Ready to Hit the Road

Tomorrow morning, I’m hitting the road with my brother Rob to drive down to Kanab, Utah. From there, we’ll drive east to the Paria Ranger Station to meet up with my old grad school buddy, Rob Tubbs, and his family to hike Paria Canyon. Over six days, we’ll hike from the White House trailhead down to Lee’s Ferry in Arizona, a total distance of 38 miles. I’ve been wanting to do this hike since I first heard about it, probably about 30 years ago. It is one of the classic backpacking trips of the American Southwest. You can read more about the hike here. I’m hoping to return with some great photos to share on the blog.

I just weighed my pack and “ouch!” The pack weighs 69 pounds (including 4 liters of water). Now I’m considering not taking the 70-200mm lens (with case, tripod collar, and quick-release plate, it weighs about 4 pounds). Would you take it? The tripod stays though, as do the two other lenses.

I tell you, it’s times like this I wish I had one of those 24-300 mm lenses instead my my three-lens kit. Well, I have two days to decide as we drive to southern Utah. Maybe I can take a few less clothes – I’ll be stinky after six days anyway, do I really need more than one pair of pants?

In anticipation of the trip, I’m posting this old shot of the Watchman in Zion National Park. Most of Paria Canyon is in the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, but I only have a handful of old slides from that area and they aren’t scanned (and I don’t have time to do it now), so you’ll have to put up with this shot from Zion. Zion is about 85 miles (by road) west of the Paria Canyon trailhead.