North Bass Trail, AZ :: White Creek Canyon, Hotauta Canyon, Natural Bridge, Water Cache

[louie]

Doing this next week and have a few questions:

Is it possible to backpack white creek (white canyon on the topo map) from the natural bridge south to where the main trail connects with white creek again? If not is this a worth while area to drop the backpacks and do some day hiking as far as we can safely travel either from the bridge down or upstream from where the trail connects again with white creek? How tricky is it to get under the natural bridge and check out the sinkholes and little caves under the bridge?

Any need to cache water on this hike?

Does Hotauta canyon have a stream flowing through it? How far back can it be day hiked? Is it worth exploring like are there cool narrows or little falls to splash around in?

As always really appreciate the feedback from those that have done this hike. It is immensely helpful :-)

Louie

[ShatteredArm]

@louie
It's unlikely you'd be able to drop into White Creek from the natural arch. The canyon drops really fast and precipitously through the Redwall.

You could try hiking up the canyon from where the trail drops in, it looks like it's passable for a little ways. As far as caching water, shouldn't be necessary on North Bass, I believe the White Canyon narrows has perennial water.

[louie]

@ShatteredArm Sweet! A rare Grand Canyon hike that doesn’t require a water cache. Looking forward to not having to pack that extra weight. Thank you!

[nonot]

@louie
from the natural bridge to stay in the canyon requires the use of technical gear due to many rappels over cliffs each up to about 100 feet tall. The second bypass is going around some more rappels. The third bypass also is around a 100 ft cliff.

You can reach the natural bridge from the trail but can't go much further, so exploration is fine but you will not have to allocate much time for it. Going upstream or downstream at the other intersections is a similar story.

You may also want to check out the chock-stone/narrows area near the Redwall canyon intersection by hiking upstream from the 3rd bypass completion.

[louie]

I did this hike last May and was thrilled with the amount of water all along the trail. Also, there is a rabbit hole at Shinumo falls where one can drop over the boulder next to the fall and then climb up the rabbit hole to get back above the fall again. We watched rafters do this over and over. Stellar trip!!!