Dave N and I planned this hike for a few weeks, during a period when there were frequent cloudy and rainy days during the beginning of the winter. We picked the day when the clouds were supposed to give way to clear skies and sun. According to the weather man, it looked like Wednesday of that week would be a good day for this hike. We needed clear skies because it was a bushwhacking, trail-less, difficult all-day excursion on top of Red Mountain. It would have helped to be able to see far off into the distance to see where we were going.
Red Mountain is the large mountain just north of Kayenta, where I live. From the eastern part to the western edge is about 6 miles. Add to that another mile or two further east on the Snow Canyon State Park portion of this mountain – just north of where Dave lives. From south to north it is approximately 3 miles or so as the crow flies from the straight cliffs on the Kayenta side to the cliffs just above the town of Gunlock. The highest part of this mountain, on the Red Mountain part of this mountain, is about 5400 feet; compared with the base elevation of just over 3000 feet.
On the Kayenta side (south) the cliffs go almost straight up, an average of 2000 feet straight up. There are about 7-8 ways up the mountain from this side. There are 4 different options from the Shivwits Water Tank, which is the way to take up to the highest point. This is at the Kayenta/Shivwits Indian Reservation boundary, and is probably the hardest work-out to the top. This is the way Dave and I were planning on going down, once we got this far. This can be very steep , but at least it’s one where you don’t need too much use of your hands while scrambling up or down. Cinnamon has taken all 4 up and/or down at one time or another, so although it may be the longest and best work out of the ways up or down, it’s one of the few that a dog can do. In fact one time, Cinnamon knocked loose a relatively large boulder from above where my ex-wife Nan and I were climbing. It came bouncing down our way. We hugged the wall to our right, hoping the rock would bound right on by us. Luckily it did, if not we could have been crushed.
This is one of my favorite ways to the top, because once you make it to the top you get commanding views of all of southwest Utah – Pine Valley and it’s snow-packed peaks to the northeast, Zion cliffs just barely visible about 50 miles away; The Beaver Mountains to the southwest, Bull Mountains to the north, Arizona Strip area to the south. You can also then continue to hike along the rim to the east (or west) and be looking down the incredible drop-offs all along the mountain and get good view of Kayenta far below. I’ve never, ever seen another soul up there on top of this side of the mountain.
Another great way up is what I call The Notch. This is a more technical scramble up, meaning no dogs allowed. You start near the Hells Hole Wash, going down into the wash before it gets into it’s spectacular last mile or two to the end. Then you climb up. The first half is mostly loose scree, very tiring and no good traction – but not too dangerous. Finally, you get into a narrow steep canyon where you have to be very careful – on every step on rocks that could come loose as well as the use of hands to grasp the rocks at head level – making sure the rocks are not loose. It’s very steep and dangerous. In fact, a couple of years earlier Dave and I were coming down this Notch when a large rock about the size of PC Monitor came loose on me while I was slipping on sand, and it rolled right on top of my body, mainly my arm and hand. I was wedged under this rock and didn’t want to move due to not wanting to have the rock roll further down and onto the rest of my body; as well as not wanting any other rocks to get loose on me causing a mini-avalance. Finally, with Dave’s help, we were able to get the rock off me. I suffered a number of cuts on my arm, leg and mostly hand. Very painful, I had to wrap my hand and was out of commission as far as tennis and other rock climbing like this for a week or two. But once you get past this part, you have two options for the final 200 feet of the climb.
In the old days we used to go to the left, which was extremely steep with a couple of areas where you really needed to do a good shimmy up above some rocks; then you skirt over to the right to where you had a very narrow ledge and little jump to another ledge to get you to the top. My new favorite way is to go to the right, instead. This is quicker than the former, but involves 2 very tough spots where you have 20 foot or so straight cliffs to climb – using your fingers and putting you boots on very small foot holds. This is where you need some good upper body strength. It’s a dangerous part, but as long as you know what you’re doing it is worth it. Finally you get to another tough stretch where it’s not as dangerous and it gets you to a little saddle where you can look straight into Hells Hole canyon – where the cliffs are at their straightest – one of the most incredible areas of southwest Utah. From this notch you climb a safe but steep climb for another 5 or 10 minutes to the top. And you can then explore all of Red Mountain area above Hell’s Hole, which is a slick rock heaven. You can go all day up and down all the little and bigger red-rock canyons. A number of these will lead you to the rim above Hell’s Hole. A few of my friends who have climbed up there say this is just as incredible as Canyonlands Nt’l park. It’s like having a national park in our own back yard.
