Zion is a funny place since it's becoming increasingly popular yet there really isn't as much to it as some of the other National Parks. The main canyon is stunning but so choked with people they have to shut down the park entrances on a regular basis to avoid it turning into one long angry parking lot.

And when it comes to hikes the thing that most people know about Zion is Angels Landing aka that scary thing your Aunt did once where she thought she was going to die.

Now don't get me wrong Angels Landing is a fun little hike and there are enough narrow sections to make the pit of your average persons stomach drop a bit but it's also a well-maintained trail with chains to hold on to whenever you get anywhere near an edge. The first time I did it my girlfriend at the time had really worked herself up about the exposure only to comment she felt somewhat less badass considering we were passing 6-year-olds along the chain.

So, Angels Landing is fun but not the end all be all of Zion. For my money if you want to do something and see the best view of the park from the front country then Observation Point is the thing to do. It's all on trail and doesn't have the exposure issues but the view from the top looks straight down the main canyon and you even get to look down on all those people on Angels Landing.

We didn't finish our climb of Jenny Peak and Jenny's Nipples until almost 2:30 pm which only left us with a few hours before dark. And going along with our periodic Thanksgiving trip nipple theme we decided to knock out Nippletop!

Nippletop is another fairly obscure peak on the eastern end of Zion far away from the usual tourist-friendly activities in the main canyon. It's a good way to spend a few hours while getting in some unique views and welcome solitude assuming you're ok with a bit of loose 3rd class scrambling.

This was a part of this year's Thanksgiving trip aka the 2018 Turktacular!  This year I was out in Zion Utah climbing a series of smaller peaks. For the other days see the tag Turktacular 2018 and for what I've gotten up to other years see the tag Turktacular.

November 23rd, 2018

Nippletop (6,715') 

3 miles, 1700'

[Pics] [Caltopo] [Map]

Jenny Peak is an obscure bump in an area of Zion National Park that doesn't see near the amount of traffic as the main canyon. The peak itself is lower than a lot of its neighbors but it makes for that with the enjoyable class 3 -ish scramble and a summit view that engulfs you in a spectacularly beautiful and underappreciated area of the park.

It's also apparently located in a closure based on what I found out after we did the peak. We didn't see a single sign anywhere along the route but YMMV.

This was a part of this year's Thanksgiving trip aka the 2018 Turktacular!  This year I was out in Zion Utah climbing a series of smaller peaks. For the other days see the tag Turktacular 2018 and for what I've gotten up to other years see the tag Turktacular.

November 23rd, 2018

Jenny Peak (6,310')

Jenny's Nipples (6,240')
3.9 miles, 1,500'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

This was the initial day of this year's Thanksgiving trip aka the 2018 Turktacular!  This year I was out in Zion Utah climbing a series of smaller peaks. For the other days see the tag Turktacular 2018 and for what I've gotten up to other years see the tag Turktacular.

This trip was rather last minute even by my standards. Due to various life events the original plan of flying down to La Paz and doing a paddle centric trip similar to the San Juan Islands trip fell through leaving us scrambling for something to do within driving distance.

Further complicating the situation a storm was coming in and seemed to be hitting everywhere. Friends up in Bishop reported snow down to 6,000 ft and every forecast we checked across California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah all predicted precipitation.

Granted we've had forecasts like that before and still managed to have some fun. It did mean a lot of the initial ideas I had like Snow BM just were not going to be feasible.

We settled on chasing some lesser known peaks on the east side of Zion and decided to drive out Wednesday night...which due to various last minute complications also didn't happen.

November 22nd, 2018

[Pics]

White Pocket is a remote grouping of dramatically colored rocks in the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument.  The area is better known for nearby attractions The Wave and Buckskin Gulch but due to the difficulty in getting permits for those more and more people seem to be aware of what White Pocket has to offer.

This was our second attempt to visit after the 2014 Turktacular found us out here on the final day only for me to be so floored by the sudden onset of the flu I wasn't safe to drive.  Considering the reputation of the dirt road used to access White Pocket we decided not to risk trying to have the girls drive it and instead spent the day in post Thanksgiving traffic getting back to LA.

Now it was three years later and we were back.

November 27th, 2017

White Pocket (6,128')
3 miles, 1,000' -ish

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

This was another travel day connecting the Hole In The Rock area of Escalante with Vermillion Cliffs so we could do White Pocket on our last day.  Along the way we visited a long burning underground coal fire and drove through some of the most remote areas of Escalante.

