Death Canyon Recon

The first 2 days of summer have been absolutely gorgeous in Jackson, after what seems like weeks of constant rainy days. Okay, not quite that bad, but still it was a pleasant change to see 2 days of weather forecast and no mention of the R-word. Mostly sunny and 70+ degrees, bring it on! Unfortunately, both Jill and I are recovering from some sort of viral bug that laid us low for a day or so; we were only ready for a low-key hike.

We headed for the Rockefeller Preserve in Teton Park, thinking we would do a Phelps Lake loop and check out the avalanche debris at the foot of Death Canyon; Katie, Eric, and I saw this last week hiking the Valley Trail from LSR to Teton Village. The parking lot at LSR Preserve was full, no big surprise, with perhaps a 15-minute wait. No thanks! Instead, we bounced our way into the Whitegrass Trailhead for Death Canyon. The road isn't any worse than last year, but certainly not any better either. We hiked to Phelps Lake overlook, and then decided to go up Death Canyon as far as we could (or wanted to) instead of doing a lake loop.

The avalanche footprint was impressive, and extended further than I would have guessed; it ran all the way to the creek. Considering that the couloir runs all the way up to the south face of Albright Peak (10,552') I guess a full track avalanche would make a mess. Here's the view from the trail coming down from Phelps Lake Overlook.

The sign at the trail junction definitely had a bad day then, and was propped upright.

After switchback #2, the next straightaway came to this slide path just below 7200'. The snow had softened enough that people were kicking steps in it and crossing (in tennis shoes, no less -- yikes). We didn't have ice axes along, and I didn't like the looks of the potential 100-foot runout into a boulder field, so we turned around here.

On the trail down from the overlook, Jill called my name softly; expecting a bear or a moose, I turned around to see her pointing at this mule deer buck about 15' off the trail. I had walked right past him; I was looking the other way and he was totally unconcerned about us.

A desert springtime tradition

Hiking out of Upper Salt Creek, I'd already made up my mind to head back home. After three weeks in southern Utah, all the spectacular scenery was starting to run together. I stopped for the night outside of Ferron, Utah. The rain on the trailer roof woke me up about 4am, but it was quiet again by 5:30 or so.

Last year I had two springtime desert trips that ended in snowstorms. It seems that the tradition continues.

It rained steadily, sometimes hard, all the way north to Brigham City. From Price to Soldier Summit it was snowing huge fat snowflakes and trying to get slushy-slick on the highway. I don't know if they were having the same weather further south in Canyonlands, but I was glad to be out of there.

Upper Salt Creek backpacking

This place has been on my list for at least 15 years; it is known for great Indian ruins, rock art, arches, and spectacular scenery. This was the first time I'd brought backpacking gear with me to Canyonlands, so I was prepared. On Sunday morning, the campsite schedule on the wall in the backcountry office showed site SC3 was open for Monday night; perfect, I thought, 8 miles in, just right for an overnight. The woman at the backcountry desk said, "No, one night in Salt Creek isn't enough. Site SC1 is open the next night, take that one too!"  Okay, I took her advice.

The trailhead is 18 miles from the highway on fairly well-maintained dirt road. I would not want to be caught back here in rainy weather though, the road would become impassable in several places when wet. Monday was cool and very breezy, downright cold at the trailhead (7100') but not bad after dropping down into the canyon and getting out of the worst of the wind. Unfortunately the weather forecast is not so great, showers possible on Tuesday, with Tuesday night and Wednesday becoming much cooler and 40% chance of showers. Hmmm, at least I do have extra food and water if I have to spend a couple extra days at the trailhead waiting for the road to dry out.

Upper Salt Creek is pretty much as advertised. The first mile or so is a steep descent, almost 1000', then the walking is mostly easy walking on the canyon floor. Two hours in, you come to Kirk Spring which is an enormous water source, and the site of an old cabin. The first two campsites, SC1 and SC2, are about a 6-7 minute walk from the spring. (SC1 is the nicer of the two, shadier and more secluded)

 

 

From that point on, the scenery (which has been great) just keeps getting better. Several arches are visible, Big Ruin (the largest in Salt Creek) is about a mile further on the opposite side of the canyon, most of the places that look like they might have a granary or a ruin do indeed turn out to have ruins, and there is more and more rock art the further you go. Binoculars are mandatory equipment for this trip, for scanning the canyon walls. The best-known rock art here is a panel known as "All American Man", for obvious reasons... Click on the picture to enlarge it, and note the handprints on the panel.

The pigments have been radiocarbon-dated to approximately 1295 AD, plus/minus. This pictograph is about 7 miles from the trailhead. Another 3/4 mile or so brings you to the Four Faces ruin and pictograph panel, again named for obvious reasons.

