This explore went from south to north counter-clockwise in the Punchbowl canyon area.
I started out and shortly thereafter ran into smoke. There was an abandoned illegal log fire going with one layer smallish rock and surrounded by pine needles. Luckily, there was no wind as of yet, but usually its quite windy late November, and the wind did show up later. That kept me perplexed as to how the whole place wasnt on fire, but nevertheless, onward I continued to fresh graffiti. I was quite happy to leave this area and go up to the parking lot.
Now for the disclaimer...this is not 'easy', and was about 2 hours for just 400ft. I was particularly interested in a couple of rocks and so thats where I ended up. Big ones. Basically the area is a few 'fins'/uplifts that are cliffy on one side and massive slants on the upside.
I ended up in the arches section of the park, battle tested lol, which is close to the parking lot. Just for info: the parking area itself was out of water, but there was a 5 gallon container in the visitor center. It was 10:30 am.
Onward and up to the Burkhardt trail. And then down into the East fork of Punchbowl. If the previous explore was medium difficulty, this one is hard. This area of the park has a bunch of tall fins and down below on the ground visibility is quite limited.
But once the east fork got going, theres only one way so its easy. A few downclimbs and some narrow curvy sections and I was back in Punchbowl canyon and back to the car at 1:30 pm.
Stats: 7 hours, 4.5 miles, 1200 elevation gain/loss.
sample of new graffiti