November 26th 2017

[Pics] [Map]

After yesterday's rougher than expected climb of Fiftymile Mountain Kristen and I were both really excited to get back to more slot canyons.  And today was going to be the main attraction of the entire trip!

Red Breaks are some of the numerous slot canyons located in the area around Hole In The Rock Road though they seem to be less well known than a lot of others.  Yet when you're doing research on the area everyone talks about how they are the greatest thing out there.

And you can add this write up to that chorus of praise.  Compared with everything else we saw over the six days of the Turktacular this stands out easily.  We spent the day going up Red Breaks West and then down Red Breaks East and the route had everything from deep narrow slots, countless amounts of scrambling, tight squeezes, and two rappels.

In addition to where we came in Red Breaks can be accessed from the north along Spencer Flat Road though I really liked the way we did it.  Climbing up Red Breaks West let us do the more memorable of the two canyons first and then down East let us finish on the more technical one.

There's also an interesting geological formation you can access from the north end of the canyons called the Cosmic Ashtray.  We ran short of daylight but I would have liked to make an excursion in between the two canyons.

We left the cars at 10 am, reached Red Breaks proper around 12 pm, finished Red Breaks West around 2:45 pm, finished Red Breaks East around 4:30 pm, and returned to the cars around 8 pm.  But YMMV depending how long you want to spend taking pictures and how much trouble you have route finding.

November 25th, 2017

11 miles, 1,400'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

When we went looking for peaks to do out around Hole In The Rock the options were somewhat limited.  Pretty much all I had out here was Navajo Mountain and Mollies Nipple and other than that a big giant blank spot on my Peakbagger Master Peak Map.

We settled on Fiftymile Mountain because it's a significant landmark in the area and according to the limited beta we'd found we expected it to be relatively short with the crux just being the road up to the bench and the route through the cliff bands.  We had high hopes of getting back down in time to run over and do Spooky or one of the other shorter slot canyons.

It ended up being a little more involved after we didn't like the route we took up through the cliffs and went around the long way to hook up with a stock trail.  On the plus side it did make it a far more satisfying length hike even if the summit was dissapointing.

November 24th, 2017

Fiftymile Mountain (7,641')

14.3 miles, 2,700'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

Every Thanksgiving I take advantage of the built in time off work to wander off into the desert and do a longer trip.  I call it the Turktacular and it's the perfect opportunity to escape a largely sedimentary holiday, send some time outdoors, and also enjoy a traditional -ish thanksgiving dinner prepared and eaten under the stars.

I've spent many of these trips out in Utah since there are just a disgusting amount of awesome things to see out there.  This year after much debate and planning Kristen and I decided to head out to the Escalante area with a few side trips on the way in and out.  Writeups for other days can be found under Turktacular 2017

This was the first of six days and we'd decided to start things off with a solid day of hiking and climb Canaan Mountain south of Zion.

November 22nd, 2017

Canaan Mountain (7,363')
19.5 miles, 3,400'

[Pics] [CalTopo] [Map]

This was the last of the 5 day 2016 Turktacular trip and we knew most of it would be spent driving.  We had decided to try Elsies Nipple again and decided to divert slightly on the way home to visit a hot spring famous for having tropical fish in it.

November 27th, 2016

Elsies Nipple (8,368')

[Pics] [Map]

This was the 4th day of the 2016 Turktacular and the day we were hitting the main attraction.  When we'd looked up Capital Reef National Park Fern's Nipple and Georges BM had jumped out as things we had to climb while we were out there.  We had grand plans of hitting both today but found the southern part of the scenic road was closed due to recent rain damage limiting our options.  And as it turned out Ferns Nipple was more significant (and more fun!) than advertised so it worked out.

Google Earth view of our GPS track

We picked Studhorse Peaks because of the names and a writeup we found online claiming they were a fun scramble.

November 25th, 2016

Studhorse Peak #1 (7,002')

Studhorse Peak #2 (6,970')

Studhorse Peak #3 (6,98'0)

[Pics] [Map]

After last nights aborted attempt to camp near Elsies Nipple we'd ended up at the Sunglow Campground above Bicknell sleeping on a thin layer of snow.

November 24th, 2016

[Pics]

Thanksgiving time and once again the plan was to escape civilization and go someplace awesome for the annual Turktacular trip.

Last year at this time I wasn't able to hike at all due to having knee surgery and settled for an overnight at a the always awesome El Dorado Hot Spring near Phoenix.

This year I was doing quite a bit better.  I was back to hiking and climbing and after a busy summer and after a few weekends of quick two day desert trips I was ready to get out for something longer and had a hankering to get back out to Utah.