The other main way up from the Kayenta area is further south towards the southern tip of Red Mountain, near the city of Ivins area. This is the shortest and quickest and is not too dangerous – as long as you don’t fall on the loose scree. But it’s a great workout to the top, where you can explore all over the top. It’s my favorite way up if I want to explore the area towards Snow Canyon State park, as well as a good hike over to the Hells Hole part.
But now back to the attempted Trans Red Mountain hike from the northwest corner of the wilderness area to the destination of the Shivwits Water Tank. That morning, we left to very overcast weather. We debated of calling it off, but the forecast continued to call for clearing skies that day and nice weather. So we took off thinking we’d get started and the day would get real nice while we were on top of the mountain. We had Nan drop us off at the Sand Cove Resevoir just 2 miles from Gunlock. We had our food, our rain jackets, gloves and water.
The climb to the top of the mountain is another great, fun hike . From Sand Cove you have a nice slick rocky, scenice area. But then you have to figure out which cliff to climb. If you pick right, it’s not too dangerous. You eventually find a way along the western rim of Red Mountain with great views of Gunlock Resevoir 2000 feet below. About 2 miles into the hike and after a good climb, Dave suggested we start heading east/southest direction - trying to avoid as many big ups and downs as possible, staying high in elevation. That is tough up there, because it’s nothing but drop-offs of 300-400 feet every direction you look. Plus, the visibility up there was terrible and getting worse. The big cloud cover was not clearing, in fact it seemed to just be stuck up there and getting worse. It was a slow steady cold drizzle, couldn’t have been more than 40 degrees up there on the top of this mountain. But we hoped that the weather would get better. We also couldn’t see the prominent landmarks up there that could have made our route-finding easier. In fact, we couldn’t see a thing. So all we could do is make as direct line as we could to the approximate area where we thought we’d find our drop-off point along the rim.
After about 2 hours of hiking once we were on top, it was becoming obvious that the weather wasn’t going to improve, it just kept on raining and was close to freezing, it seemed to us. Around lunch time we got to a point where we thought we saw a ridge that was what we were looking for, signifying the highest point along the southern edge of Red Mountain. But it looked a good hour away. We discussed our plan. One option was to keep going that way and look for the way down from off the cliff. But we weren’t totally sure if it was over in that direction or not, it could have been over beyond to an even higher ridge. We thought we had to be near the highest point, but weren’t sure. Plus we couldn’t see a thing. We know that there would be a thick cloud cover most of the way down the mountain along the way down. We would have no better than perhaps 30 feet visibility all the way down, if that. We may not ever find one of the very few ways down, then we could be stuck up on the mountain all day, and even worse all night long. If we did find the way down, that would have been the quickest way off this cold, wet mountain. The other option was to just backtrack and go back to the where we started – to abort the hike. We talked for about 10 minutes and decided to abort and go back. Bummer.
But that didn’t mean the adventure was over and we would be home free. No, we just kept getting soggier and colder. And we went a little more south than the way we came, and several times had problems figuring out the best way, as well as backtracking a few times. It was taking longer than we anticipated, which was no good. Finally we got to the part towards the end where you had some tough cliffs going down to Sand Cove Resevoir, where we started. It was still hard to see since the clouds seem to have thicken even more. I have to admit, I was getting a little nervous at this time as we tried a couple of possible ways down, but had to climb back up cause we had become ‘cliffed out’ and couldn’t proceed any further.
Finally we came upon a way down, which was very tough, but after a few scary obstacles we made it to a familiar looking area that took us to a place I remember being before on previous hikes out here. At this time, I knew we had made it; and it had been about 5-6 hours of hiking in the steady, cold rain. But we still had about 2 miles to hike along a gravel, seldom used road to the tiny town of Gunlock below. We were hoping to see a passing car, but on this rotten day there would be no one out there driving around. So we walked, tired, cold and wet - but at least safe from the Red Mountain. We made it to this tiny Gunlock town, and still no sign of life. I walked over to one of Andrea’s friends house just across from the bridge where we crossed – but no one home. Finally we got some body to help us out, we borrowed their phone and I was able to contact Nan and asked her to pick us up. As we waited, to keep warm we kept on hiking towards Kayenta, about 8 miles away. Finally we saw that welcome sight of my little red Jeep coming to the rescue.
We didn’t complete this trans Red Mt hike like we intended, but it was a great adventure. About a year later, on a perfect sunny day, my brother Chris and I (along with his dog Jet) made an attempt of this trans Red Mountain hike. This time not only were we successful, but we actually did a true Trans hike of the Red Mountain. We went clear around the top of Hell’s Hole to the southeastern furthest point. Even that isn’t easy on a clear day. There were at least 2 spots where we thought we were further along than we were. You have to make sure you don’t hug too close to the rim all the way because that is where the ups and downs really get to you. But it sure helps to know the best time to head over to Hells Hole so that you aren’t wandering too far away from the rim.
I did one other trans Red Mt hike about a year later with a bunch of Kayenta residence. This one we started by doing the well-established Red Mountain trail off the Highway 18 well above and north of Snow Canyon State Park. It’s a very rough and rocky old Jeep road for the first 3 ½ miles, a steady climb. After 3 miles you get great views from the rim looking down below to Snow Canyon. Then you can hug the western rim atop of the State Park, with nice slick rock for miles. We even saw a nice little pond on top with a healthy looking Ponderosa Pine. On this trip we ended up at The Notch (this group of hikers had a different name for it but I can’t remember). For a few of these hikers, it was a draining all day hike in the hot late spring sun. The highlight for us had to be seeing a rattlesnake at the top that had just swallowed a mouse or a chipmunk. All we saw was this big clogged bulge in the throat of the snake, pushing down to the stomach (if snakes have stomachs) .
One last adventure to mention about Red Mountain, and this takes you back to 1998 or 1999, the first real backpack trip for Andrea and I out west. Chris and his boys, along with their dog and Cinnamon, went along on that same Red Mountain trail with our backpacks to camp somewhere up there on top of the mountain, as close to the rim of Hells Hole as possible. The first day it was a tough 6 mile climb and we did find a real nice sandy camping area about ¾ of a mile from the rim. We did explore the rim that evening and it was slick rock heaven. The long sandy hike back the next morning had the young 8 – 10 year olds quite tired and grumpy.
Red Mountain is the large mountain just north of Kayenta, where I live. From the eastern part to the western edge is about 6 miles. Add to that another mile or two further east on the Snow Canyon State Park portion of this mountain – just north of where Dave lives. From south to north it is approximately 3 miles or so as the crow flies from the straight cliffs on the Kayenta side to the cliffs just above the town of Gunlock. The highest part of this mountain, on the Red Mountain part of this mountain, is about 5400 feet; compared with the base elevation of just over 3000 feet.
On the Kayenta side (south) the cliffs go almost straight up, an average of 2000 feet straight up. There are about 7-8 ways up the mountain from this side. There are 4 different options from the Shivwits Water Tank, which is the way to take up to the highest point. This is at the Kayenta/Shivwits Indian Reservation boundary, and is probably the hardest work-out to the top. This is the way Dave and I were planning on going down, once we got this far. This can be very steep , but at least it’s one where you don’t need too much use of your hands while scrambling up or down. Cinnamon has taken all 4 up and/or down at one time or another, so although it may be the longest and best work out of the ways up or down, it’s one of the few that a dog can do. In fact one time, Cinnamon knocked loose a relatively large boulder from above where my ex-wife Nan and I were climbing. It came bouncing down our way. We hugged the wall to our right, hoping the rock would bound right on by us. Luckily it did, if not we could have been crushed.
This is one of my favorite ways to the top, because once you make it to the top you get commanding views of all of southwest Utah – Pine Valley and it’s snow-packed peaks to the northeast, Zion cliffs just barely visible about 50 miles away; The Beaver Mountains to the southwest, Bull Mountains to the north, Arizona Strip area to the south. You can also then continue to hike along the rim to the east (or west) and be looking down the incredible drop-offs all along the mountain and get good view of Kayenta far below. I’ve never, ever seen another soul up there on top of this side of the mountain.
