Although shorter than the day before, this was still a pretty strenuous day. We finished up the last leg of the Wildcat Canyon trail and hopped on the West Rim Trail.
Zion – Day 3 : West Rim Trail
Blog
Zion – Day 2 : Hop Valley and Wildcat Canyon Trail
This was a loooong day. By far the hardest day of the trip. We started the day on the La Verkin Creek Trail and quickly turned onto the trail Hop Valley. We came across some fairly large mountain lion track so we decided not to waste time and quickly hurried along to Hop Valley.
It seemed like we were in Hop Valley forever, but we finally exited… only to find ourselves in the hot sun surrounded by more cows.
Shortly after this last photo we found a spring where we were able to re-supply water and then setup camp. At the end of the day, I think we hiked somewhere between 12 and 14 miles, a lot which was up hill.
Zion – Day 1: Kolob Canyon/La Verkin Creek
We began hiking at Lee’s Pass (Kolob Canyon area) along the La Verkin Creek Trail. This was the shortest of all days at about ~6 miles to camp, and then another mile to the Kolob Arch.
Not far from our campsite was the short trail to the Kolob Arch (the second largest natural arch in the world). We setup camp and then made the short hike to the arch.
Zion – Day 0: The Start of a Great Adventure
We arrived in Springdale, Utah around lunch time and picked up our backcountry permits at the Zion National Park Visitor Center. We were a little nervous as we had to get walk up permits for two of the four nights of our overnight trip, but luckily they had some left so we could start hiking the next day.
We did not have any reservations for the evening, but we were able to secure a walk up site at a campsite just outside the east entrance.
Sunrise Over Lake Cardinal and Toxaway
Meet My Pets
New Camera
Panthertown Valley Backpack Trip
A few weekends ago I went on a backpacking trip in Panthertown Valley, NC. My grandparents have a lake house 15 minutes away at Lake Toxaway so I have spent a lot of time in this area. This is the first time I have spent more than one night in the area which allowed us to cover a lot more ground than usual.
The best map I have found of the Valley was purchased years ago at an outdoor store in the area. This website has a good overview of the trails as well, but some of the smaller ones are missing.
We started off at the Cold Mountain entrance, hiked to Schoolhouse Falls, then headed up the mountain to Little Green where we camped for the night. We got up early the next morning and headed over towards Granny Burrell Falls where we had lunch. From there, we went to Salt Rock (awesome view across the valley). From Salt Rock, we headed back into the valley. We didn’t have much of a plan other than we wanted to end the day at Jawbone Falls. Once across the valley, we ended up taking a trail that put us out on the left side of Warden Falls. We hung out there for a bit, then crossed the creek so we were on river right which allowed us to take the main trail to Jawbone to setup camp. The next morning, we made another quick stop at Schoolhouse before heading back to the Cold Mountain parking lot. 
This area is one of my favorites – there are tons of waterfalls, and other great views. If you don’t have time for an overnight trip, there are still plenty of easy day trips. This site has a ton of photos and gives a good break down of where everything is.