I was also closing on finishing the Desert Peak Section List.  Of the 99 peaks on the list I'd just finished #97.  #99 would be Nelson Range High Point December 3rd & 4th but first I had one last orphan.  Mount Stirling out near Las Vegas.

I'd been out that way earlier this summer when I did Charleston & Mummy and decided against trying the peak due to the high temperature and low altitude though in hindsight I think I could have managed it as the peak is really short and easy.

November 23rd, 2016

Mount Stirling (8,219')

[Pics] [Map]

3.4 miles, 1850 ft gain

What:
   Monument Valley
   Valley of The Gods
When: November 30th, 2014
Where: Utah-ish
Who: Matthew Hengst, Kristen Lindbergh, Jen Blackie
Pictures: [Matt]

Day 3 of the 2014 Turktacular found us camped rather close to a cliffside at Goosenecks State Park between Monument Valley and Valley of the Gods.  See the previous day for more details about the park but the short version is it's a great place to camp if you're passing through.

Today was going to be mostly vehicle touring covering Valley of the Gods, Monument Valley, and then heading back over towards White Pockets.

What:
   Navajo Mountain (10,346')
When: November 28th, 2014
Where: Utah
Who: Matthew Hengst, Kristen Lindbergh, Jen Blackie
Pictures: [Matt]
GPS Track: [Map]

Navajo Mountain is a peak on the Sierra Club Desert Peak Section list of 99 peaks stretching from Mexico to Utah.  It has the distinction of being very far away and the only peak on the list you can drive up.

Sound awesome?  Well that's not all!  It's located on Navajo land and depending who you ask climbing it is either forbidden or just discouraged.  See the Summitpost page for Navajo for details.

Despite this DPS hasn't seen fit to de-list the peak (despite doing so for Kino, Ajo, and Maturango all of which I've also done and have far less access issues) so I figured it was worth a shot and started calling around.

After getting transferred umpteen times the best answer I was given was "Not everyone likes you up there and you can't leave the road but if you stick to that you should be fine"  I was also able to contact someone through Peakbagger who had just been up there and said he'd had no issues.

So day 2 of the 2014 Turktacular found us driving across Navajo land towards a very big mountain...

What:
   Mollies Nipple (7,271')
When: November 27th, 2014
Where: Utah / Arizona Border
Who: Matthew Hengst, Kristen Lindbergh, Jen Blackie
Pictures: [Matt]
GPS Track: [Map]

Thanksgiving time and once again the plan was to escape civilization and go someplace awesome for the annual Turktacular trip.

This year we decided to head toward Monument Valley out in the Utah/Arizona border area and fill in the other days with Mollies Nipple, Navajo Mountain, Valley of the Gods, and finishing up in White Pockets.  Mostly due to having seen cool pictures of these places or liking the names.

What:
  Mount Tipton (7,148')
When: December 2nd, 2013
Where: Near Kingman Arizona
Who: Matthew Hengst, Kristen Lindbergh
Pictures: [Matt]
GPS Track: [Map]

This was the 6th and final day of the 2013 Turktacular and rather than bum around Sedona for part of the day I wanted to grab a peak a little closer to home.

Tipton is in the northwestern corner of Arizona just north of Kingman but close enough to the California border where the drive home after was reasonable.  Also unlike many of the peaks on the DPS list there isn't anything obvious nearby to combine it with if you want to drive out there for the entire weekend.  (I've seen it listed with Spirit but I'd already done that with McCullough for last years Mustache Mosey)

What:  
  Hayford Peak (9,912')
When:  November 26th, 2012
GPS Track:  Track

Day 4 of the 2012 Thanksgiving Turktacular and we had one more peak in our sights before retreating back to life in Southern California.  This time it was Hayford Peak which had a bit of gain along the way.

What:  
  Virgin Peak (8,071')
When:  November 25th, 2012
GPS Track:  Track

We'd left Valley of Fire State Park (and it's depressingly nice hot showers) behind us the night before and driven several hours further east to the access to Virgin Peak past Whitney Pockets.

Virgin is a Desert Peak Section peak located near enough to Moapa Peak that it's usually logically grouped with that somewhat more interesting climb.  Of course Jack and I had paired Moapa with the also slightly more interesting 3rd class Muddy Peak when we led it back in December of 2011 so Anne and I were planning to grab it along with the peak usually paired with Muddy called Hayford Peak.  (Follow all of that?)

Two days into the 4 day Thanksgiving weekend we'd done 3 peaks and had too more to do.  And we didn't smell half bad.  Not too shabby!