Tower of Silence | Wanderings #5

The exact time we arrived in camp was irrelevant. It was dark, and it would be dark the next morning when we began our hike, so we pulled over in the parking area and set up for the night. Then, it was off to bed.

A few hours later - at 4:15am, still a full three hours before sunrise - we were up again to the sound of my alarm. We had breakfast to eat, a tent to put away, and various bits of camera equipment to load up before donning our headlamps and beginning the trek up Wahweap Wash.

The trailhead, captured on the dash cam, about the time we arrived at the hoodoos.

We had just more than four miles of trail to cover, a situation that under normal circumstances - walking up a mostly-flat wash - would be no problem at all. However, the slick, muddy conditions, and higher water levels in the wash - due to the recent rains - made for slow going. Not only that, but after opting to use only @mrs.turbodb's headlamp to light the way - no need to drain the batteries on both of our sources of light at the same time - it ran out of juice after about 45 minutes, leaving us with only my flashlight, and the hope that it would last for the remainder of the morning!

For three miles we trudged up the wash in the darkness, retracing our path time and again as we found ourselves surrounded by slick clay or hemmed in by braided channels that had only recently refilled with running water. Eventually though, light began to filter in over the horizon and we finally got our first look at the terrain.

Peeling clay.

Wahweap Wash at dawn as we neared the hoodoos.

Wahweap sports at least three groups of hoodoos, and they are all best photographed - at least, for daylight photography - during the 30 minutes surrounding sunrise. This is impossible to do for a normal human - since we can't be in more than one place at once - so I'd decided that I wanted to be sure to capture the most photogenic of the hoodoos - the Tower of Silence - under optimal conditions, and then hope for the best with everything else.

And, after a bit of looking around on satellite imagery, I'd spotted the tallest hoodoo and marked it, so I'd have no trouble finding it in the early morning light.

We arrived, and I was confused. The tallest by far, it looked nothing like the photos I'd seen! Not only had I been duped, but now I was afraid I wouldn't find what I was looking for in the 20-minute window I had remaining.

Tower...of Terror.

Knowing I might not get another shot, I snapped a few pre-dawn photos, and let @mrs.turbodb know that we were now in a rather urgent search to find the tower we'd come to see. She found it all rather amusing, as was surely the reality of the situation.

Half a mile separates the various groups of hoodoos, and predictably, the last group we checked was the one we were looking for. With mere minutes to spare, I worked through a few rushed compositions, hoping that one or another would be "the one."

The Tower of Silence is an impressive sight.

View from the other side.

Wide view.

Further back.

As my heart rate settled back down to a less-terrified pace, I was able to relax a bit and enjoy some of the other hoodoos. The joy of these strange pillars was something that my companion had already discovered, and she gleefully related some of the most interesting she'd found.

Tiny tower tops. And their teeny babies.

Imminent light.

And it was as I was working through a few of the surrounding hoodoos that I realized something amazing was about to happen. My heart rate spiked again as I began sprinting away from wherever we were, and up the hillside. "I've only got a few seconds," I tried to yell down to @mrs.turbodb, but I'm sure it was impossible to decipher.

Just as I bent down, the moment arrived. I pressed the shutter and hoped for the best. By the time I reviewed the image on the back of the camera, it'd be too late for another.

Tower of Silence Sunstar.

"I got it!" I exclaimed, as I hustled back down the hillside to show off the lucky shot to a smiling-at-my-enthusiasm hiking partner. We stayed a few more minutes to watch the sun play over the Tower of Silence, and then began our trek back to the Tacoma, and eventually, home.

Small tower. (left) | Toppling tower. (right)

Two-top tower.

Camel tower. (left) | Tubular tower. (right)

Heading back down the wash felt long - we'd covered 9 miles by the time we arrived at the trailhead at 9:00am - but was made significantly easier given the fact that we could plan our path while seeing more than 50 feet in front of us.

Wahweap Wash as we departed the hoodoos.

I found this translucent stone in the wash. A very large agate perhaps?

I thought this small-scale erosion was super cool. I forgot to lay down my lens cap for scale, but the entire formation was less than 3 inches across!

We'd had the entire place to ourselves, but that wouldn't be the case for the remainder of the day. As we arrived at the trailhead, five groups showed up nearly in unison. As doors opened and radios blared obnoxiously across the previously quiet landscape, we climbed into the cab. Grateful for the chance to rest for a few hours as we drove toward our flight in Las Vegas, we left them to chase a magic that had already moved on.

 

 

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