Another great way up is what I call The Notch. This is a more technical scramble up, meaning no dogs allowed. You start near the Hells Hole Wash, going down into the wash before it gets into it’s spectacular last mile or two to the end. Then you climb up. The first half is mostly loose scree, very tiring and no good traction – but not too dangerous. Finally, you get into a narrow steep canyon where you have to be very careful – on every step on rocks that could come loose as well as the use of hands to grasp the rocks at head level – making sure the rocks are not loose. It’s very steep and dangerous. In fact, a couple of years earlier Dave and I were coming down this Notch when a large rock about the size of PC Monitor came loose on me while I was slipping on sand, and it rolled right on top of my body, mainly my arm and hand. I was wedged under this rock and didn’t want to move due to not wanting to have the rock roll further down and onto the rest of my body; as well as not wanting any other rocks to get loose on me causing a mini-avalance. Finally, with Dave’s help, we were able to get the rock off me. I suffered a number of cuts on my arm, leg and mostly hand. Very painful, I had to wrap my hand and was out of commission as far as tennis and other rock climbing like this for a week or two. But once you get past this part, you have two options for the final 200 feet of the climb.
In the old days we used to go to the left, which was extremely steep with a couple of areas where you really needed to do a good shimmy up above some rocks; then you skirt over to the right to where you had a very narrow ledge and little jump to another ledge to get you to the top. My new favorite way is to go to the right, instead. This is quicker than the former, but involves 2 very tough spots where you have 20 foot or so straight cliffs to climb – using your fingers and putting you boots on very small foot holds. This is where you need some good upper body strength. It’s a dangerous part, but as long as you know what you’re doing it is worth it. Finally you get to another tough stretch where it’s not as dangerous and it gets you to a little saddle where you can look straight into Hells Hole canyon – where the cliffs are at their straightest – one of the most incredible areas of southwest Utah. From this notch you climb a safe but steep climb for another 5 or 10 minutes to the top. And you can then explore all of Red Mountain area above Hell’s Hole, which is a slick rock heaven. You can go all day up and down all the little and bigger red-rock canyons. A number of these will lead you to the rim above Hell’s Hole. A few of my friends who have climbed up there say this is just as incredible as Canyonlands Nt’l park. It’s like having a national park in our own back yard.
The other main way up from the Kayenta area is further south towards the southern tip of Red Mountain, near the city of Ivins area. This is the shortest and quickest and is not too dangerous – as long as you don’t fall on the loose scree. But it’s a great workout to the top, where you can explore all over the top. It’s my favorite way up if I want to explore the area towards Snow Canyon State park, as well as a good hike over to the Hells Hole part.
But now back to the attempted Trans Red Mountain hike from the northwest corner of the wilderness area to the destination of the Shivwits Water Tank. That morning, we left to very overcast weather. We debated of calling it off, but the forecast continued to call for clearing skies that day and nice weather. So we took off thinking we’d get started and the day would get real nice while we were on top of the mountain. We had Nan drop us off at the Sand Cove Resevoir just 2 miles from Gunlock. We had our food, our rain jackets, gloves and water.
The climb to the top of the mountain is another great, fun hike . From Sand Cove you have a nice slick rocky, scenice area. But then you have to figure out which cliff to climb. If you pick right, it’s not too dangerous. You eventually find a way along the western rim of Red Mountain with great views of Gunlock Resevoir 2000 feet below. About 2 miles into the hike and after a good climb, Dave suggested we start heading east/southest direction - trying to avoid as many big ups and downs as possible, staying high in elevation. That is tough up there, because it’s nothing but drop-offs of 300-400 feet every direction you look. Plus, the visibility up there was terrible and getting worse. The big cloud cover was not clearing, in fact it seemed to just be stuck up there and getting worse. It was a slow steady cold drizzle, couldn’t have been more than 40 degrees up there on the top of this mountain. But we hoped that the weather would get better. We also couldn’t see the prominent landmarks up there that could have made our route-finding easier. In fact, we couldn’t see a thing. So all we could do is make as direct line as we could to the approximate area where we thought we’d find our drop-off point along the rim.