  

Then about 50 yards to a huge spring, the first easily accessible water since Kirk Spring two hours ago

and another 100 yards to my campsite for the night.  SC3 is a nice campsite, in the open about 75 yards from the main trail; it has a good cooking area, two tent sites in the open, one tent site in the shade of a tree, and two rocket boxes for mandatory food storage (there are bears in Salt Creek Canyon). I set up my tent, stored my food, unloaded my pack as much as possible, and hiked another 1.5 miles further; it's all spectacular.

At 5am the next morning, I woke to what sounded like very light rain on the tent fly; not what I wanted to hear. It continued off and on, and by 6:00 there was enough light to get up and get moving. 40 degrees and raining is not my favorite weather, even in a spectacular place; I had my rain gear on over the top of my down jacket. It didn't rain hard, but a steady light sprinkle just enough to want rain gear.

I was already concerned about the weather forecast; the last I'd heard, cooler and wetter weather was on its way. I figured I had seen most of the highlights here, I didn't want to get caught at the trailhead with muddy impassable roads, and after almost three weeks of hiking and biking in southern Utah, all the spectacular scenery was starting to run together. That left only one conclusion: time to go.

So after a quick breakfast in the rain, I struck camp and headed out. The rain stopped by about 8:30 or so. I did stop at campsite SC1 just to see what it looked like (very nice!). After 4 hours of brisk hiking I ate lunch sitting on the tailgate of the truck. It did rain lightly on the drive out, but never hard enough to get the road really wet.

GPS log and pictures at EveryTrail.com

Picasa web album for this Canyonlands trip

Thoughts for future Salt Creek trips: Binoculars are mandatory equipment. It would be handy to have a guidebook or detailed info on all of the ruins to be on the lookout for; in some cases, like Big Ruin, just getting to the ruin itself is a challenge if you don't know the route.  For a one-night trip, get campsites SC1 (preferably) or SC2, hike to camp, drop most of the gear there, and then continue on to the ruins and rock art. Bring large water containers for sites SC1/2, it's a bit of a walk to water. The best trip would be an end-to-end hike with a vehicle shuttle. Getting the permits right would be a bit tricky, as camping in the upper 14 miles is limited to designated sites SC1, SC2, SC3, and SC4. From Angel Arch on to the north, the remaining 12 miles of Salt Creek is dispersed backcountry camping with no designated sites. I think three nights would be fine but four would be deluxe.

Horse Canyon to Tower Ruin

I went to the backcountry desk in the Visitor Center shortly after they opened, and was able to get campsites in Upper Salt Creek for 2 nights beginning tomorrow. Sweet! But with 20+ miles of backpacking in the next 3 days, I figured I'd better make sure I could indeed walk without getting blisters from the new hiking shoes. Suitably moleskinned and with a different choice of socks, I drove to the Salt Creek trailhead; my objective was a ten mile round trip to Tower Ruin, in Horse Canyon.

The first 2.5 miles is easy walking in and along Salt Creek. Walking in the creek bed was usually easier, since it provided firmer footing than up in the sand alongside. There was enough water in Salt Creek to make it impassable for 4WD vehicles (in the dry season, it is open as far as Peekaboo Spring), but you rarely had to get your feet wet. At the 2.5 mile mark, Horse Canyon branches off to the left (east); it is all dry sandy wash walking.

Another two miles in, and a sandy two-track 4WD road leads another mile back to Tower Ruin. It gets its name from the adjacent sandstone tower.

Tower Ruin is the largest of the ruins in Horse Canyon. It's not all that big, and thought to have been occupied by only one family unit.

There are other ruins and pictograph panels in Horse Canyon, or so I'm told. I didn't see any, but I didn't have binoculars along and didn't spend any time really looking. It's another five miles further up canyon to get to Castle Arch and Fortress Arch; that was more than I wanted to tackle today, saving my energy for tomorrow's backpacking.

From the point where Horse Canyon left Salt Creek, I didn't see any water at all, and didn't see another person. I'd like to go back here as an overnight trip, carrying the extra water but spending more time scanning the canyon walls and visiting the arches.

Oh yes, my heels were fine, no more blisters.

GPS log and more pictures on EveryTrail.com

Picasa web album for this trip to Canyonlands

Colorado Overlook Trail

The weather was cloudy with a chance of showers, and the blister on my heel was sore from yesterday's hiking. I decided to bike out to the Colorado Overlook; the 4wd road leaves from the Needles Visitor Center and goes seven miles out to, well, an overlook of the Colorado River. The first three miles is an easy 2wd high clearance road, the remainder gets considerably more technical; definitely 4WD high clearance and I wouldn't take my truck.

I was hurrying a little bit to make sure I could get out and back before it started raining. Out at the overlook, it was 50 degrees and windy, not very pleasant at all especially after the gorgeous weather the past few days. So I snapped a couple of obligatory pictures and headed back.

