Mossy Cave Trail

 Sunday, June 19:

Happy Birthday Tom!!

Today did not start well.  It rained until about 3 pm so we visited the rock shop and Indian store nearby, checked a few things on the RV, and caught up the blog.  Unfortunately, after proofreading and making the last correction on the blog, we lost the whole thing.  No doubt it was operator error, but it was still gone.  So it was a good time to go outside and do something else, rain or not.

We drove down the east side of the park to Tropic, Utah and checked it out.  Several B&B's, a service station, a couple motels and restaurants.  We filled up the car and went into the store:  we were surprised that it was a small supermarket and quite busy with several clerks.  All the other customers were foreign.  It's a farming valley with a healthy tourist business, apparently.  A very apropos sign read:  Behind Every Good Rancher is a Wife Who Works in Town.   

 

 Hoodoos along the Mossy Cave Trail

DOUBLE CLICK TO ENLARGE PICTURES

Along the northeast corner of the park is the only trail that does not originate on the rim road -- the Mossy Cave Trail.  Very, very nice.  It's a short trail, only about half a mile in with about 200 feet of rise.  Several people of moderate curiosity and hiking abilities were on the trail.  Mossy Cave itself is not much at this time of year; I've seen good photos of it with icicles in the wintertime.  It's not a cave but an overhang shelter carved out by springs; damp and mossy in the summer.   





Waterfall on the right fork of the Mossy Creek trail



The right fork goes further up the canyon -- Water Canyon -- to a falls and beyond.  Nice walking trail where you can venture onto the rocks and slopes as you wish and investigate the various sights.  There is something rejuvenating about getting off the graded and gravelled trails and moving through rougher, steeper terrain to see things. 



Primrose along the trail





Kyle above waterfall with windows in background



Upstream from waterfall



The stream here is not a natural flow.  It is part of the Tropic Ditch, a diversion ditch dug by Mormon settlers in the 1890's to direct flow from the East Fork of the Sevier River, across the plateau (now Bryce Canyon NP), down Water Canyon to the town of Tropic for irrigation.  With exception of one year of severe drought, it has flowed for 120 years.  The stream is only about 4 feet wide, but 2 to 3 feet deep and extremely fast.





Beuatiful tulip sized wildflower





Rick at windows

 


Largest window above waterfall



Looking at adjacent hoodoos through window



Formations to right of window





The park literature emphasizes how rapidly the hoodoos change and deteriorate.  Up close, they seem  like a mixture of various rocks in a shaly matrix -- I think I could dig into it with bare hands.  There is lots of evidence of very recent (this year) collapses and sloughings.  Be interesting to see what these windows look like in 5 years.

  



View of Kyle near waterfall from window rocks



Chatting with a more serious hiker from Washington, DC



Two fellows from DC hiked up to the window area while I was there.  They have been to Bryce and Zion numerous times and do quite a bit of day hiking and photography.  I knew they were pretty confident hikers when they crossed the stream on a log right at the top of the waterfall -- "just don't look down" he advised.  I went a quarter mile upstream where I could jump across.

 


Kyle on rock below waterfall





Formations in Red Canyon near RV park





Monday we're going to drive to Zion National Park from here and return.  It's supposed to be about one hour each way.