Slickrock and Shadow

  Orderville Canyoneering:  a memorable day in a good life! Orderville Canyon trail report and advice for anyone looking for adventure.  This is a sweet hike with some fun canyoneering daring requiring swimming, rappelling, jumping into cold pools and more.  The hike does require a PERMIT from the Zion backcountry office.  You can take as many as 12 people in a group.  Our group had 11 at the beginning . . . and 11 at the end!  Success! Start you hike first by leaving a car at the Zion visitor center early in the day.  Then travel to the trailhead in the high eastern plateau above Zion Ponderosa ranch resort.  It's an easy dirt road when it is dry.   The fun begins with a descent down a rough dirt road for 1-2 miles.  Then the trail becomes obvious and drops deeper into the canyon after 1 mile.  Here is where the beauty of a slot canyon begins:  the sandstone walls draw closer and big pine trees hang to the cracks in...

  Columbine Spring is the source of a clear Leeds Creek.  Water just emerges from under these rocks! The origin of Leeds Creek is Columbine Spring.  Columbine Spring emerges from the ground in the foothills of Pine Valley Mountain, the largest mountain in the St. George region.  From the spring, Leeds Creek rambles down the mountain to eventually drop into Harrisburg Creek and then Quail Creek Reservoir.  Leeds provides more water for the reservoir than any other source.   Recently on a training hike I saw "Columbine Spring" listed on a map near Oak Grove campground.  Knowing this is a beautiful region, I wanted to find this spring myself.  After hiking to Oak Grove, I set off in the direction of Columbine Spring.  Be warned that travel to this water is not easy.  Shoulder-height bushes prevent easy movement and travel is slow for the whole 1-2 miles.  It feels like torture.   Having committed myself to go, and gettin...