Tuesday: Five Hour Hike

I have lots of one to three hour hikes around the lodge. This year I'm looking for a four to six hour hike somewhere. Last night I was thinking I could hike up to Hurrah, over to Scorched Earth Trail, and then try and find a way from Scorched Earth, where the Three Guys on a Roller Coaster figures are, then see if I could find a way up on the Amasa Back, down Jackson Ladder, and back to the lodge. There is a way currently but you have to take the valley and stone canyon almost all the way down to the bottom of Amasa Back and then back up again. I wanted to find a way to traverse the stone canyon up to Amasa Back to get the incredible views.

Jax and I drove out to Jackson Hole and then hiked up Jackson Ladder. There was a huge rock missing right in the middle of the trail about two thirds of the way up and it made that part much more difficult than it's ever been.

The first time I ever hiked Jackson Ladder, probably almost exactly 11 years ago I ran across a rock that was pinned between two others and I remember thinking that it probably wouldn't still be there when I got back to start down the ladder yet here it is 11 years later.

Looking down from the top of the ladder I can see the side by side next to the big rock and then we start working our way across the rim to the furthest point you can see on the left side that is jutting up in the second picture.

We take Upper Ahab bike trail, split off to Himasa bike trail and then make our own trail the last mile or so to the top.

In the first picture you can see the large shadow of Jackson Butte and behind it and elevated a little higher is the small shadow of Jackson Ladder where Jax and I had climbed up a couple hours before. The second picture shows Behind the Rocks and the La Sal mountains behind them. The video puts it all together.

Now it's time to try and find a way down in to the stone canyon. After scrambling around for 20 minutes I find a way, but it's dicey. Walk across the black patina, it's a steep angle, then slide down the angled wall, then drop into the stone canyon below. Jax is staring at me just waiting for the word that we're going to try it. I'm nervous I'll lose a couple guests and I'm not 100% sure I can make it either. I'm almost positive I can't make it back up so I better be right that this will take us back to Three Guys on a Roller Coaster and eventually back to Hurrah. We're not going to find out today.

It's getting late. Time to get back so we can get down the ladder before it gets dark. I run across these sort of cut out brick formations up here on Amasa Back a lot. It's very unique and almost always cut square or rectangle. I find them in granary's a lot where the Anasazi used them to make their storage facilities.Tight fit.