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| Procession Panel Plus, UT | |
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| | Procession Panel Plus, UT | | | |
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Procession Panel Plus, UT
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| Hiking | 6.00 Miles |
1,306 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.00 Miles | 4 Hrs 8 Mns | | 1.51 mph |
| 1,306 ft AEG | 10 Mns Break | 15 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | The primary goal of this trip was to revisit ruin sites on The Comb to compare with our car-camping trip in May 2013 and Air BnB'ing trip in May 2014. That said, with all the rain since (and before we arrived), we'd only done part of Fishmouth, so we hoped to get at least one or two revisited.
To be sure we could reach the Procession Panel TH today, after our hikes in Bluff yesterday we drove just far enough up Butler Wash Road to verify the road was passable to that point. It was, carefully anyway. From there we drove back to US 163 and West to Lower Comb Wash Road, which we followed North to see if it was possible to reach the Lower Fish Creek TH, which originally was at the top of our list for this trip.
No such luck. Barely a few miles in and we were presented with a wide and impassible wash crossing. While the water wasn't flowing much at all, the drop-off on the approach was at least four feet. After our water-crossing adventure on Cottonwood Road 3 days ago, this was a definite NO WAY!
And so that's a No Go on Fish Creek and yup, Procession Panel it was to be.
Side Note: At the road block I spoke with a couple from Colorado who mentioned that years ago (when they were young) they had done Procession Panel from East AND West.
Huh?! Yup, up Moki steps from Comb Wash all the way to the top... and back down!
Crossing Butler Wash was much better than when we attempted it 4 days ago... at least now it was crossable without getting wet. After the crossing pretty much the rest of the hike is on dry slick-rock, so the going was easy. Plenty of cairns to stay on track (only if one ignores the ones leading elsewhere) but then I had my track from 2014 to follow.
(Only to realize that in 2014 we stayed in the canyon bottom for much of the hike out, and followed a completely different route on the return, led astray by cairns well to the South of the Panel.)
Dry as the slick-rock was, it felt a bit sketchy in a few spots where it was quite steep, but by taking an oblique route it didn't seem so bad. Down always feels sketchier than Up, so on the return all was fine.
I hate to say it, but when we reached the Panel, we were well under-awed... whether our memory was playing tricks on us or not, we both recalled it as something super large and awesome. Not so this trip.
Near the Panel we met an elderly woman who was acting as a site steward of sorts... I can't remember what her organization was emblazoned on her shirt. Anyway, in our short conversation, some year back she had encountered young guy who also had climbed the Moki steps from Comb Wash up to Procession Panel and back down. Kind of interesting, meeting folks on two successive days who knew someone who did or had climbed the steps themselves.
No, we didn't bother to walk out to the edge to find out where they did it.
Anyone from HAZ who has or knows where they are??
Whatever, we're here so get the obligatory photos and head on up to the Peak 5340 overlook. Only a quick stop for photos and hopefully we'd have a successful side trip over to Target Ruins on the return.
If only... it wasn't a big deal to cross the canyon and over to the slick-rock heading toward Target, but once in the drainage leading up to Target things got a bit tougher. Eventually we reached a pool of water immediately ahead of a steep slick-rock slope. While we had returned DOWN this slope 11 years ago when everything including our footgear was DRY, this was a different story. I'm definitely not as spry or as limber as back then, so unless we find another route, Target is not in the cards today.
So we backed down the drainage until we located and followed a route up onto the slick-rock to the NW. Tracey felt there was a route with long switchbacks on narrow ledges to drop down to Target, but there is no way I could get myself to even think of trying it. 11 years ago we had circled around and dropped into Target from the OTHER side but as we scanned across to where my track showed we had dropped down, on this day it looked to be a sheer drop. So, no, we're not going to add another mile just to find out it MAY not be doable in these conditions.
So we continued North until we could see another long cave in the next canyon to the North. While it appeared to include ruins we didn't a direct line-of-sight view, and so we didn't realize until later it was the Monarch Ruin site. We would realize that fact when returning to Butler Wash at a different spot than at the start, which was the Monarch TH.
The only reason we headed there was at a distance up the slick-rock it appeared to be a wide dry sandy trail. It wasn't. In fact it was the opposite, so much so I would slip and fall in the slick mud. Luckily I leaned into enough thick vegetation I avoided being completely bathed in it, just one muddy trekking pole handle and one muddy sleeve. More than enough adventure for one day so that would wrap it up.
Not seeing any vehicles driving South on Butler Wash Road, rather than chancing it we drove back down to US 163 and back to Blanding through Bluff. Besides, it likely would take less time than the slow trip up Butler Wash to UT 95.
Temps were perfect! 53-66°
With Fish Creek off the table, this was the last Utah hike on this trip. On the drive back to AZ tomorrow we hope to hit Onyx Bridge Trail in PEFO.
Spoiler Alert: Of course PEFO was closed when we arrived so AZT #28 from AZ 87 will be the fall back as the last hike of this trip.
(Although the gates were close at PEFO, with over a dozen cars in the lot and nobody in them it appears closed gates weren't about to stop them) |
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