley which was one of the best hikes that we have ever encountered and I highly recommend everyone venture out there to see this place!
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| Waipio Valley. Big Island Hawaii. |
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| Ammonite fossils cover the canyon floor as Heather Approaches the next rap in Fossil Snail Canyon |
Walking down the canyon we are flanked by grey polished limestone walls and big views of the Armargosa Valley below us. Circular white indentations cluster the walls like flower designs on cheap 70s wallpaper.
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| Ammonites. Fossil Snail Canyon. Death Valley National Park |
These crystalized swirls are anything cheap, nor from the 70s, they are Gastropods from the Mississippian era
that date back to around 350-400 million years ago. The brail readings that I get when I lightly sweep my hands over these fossils is a feeling of distant ancient history documented by a geologic footprint of community and diversity.
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| Ammonites. Fossil Snail Canyon. Death Valley National Park |
Its always interesting to see a few fossils but imagine the floor and walls to your left and right are covered in these ammonites, welcome to Fossil Snail Canyon. Some more information can be found on Wikipedia: Here is some more information about the metamorphosis:
Due to their free-swimming and/or free-floating habits, ammonites often happened to live directly above seafloor waters so poor in oxygen as to prevent the establishment of animal life on the seafloor. When upon death the ammonites fell to this seafloor and were gradually buried in accumulating sediment, bacterial decomposition of these corpses often tipped the delicate balance of local redox conditions sufficiently to lower the local solubility of minerals dissolved in the seawater, notably phosphates and carbonates. The resulting spontaneous concentric precipitation of minerals around a fossil, a concretion, is responsible for the outstanding preservation of many ammonite fossils
Due to their free-swimming and/or free-floating habits, ammonites often happened to live directly above seafloor waters so poor in oxygen as to prevent the establishment of animal life on the seafloor. When upon death the ammonites fell to this seafloor and were gradually buried in accumulating sediment, bacterial decomposition of these corpses often tipped the delicate balance of local redox conditions sufficiently to lower the local solubility of minerals dissolved in the seawater, notably phosphates and carbonates. The resulting spontaneous concentric precipitation of minerals around a fossil, a concretion, is responsible for the outstanding preservation of many ammonite fossils
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| Heather in Beast mode as she hikes to the top of Fossil Snail Canyon in the Funeral Mountains. |
On a beautiful February morning, Heather and I opt out of watching the super bowl for some canyoneering in a remote section of the National Park called the Funeral mountains.
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| Ammonites. Fossil Snail Canyon |
The Funeral Range is home to many canyons that have some interesting challenges with big views and a lot of fossils to see in the rock.
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| Heather taking a break at the head of Fossil Snail Canyon |
Fossil Snail canyon is a relatively new canyon that was discovered by Scott Swaney and crew in the early months of 2016.
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| Ammonites. Fossil Snail Canyon |
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| Heather works her way up the funeral mountains. |
Heather and I got an early start for the approach hike which consists of a 4 mile approach, a .7 mile hike up the mountain, a traverse, and about a mile of down canyoneering with another 4 miles back to the car.
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| Ammonites. Fossil Snail Canyon |
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| Ammonites. Fossil Snail Canyon |
We made the ridge and started to notice slabs of limestone full of Ammonites. These are the modern snail but with some added character to them.
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| Can this be a Jurassic Ammonite called a Kosmoceras? Fossil Snail Canyon |
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| Heather passing by fossils in Fossil Snail Canyon |
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| Ammonites. Fossil Snail Canyon. Death Valley National Park |
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| Ammonites. Fossil Snail Canyon. Death Valley National Park |
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| Heather in Fossil Snail Canyon |
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| Heather crab walking down with Gastropods covering the floor in Fossil Snail Canyon |
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| Heather pointing out the gastropods on the floor in Fossil Snail Canyon |
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| Heather overlooking the big drop in Fossil Snail Canyon |
I am willing to bet that the actual ground that we were walking on was positioned around another section of the planet, possibly near Africa, and through tectonic restructuring, the continents moved here and the funeral mountains uplifted to where they are today.
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| Heather in Fossil Snail Canyon |
We encountered around 10 raps that were upto around 140ft in length. We brought a 210 ft rope, a 90ft rope, and a 70ft rope. We also had some webbing but the anchored appeared to be in a good condition at the time that we went. Your experience might be different.
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| Heather in Fossil Snail Canyon |
Please bring extra webbing and replace the existing webbing. The sun will bleach and rot the webbing which can create a big problem if one of the anchors webbing material rips apart.
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| Heather rapping by some maroon color veins in the limestone |
We came down to the bottom of the canyon and we had our four mile hike back to the car with a lot of sunlight left. We headed back and made it to the car in around 8 hours time.
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| Heather checking on a pothole in Fossil Snail Canyon, |
This was a very unique canyon and I am privileged to have so many amazing places around us that are all not to far away. I highly recommend Fossil Snail Canyon for a nice day trip.
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| Heather in Fossil Snail Canyon |
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| Funeral Range |