I started out at the 29th Street trailhead. I quickly moved south and then east up Waterfall Canyon. The water was still flowing pretty well down this canyon; surprisingly quick for September and I hoped there would be water at the falls. It has been a couple of years since I went up this trail and I apparently had forgotten that it is somewhat steep. That said, I did make good time and I did not pause until I hit the first bridge at the mouth of the canyon.
From this point, it gets quite rocky for portions of the trail. There is no real scrambling, but you do need to watch your step as my father-in-law experienced a fall here a few years ago.
It only took about 35 minutes to make it to the falls. I was in luck as there was still some water spilling over although this is probably best seen in the late spring or early summer when the snowpack runoff is at its peak. Nonetheless, it is still beautiful.
Below the falls on the north side of the stream, there sits a sad tribute to a 17 year-old young man who died here in 2010 when he fell while rock climbing. My heart goes out to the family of Christopher Kirvan.
I had to convince myself that I could scramble/rock climb to the area above the falls. I have heard that a number of people do this so I figured I had to give it a shot. It turns out that I was making too much out of it and it was actually pretty fun. Climbing on the larger rocks was exciting but scrambling on the smaller, loose rocks was somewhat of a hassle.
Just as I started this climb, a hawk cried out to me. I thought perhaps it was a warning not to scramble up the rocks but I convinced myself this was silly. The hawk circled once and quickly flew out of the area above the falls.
It was from here that things went south. It was hard to figure out where to climb to so I took a route that would put me above the falls. It seemed that this is where most people would have gone, but I was somewhat shocked when I climbed to this steep ridge expecting to find a trail and instead it was just a steep dropoff into Malans Basin. Great.
I was not about to climb back down the rocks that I had come up for fear that I would loose my footing. Instead, I planned to head east and then north following the contour line inside Malans Basin. My maps did not show a trail where I was, so I kind of expected this at the top of the scramble but it was some pretty rough terrain. I had to climb over a giant boulder that was probably 15 feet tall. The difficult part was getting down the other side where I had to hang by my fingers and then drop about six feet. Nothing like slowly sliding a 195 pound body down a rock and hanging by your fingers to teach you some humility.
You might notice there are fewer pictures than I usually post. This is due to not only being lost but also because we had some family issues occur while I was out "enjoying nature". The most immediate issue was that Keagan had fallen at school on some playground equipment and he had to get stitches.
Searching for the trail, I came across a deer trail and followed. Follow these long enough and guess what you find - deer. One was really close but two others were quite a ways away when they took off in the opposite direction. If you look closely at the photo below you can see the deer in the center looking at the camera. She is somewhat hard to see as she blends in with the trees.
From this point I moved mostly north in search of a creek in Malans Basin where my maps were showing a trail that should run up Malans to Mount Ogden. The brush was thick and I had a hard time seeing my feet through all of the vegetation. Not a good feeling considering my fear of snakes, not to mention I didn't want to roll an ankle where I was.
I finally found the stream in the basin and imagine that, I could not find the trail that was supposed to be found just to the north of it. I snaked back and forth across the stream looking for a trail on either side, sometimes having luck in finding what at times looked like a primitive trail. This trail would constantly disappear and I was either backtracking or pushing through the brush, my legs getting pretty scratched up the entire way.
About one mile south and east of Malans Peak I came upon the trail at an elevation of about 7,100 feet. I was ecstatic until I started a gentle climb again. I thought I was going to follow the trail down the canyon back to the trailhead until I checked my map and realized I had yet to hit Malans Peak and then circle around Taylor Canyon before heading back down. Considering that my boy was getting stitches and my wife and I were supposed to celebrate our anniversary with dinner at Rooster's, I was frustrated at how late it was getting.
I tried to run a portion of the trail, but my knees cannot take the beating of running down steep slopes. I would run or double-time up and on flat surfaces, but that only lasted until Malans Peak and then it was all downhill from there. It's too bad that I was pressed for time because I did not get to enjoy the view from Malans Peak.
Taylor Canyon was very pretty. It is a smaller canyon with fairly steep walls. Trees provide plenty of beautiful shade but again, the trail is fairly steep. I followed a dry creek bed as the trail switched back to the west. About halfway down the canyon at an elevation of 5,300 feet there is another stream that flows from the south and merges with the aforementioned dry creek.
From this point it was only about a one mile hike back to the trailhead. My wife and I met at the restaurant for our anniversary dinner. She looked beautiful and I looked like a transient who had just hopped off the train by Union Station. I can't imagine that I will be heading up that trail next week. But maybe in a couple of years.
Here is a map for this hike:
View Malans Peak - 2011-09-09 in a larger map
Here is a slideshow/link to the photo album of this hike:
