Hiking near Kodachrome Basin

One of the nice things about Kodachrome Basin State Park is its close proximity to Grand Staircase National Monument. Just outside the entrance to the park is Cottonwood Canyon Road, an unimproved road which leads to both the Grosvenor Arch and the Cottowood Narrows hike.

Grosvenor Arch is a unique double arch, located about 10 miles down the road. It stands 152 feet high and 92 feet wide. There’s a very easy, paved path that leads right up to the arch. It is named after Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor, who was a former president of the National Geographic Society.

Just a few miles further down the road are the North and South Trailheads for the Cottonwood Narrows hike. You can park at either one, hike the trail for 1.5 miles, and then walk down the road 1 mile back to your car. We parked at the South Trailhead because their was better parking. This trail takes you through a slot canyon, which was a first for both me and Deas. What a cool hike – we loved it!

We walked part of the hike with a very nice group of 4 women from Wyoming that we met at the Grosvenor Arch, who you can see in the pictures below. Some parts of the trail were a little steep, so I would usually go ahead and while Deas held the dogs back, and then we’d let them run between us. It’s not easy to walk through a narrow, steep part of trail with a dog yanking you along!

 

We made one little mistake on the hike – when we reached the part of the trail where it veered off towards the other trail head, it seemed as if the trail actually continued on beyond that point. There was even a cairn near the part of the trail that continued, and the part that went back up the road wasn’t well marked. I thought that this was just a short cut to the road, so we continued on what we thought was the trail. We followed it for another 20 minutes or so, and there were some parts of it that were quite steep and narrow. At one point I had to scramble up a rock, and then Deas had to hand the dogs up to me. Still we continued on, but eventually reached a point that was so narrow and steep that it wasn’t passable – at least not for us. So we retraced our steps and realized that we had indeed passed up the access to the trail head. On our way back we passed the group of women from Wyoming who were doing the same thing we did – I’m guessing it’s an easy mistake to make. But that part of the trail was very pretty and a lot of fun, so I’m glad we did it.

I wish I’d gotten more pictures of this part of the hike, but I got a little distracted by the dog juggling. And possibly also the arguing about whether or not we had picked the right trail.  🙂  But we did make it back to the road for the last part of the hike, which was pretty in its own right. All in all this was an excellent hike and one of favorites of the trip so far!

After 6 days at Kodachrome, it was time to move on to our reservations at Zion. We survived our 6 days with no internet and thoroughly enjoyed our stay. Here’s a couple of random shots from the small town right outside the park – I think this is an area we will definitely revisit!