After about 2 hours of hiking once we were on top, it was becoming obvious that the weather wasn’t going to improve, it just kept on raining and was close to freezing, it seemed to us. Around lunch time we got to a point where we thought we saw a ridge that was what we were looking for, signifying the highest point along the southern edge of Red Mountain. But it looked a good hour away. We discussed our plan. One option was to keep going that way and look for the way down from off the cliff. But we weren’t totally sure if it was over in that direction or not, it could have been over beyond to an even higher ridge. We thought we had to be near the highest point, but weren’t sure. Plus we couldn’t see a thing. We know that there would be a thick cloud cover most of the way down the mountain along the way down. We would have no better than perhaps 30 feet visibility all the way down, if that. We may not ever find one of the very few ways down, then we could be stuck up on the mountain all day, and even worse all night long. If we did find the way down, that would have been the quickest way off this cold, wet mountain. The other option was to just backtrack and go back to the where we started – to abort the hike. We talked for about 10 minutes and decided to abort and go back. Bummer.
But that didn’t mean the adventure was over and we would be home free. No, we just kept getting soggier and colder. And we went a little more south than the way we came, and several times had problems figuring out the best way, as well as backtracking a few times. It was taking longer than we anticipated, which was no good. Finally we got to the part towards the end where you had some tough cliffs going down to Sand Cove Resevoir, where we started. It was still hard to see since the clouds seem to have thicken even more. I have to admit, I was getting a little nervous at this time as we tried a couple of possible ways down, but had to climb back up cause we had become ‘cliffed out’ and couldn’t proceed any further.
Finally we came upon a way down, which was very tough, but after a few scary obstacles we made it to a familiar looking area that took us to a place I remember being before on previous hikes out here. At this time, I knew we had made it; and it had been about 5-6 hours of hiking in the steady, cold rain. But we still had about 2 miles to hike along a gravel, seldom used road to the tiny town of Gunlock below. We were hoping to see a passing car, but on this rotten day there would be no one out there driving around. So we walked, tired, cold and wet - but at least safe from the Red Mountain. We made it to this tiny Gunlock town, and still no sign of life. I walked over to one of Andrea’s friends house just across from the bridge where we crossed – but no one home. Finally we got some body to help us out, we borrowed their phone and I was able to contact Nan and asked her to pick us up. As we waited, to keep warm we kept on hiking towards Kayenta, about 8 miles away. Finally we saw that welcome sight of my little red Jeep coming to the rescue.
We didn’t complete this trans Red Mt hike like we intended, but it was a great adventure. About a year later, on a perfect sunny day, my brother Chris and I (along with his dog Jet) made an attempt of this trans Red Mountain hike. This time not only were we successful, but we actually did a true Trans hike of the Red Mountain. We went clear around the top of Hell’s Hole to the southeastern furthest point. Even that isn’t easy on a clear day. There were at least 2 spots where we thought we were further along than we were. You have to make sure you don’t hug too close to the rim all the way because that is where the ups and downs really get to you. But it sure helps to know the best time to head over to Hells Hole so that you aren’t wandering too far away from the rim.
I did one other trans Red Mt hike about a year later with a bunch of Kayenta residence. This one we started by doing the well-established Red Mountain trail off the Highway 18 well above and north of Snow Canyon State Park. It’s a very rough and rocky old Jeep road for the first 3 ½ miles, a steady climb. After 3 miles you get great views from the rim looking down below to Snow Canyon. Then you can hug the western rim atop of the State Park, with nice slick rock for miles. We even saw a nice little pond on top with a healthy looking Ponderosa Pine. On this trip we ended up at The Notch (this group of hikers had a different name for it but I can’t remember). For a few of these hikers, it was a draining all day hike in the hot late spring sun. The highlight for us had to be seeing a rattlesnake at the top that had just swallowed a mouse or a chipmunk. All we saw was this big clogged bulge in the throat of the snake, pushing down to the stomach (if snakes have stomachs) .
One last adventure to mention about Red Mountain, and this takes you back to 1998 or 1999, the first real backpack trip for Andrea and I out west. Chris and his boys, along with their dog and Cinnamon, went along on that same Red Mountain trail with our backpacks to camp somewhere up there on top of the mountain, as close to the rim of Hells Hole as possible. The first day it was a tough 6 mile climb and we did find a real nice sandy camping area about ¾ of a mile from the rim. We did explore the rim that evening and it was slick rock heaven. The long sandy hike back the next morning had the young 8 – 10 year olds quite tired and grumpy.
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