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| Run/Jog | 6.94 Miles |
1,916 AEG |
| | Run/Jog | 6.94 Miles | 2 Hrs 43 Mns 29 Secs | | 2.55 mph |
| 1,916 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Wanted to do something new in the RRC area, and also something that involved another dirt road. While looking at the map in the Lovell Canyon area, I saw a marker for something called Little Zion, and that sounded like it could be cool. So I headed out there.
The road to the TH basically just goes up a wash, mostly smooth and very few rocks. The parking area is very small, but I was the only one there, even on a Saturday. Didn't really have a good map of the area on my devices, but I more or less knew which direction to head. There's an obvious trail (old road grade) that leaves the wash to the right, and passes by an ancient agave roasting pit. About 50 feet past this, there's a cairned trail on the left that shortly thereafter enters the wilderness area. I took this trail, assuming it's the correct route.
Initially this trail headed to the north, then turned west and climbed up to the Rainbow Escarpment. Once on the escarpment, I turned south, and the next half mile or so was very faint trail that was really easy to lose. I happened upon a much better trail coming in from the west, and figured this was probably actually the standard route. Another half mile or so and I was at the turn down to Little Zion.
Here I made a mistake and assumed the trail I was on was the continuation of the escarpment trail, which would lead you to Mountain Springs Peak and beyond. So I headed down a faint trail that headed down the adjacent ridge and shortly became very brushy. But it still worked, and took me to a large sandstone fin and and overlook of the little sheltered copse of ponderosas in Little Zion. Really a cool spot, so I'm glad I took the "wrong" way. I headed down the fin and then did an easy scramble down into the basin, where there are some use trails and basically a fun little area to explore. This seemed like it would be a truly world class spot to camp (imagine the night views of Vegas) and indeed there was a fire ring and some hardened campsites in the grove.
After taking in the views I headed up the drainage to exit. On the right hand side there's what looks like an arch starting to form. I lost the track and ended up climbing up another brushy slope, but before reaching the top I stumbled upon a good trail, which turned out to be the one that I thought was the continuation of the escarpment trail.
On the way back, I took the trail I had stumbled on earlier, which headed down into a wash and eventually to the trail I turned onto after the agave pit. So it seems the "standard" route is to take the left after the agave pit, but then leave that trail when it crosses the wash.
This was a pretty cool little jaunt, and it was really surprising I didn't see anybody out there on a Saturday. I guess this one isn't very well know (yet). |
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