Lava Point

The flat expanse of Lava Point ends abruptly. The view from its edge is difficult to describe. It encompasses a vast landscape, from Cedar Breaks National Monument on the north, to red rock canyons on the south. Most of the view is filled with plateaus topped with pine and fir forests. The many canyons bisecting these plateaus show as mere cracks. The air is cool and scented with pine.

We have been camping at Watchman Campground. From there, the dark brown top of West Temple was about 4,000 feet above us. Now, we are looking at the opposite side of West Temple. It is slightly lower than Lava Point and 12 miles away to the south.

The guidebooks are correct when describing the road onto Kolob Plateau. As a matter of fact, they could have double underlined the phrase "narrow and winding" and not been guilty of overstatement. The road twists, turns, and loops, as it climbed to 7,890 feet elevation.

Lava Point is formed from black basaltic rock. Seven million years ago, this molten lava flowed from Home Knoll, an ancient cinder cone a mile to the west. Some canyons were already in place and the lava filled them. Other canyons have since formed with lava high on their walls.

Below my feet is a slope of basalt boulders broken from the edge of this ancient lava. A high, chattering call comes from below. I have to search for its source. The call stops when a least chipmunk scurries across a boulder. The chattering begins again when it sits up to once again scold me.

Getting a good look with binoculars is not easy. The chipmunk rarely stops and then for only few seconds. Soft brown marks its sides and tail, with a gray back and white belly. Long, grizzled tail hairs glow in the sun. The central stripe down its back is black with gray bordering stripes. These stripes distinguish it from other area rodents. The stripes on a golden-mantled ground squirrel or antelope ground squirrel end at the shoulder while these continue into the chipmunk’s face

The long tail is as expressive as a house cat’s, whipping back and forth as it chatters. The tail can be used as a speed gauge. As the least chipmunk runs forward, the tail goes to vertical. When it stops, the tail drops. Since its movements are a series of sprints interspersed with quick stops, the tail is whipping up and down.

Least is probably not a good descriptor of this energetic animal. They are the west’s most widely distributed chipmunk, both in area and elevation. Considered a sagebrush chipmunk, they usually live in areas covered with sagebrush, but are often seen in trees. True, they are the smallest area chipmunks, about eight inches in length (including the tail) and weighting a whopping two ounces, but they are anything but "least."

This least chipmunk will probably begin hibernation in November, long after its larger cousins have retired for the winter. It will then be back outside by March, even if it has to dig upward through snow. These tiny chipmunks have the shortest hibernation length of any area chipmunks.

The trail between the overlook and the campground weaves between ponderosa pines and white firs. This forest scene seems out of place in Zion National Park, yet its existence is the essence of Zion. We drove past Coalpits Wash on our way here. Lava Point is 4,200 feet higher than Coalpits Wash. Lava Point is cool forest while Coalpits Wash is hot desert. The plants and animals occupying these two locales represent habitats normally separated by hundreds of horizontal miles. Here, in the vertical world of Zion, they are a mere 15 miles apart.

The trail passes through a clump of quaking aspens. Their twisted trunks are evidence of the deep winter snows. Standing under these trees offers one of those definitive Western experiences. As aspen leaves quiver in a slight breeze, the ground is covered with a dance of sunlight and shadow.

Aspen leaves "quake" as a defense against wind. I find a fallen leaf and grasp its stem between two fingers, so the leaf is suspended upside down. The leaf is difficult to twirl because the stem is flattened rather than round. This shape allows the stem to easily bend when buffeted by the wind, resulting in less wind pressure on the leaves. Fewer limbs break off during wind gusts and we get to enjoy the "quakies."

While aspens produce seeds each spring, few trees grow from seeds. It is much more common for new trees to arise from the roots of an established tree. These root suckers are a form of asexual reproduction, resulting in aspen thickets where all the trees are the same individual. Each tree is a clone of the others. They are all exactly alike, male, or female, with the same characteristics. They all leaf out at the same time in spring and their leaves are the same size. In fall, they turn the same shade of yellow and at the same time. Cloning is an advantage since after a fire, new shoots can quickly rise from the root mass.

Although no individual aspen tree lives much more than 200 years, many aspen clones are thought to be 10,000 years old, considerably older than the oldest bristlecone pine.

The most massive living organism may be an aspen clone here in Utah. 47,000 stems arise from the same root mass. This single individual covers 106 acres and weighs thirteen million pounds (one giant sequoia weighs only 4.7 million pounds.)

A ruby-crowned kinglet sings from the top of a fir tree, providing me with a quick hearing check. I can still hear the high notes at the beginning of this tiny bird’s energetic song.

The trail enters the open space of the Lava Point Campground where Cindy is talking to a family as they load their car with camping gear. The campground’s six camping spots are free, cannot be reserved, offer no water, and have vault toilets (a nice name for outhouses). Yet the spots are usually full throughout the summer. Campers come here to enjoy the cool temperatures at this high elevation.

Sagebrush covers a patch of ground within the campground’s circular drive. Several dirt ridges meander across this ground. Each is a solid coil of dirt about three inches across. Snaking across each other, they look like dirty fire hoses littering the ground.

They were created last winter, by the northern pocket gopher. This tiny gopher is basically defenseless and a very shy animal. It spends 99% of its life underground, tunneling about as it eats plant roots. Its efforts churn and aerate the soil, improving the soil and encouraging the abundance of flowering plants.

About the only reason a male pocket gopher might risk traveling above ground is the search for a mate. The rest of the year, it digs its solitary tunnels. Tunneling results in extra dirt that must be discarded somewhere. After dark, the pocket gopher emerges from its tunnel to spread the dirt in a distinctive fan shape before hurrying back underground. All openings to the surface are kept sealed against predators such as coyotes and weasels.

The pocket gopher does not hibernate. During winter, it feels safer above ground since Lava Point is buried beneath several feet of snow. The snow is easy to tunnel through and excess dirt is then packed into the snow tunnels. When the snow melts in spring, these dirt-filled tunnels are exposed, and left as dirt coils littering the ground.

Botta’s pocket gophers live along the river in Zion Canyon, but snow never accumulates enough to be used as a dirt dump. The only evidence of their existence is the fan-shaped dirt scatters.

As I return along the path, serviceberry, chokecherry, and snowberry bushes sport white flowers. Beneath them are blue lupine and red Indian paintbrush flowers. The ground is covered with a duff of pine needles and the wind sighs through pine trees. Calling yank, yank, a white-breasted nuthatch climbs through the limbs of a ponderosa pine. The air holds a distinctive smell of warm pine forest. Lava Point seems a world away from the canyons most visitors see in Zion National Park.