The squall that came through only rained long enough for me to put on raingear, it was over in less than five minutes and never rained hard. Oh well. I spent the rest of the day exploring all of the roads and nature trails in the Needles section (the cowboy camp at Cave Spring is very interesting). When all was said and done, I'd put 32 miles on the mountain bike and that was more than enough time in the saddle for one day.

Peekaboo, Lost Squaw

It sounds like some sort of parlor game. But actually it was a long hike in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. My starting plan was an out-and-back hike from the Squaw Flat trailhead over to Peekaboo Spring in Salt Creek, for an 11 mile round trip.

The trail out to Peekaboo Spring is spectacular. After some ups-and-downs in and out of Lost Canyon, it climbs a few hundred feet and then traverses the rims of several huge amphitheaters. Almost all of this walking is on sandstone and slickrock, with great vistas.

Eventually the trail drops down into Salt Creek. There is a 20-foot ladder descent through a narrow crack that might be a challenge with a large (wide) backpack. At Peekaboo Spring there is a primitive campsite with a pit toilet and 2 tent sites with picnic tables. When the creek is drier in the summer, 4WD vehicles can drive up Salt Creek to this point. There is a small panel of pictographs near the campsite. This is a popular trail, I saw a half-dozen other parties on this trail.

On the way back, I still had lots of food and water and energy so I decided to add a longer return route via Lost Canyon and Squaw Canyon. I did have to stop and put moleskin on a heel blister; my new hiking shoes were great on their maiden voyage to Trough Springs. Today I was wearing different socks and that must have been the issue.

At the junction with the Peekaboo Springs trail, Lost Canyon looks nice enough but nothing spectacular. Campsite LC1 is near this junction, I didn't see any water nearby. But going up-canyon, I have to say that Lost Canyon is gorgeous. Campsite LC2 is maybe a mile up-canyon; another 1/4 mile up-canyon and the springs appear. There is lots of water in here, amazingly lush, and in some places the trail routing was a little bit tricky to avoid big pools and spongy terrain. There was one place that held a huge aspen grove. I'd like to come back here in the fall when the aspens are in full color.

Another mile or so marked the end of the springs, and then about 1/4 mile further was campsite LC3. If I had my choice, I'd take LC2 over LC3. Then another mile of walking put me up over the divide between Lost Canyon and Squaw Canyon, and down to the bottom of Squaw Canyon. Note the world's largest zerk fitting on top of the rim in the distance...

I didn't see anybody else in Lost Canyon, and only one other party near the bottom of Squaw Canyon. Including the mile or so of poking around that I did in Salt Creek, the whole trip was about 14.5 miles. I started with three liters of water, and drained the last few swallows back at the Squaw Flat trailhead.

GPS log and more pictures on EveryTrail.com

Trough Springs and Canyon Rims

Leaving Moab, my plan was to head for the Needles District in Canyonlands NP. But first, there was this road on the map, north of the road into Needles, that led to some places called Needles Overlook, and Anticline Overlook. Those sounded interesting. The map also showed a campground there. With a bit of online research before leaving Moab, I found the BLM web page describing the Canyon Rims Recreation Area. It seemed like this would be worth one night.

The Hatch Point campground is about 25 miles from US 191, first on good paved road (the Needles Overlook road) and then well-graded gravel road (the Anticline Overlook road). It's a small campground, nine sites with pit toilets and water, and it was very quiet when I was there; only 2 other sites occupied, one by a couple from Durango with a Scamp trailer of their own. Site #1 has great views.

I drove out to the Anticline Overlook and Minor Overlook, and oohed and aahed over the views there.

The BLM information sign mentioned a hiking trail, so I figured I'd better check that out. The Trough Springs trail is a down-and-back-up trail, 2.5 miles each way. The total descent is 1100' but the majority of that comes in the last mile as the trail descends a steep rockfall section of the canyon.

At the end of the descent is Trough Springs, a pretty oasis. From Trough Springs it is a mile or so down to the Kane Springs 4WD road (accessible from Moab). The Trough Springs trail was well-cairned but it didn't appear to get much use at all. I didn't see any recent tire tracks at the trailhead, or any recent footprints on trail except for one set of tracks down at the very bottom by the springs. It had been rainy the previous two days, so that had reset the track-meter as it were.

Trough Springs GPS log and pictures at EveryTrail.com

The next morning I rode the mountain bike out to the Canyonlands Overlook, about a 13-mile roundtrip from the Anticline road. The Canyonlands Overlook road is signed as "4WD Required", which I would agree with. The first 5.5 miles are mostly easy 4WD high clearance; there is one stretch of sand about 4 miles in, maybe 100 yards long, that might be a little bit tricky. At about 5.5 miles in, there is a small turnaround area with a nice overlook to the north. Beyond that point is technical 4WD, not suitable for normal road vehicles, but very nice intermediate mountain biking. It is about 1 mile to the Canyonlands Overlook itself; pit toilet, picnic table, and more killer views...