When I found out that the Cannonville area of Utah had almost no snow left, and was in fact mostly dry, I knew that this is where I wanted to go on Saturday.
David and I drove down the morning of February 12th and spent the day hiking the north edge of the Butler Valley, between Kodachrome State Park and Grosvenor Arch.
Our main goal was to find Pet Wood Arch. We found it tucked into a pocket in the northwest cliffs of Butler Valley. It turned out to be a nice class “B” natural arch and the name obviously came from the abundance of petrified wood fragments in the area.
We then continued exploring from the bottom of the cliffs along the north edge of Butler Valley. We ended up on the northeast end where we found a small class “D” natural arch called Butler Valley Arch.
This trek allowed us to probe a number of secluded coves and enjoy the unique landscape of the area.
The late afternoon shadows were growing long when we finally hiked back to my vehicle. However, we still had enough light to quickly visit nearby Grosvenor Arch for a few last minute pictures.
We also spent a few minutes explored the dirt road that continued east from Grosvenor Arch and over a pass called “The Gut”. We decided that we were going to have to go back to explore that area better some other day.
We also visited “grosvenor’s arch” in May and when we arrived we met a man who was there with his brother. He said that he and his brother had CLIMBED! that arch when they were teenagers, more young and foolish as they told us. But what is important to note was his anger at the name of this arch. This arch was originally named after the local who discovered it and the valley Butler. So I will continue to refer to it as the original Butler’s arch. with the new name due to funding in parenthesis. I thought I’d pass on the word. Nice photos.
I am an interpretive writer, and I’m working with the Tropic Heritage Center in Tropic, UT, to create interpretive panels on the natural history of the area for visitors to their community. They have very few photos to place on the panels. One of the panels will focus on the ecology of the Paria River. Your photo on the top of this page, of the river, is lovely, and I’m wondering if you’d be willing to allow us to use it (or other photos of the river that are not on this page) on this education panel.
Thanks very much for considering this.