There are two areas of Zion NP that are definitely not as well traveled as the main South Entrance/Scenic Drive area. Kolob Canyons is about a 45-mile drive from Springdale via Utah SR-9 westbound and down and then I-15 north. A second area, Kolob Terrace, sort of splits the park into the northwest Canyons area and the southeast South Entrance area. Access to this area is off of Utah SR-9 and then a 15-mile drive north, deep into the Terrace environment. Neither of these areas are burdened with shuttle activities in the high time of the year, and yet both offer magnificent views and some great hiking activities. We spent all of Tuesday 2/25 in these two areas.
The Kolob Canyons scenic road is a 10.4-mile long road leaving from a small, but very friendly, visitor center on a more or less continuous climb first across the Hurricane Fault and then to work our way up past Chinle, Kayenta and Navajo outcrops to a very expansive scenic view that, on this day, was good for a faint view of Humphreys Peak near Flagstaff, Az. Haven’t talked much about the Kayenta or the Chinle because over on the south scenic drive, these formations, while present, are at the bottom of the Navajo and because they weather and erode easier are usually not as visible since frequently vegetation and soil somewhat hides them. The Kayenta Formation is a reddish-brown to pink sandstone with interbedded siltstones and mudstones. These units are about 190-200 million years old (Jurassic period) and represent deposited in streams and rivers in an arid environment that slowly became the desert environment that encouraged the deposition of the Navajo Formation.
Kayenta Formation – Kolob Canyons
The Chinle Formation also consists of colorful mudstone, siltstone, sandstone and conglomerates. The mudstones are predominately a clay from weathering of volcanic ash. The Chinle is about 210-225 years old (Triassic period). Both the Chinle and the Kayenta are rich with dinosaur fossils. The Chinle is also famous for petrified wood which we have talked about back several posts when we visited Petrified Forest NP.
The Chinle, not as well exposed but makes up the rocks on each side of the road.
At the end of the Kolob scenic drive is the Timber Creek Overlook Trail which is about 1.25 miles out and back and provides great views of the Navajo Formation to the east, the Pine Mountains to the west and the Colorado Plateau for as far as you can see to the south. On this day the trail was a bit wet and muddy in spots as there was still snow on the ground at many locations along the trail. Joni was still nursing her leg a bit, but with slow measured walking and careful stepping, she was able to negotiate most of the trail. She stopped at the high point before the southern trail end since the money shot was all steep downhill from there with a lot of rocks and loose cobbles and pebbles. All in all, a nice last hike in Zion NP. Gallery below has photos from the trail
We worked our way back down the road stopping along the way for a picnic lunch across from the Kayenta Formation photo above. Cheese, crackers, sausage, chocolate and Topo Chico blueberry was on the lunch menu for this day.
Then the requisite sign picture as we left the Kolob Canyons and headed back toward Kolob Terrace.
The Kolob Reservoir Road intersection, which is the main road onto the terrace is located just east of Virgin UT on the north side of SR 9. Seems to have been an obsession with virgins… We could not get all the way to Lava Point near the northern terminus of the road at the Kolob Reservoir as it was closed due to snow. The expertly drawn yellow line on the map below is the trace of our route.
The road was almost deserted except for us, a couple of other cars, some snow track vehicles and two bicyclists who pushed the long uphill climb so that they could coast back almost 15 miles to Utah SR 9. The Kolob Reservoir Road winds in and out of the park for the first 7 or 8 miles until it firmly commits to being inside the park. There is some different geology to see along this road. The most noticeable is the occurrence of the dark colored columnar basalt cap rocks seen in the picture below and prevalent, along this route. These are relatively young deposits dated at being 220,000 to 310,000 years old. Some of the terrace volcanics are actually less than 10,000 years old and Native American lore appears to contain references to some of these events. There are several volcanic sources along the Kolob Terrace Road, including Firepit and Spendlove Knolls. The underlying sedimentary formation is the Moenkopi Formation which is around 240 to 250 million years old (Early Triassic) having been deposited just after the Permian Extinction Event. This of course means that there is about 245 +/- million years of missing geology in this picture.
Quick geology lesson as some may have questions on the columnar basalts. Columnar basalts form as a result of the cooling and contraction of lava flows. When a thick layer of lava cools, it contracts and forms fractures, creating a pattern of hexagonal columns, although they can sometimes have more or fewer sides. Consider a lava flow. The surface and bottom of the flow cool rapidly, and as these surfaces cool, fractures form on the top and bottom of the flow. The cooling proceeds up from the bottom and down from the top although the air-cooled surface will cool faster than the bottom of the flow. The cooling causes continued contraction of the flow deeper into the flow and the contraction causes fractures perpendicular to the cooling surfaces which tend to follow the original surface fracture traces. This process happens over a significant period, leading to the striking columnar appearance. All lava flows, regardless of composition, can form columnar features.
I should mention that there was a bit of excitement as we headed back down the road. You remember the bicycle folks? They took off before us and we ended up catching up to them as they stopped to rest several times. As they left one rest point, we gave them a bit of a head start but were lucky enough to witness an attack on the bicyclists by a deer jumping off a hill on one side of the road right in front of them as they were doing at least 25-30 mph down the hill. I don’t think it was a pre-meditated attack … but you never know. To their credit the bicyclists did not crash or seem to have to stop to clean out their pants.
A collection of Kolob Terrace photos!
The bottom picture is sort of interesting. This is a “motel/bnb” on a bit of a plateau consisting of rooms (apparently along an electrical line right of way!) built to look like covered wagons and tents. We saw several variations of this on the road into Springdale including a collection of about 30 airstream trailers and another area with yurts. It’s not just the journey… it’s the whole experience. I’m sure that’s how they sell it and I’m also sure this is not budget accommodation. A sucker is born every minute!
We returned to Springdale for the night. We also returned to MeMe’s for another haute cuisine moment as Joni had taken a liking to the craft peach beer offering. We organized our luggage and hit the sack.
Rather than recount the trip back home separately, just a summary here. We hit the road around 8:30 but not util we stopped at a bakery/coffee shop in Springdale for a cookie, a cinnamon roll and coffee. We retraced our outbound route (mostly) back to Cathedral City and all went well into we arrived in Amboy, CA. A Road Closed sign greeted us at the RR crossing and the apologetic fellow sitting in his truck indicated that it would be at least 3 and potentially 5 hours until it reopened due to RR crossing repairs. We turned around and retraced our route back to I-40, stopped in Ludlow at a DQ for a burger but were told the electricity had just come back on so it would be at least 20 minutes until the grill was back in service. Luckily, we had left over MeMe’s crepes and drinks in the cooler, so we sat in the DQ parking lot in Ludlow for a delicious and nutritious lunch. In the end, the detour cost us a little over 2 hours of extra driving and some photo opportunities that we had postponed on the trip north, but it is all part of the adventure.