DESTINATION Generic 219 Photosets
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| Upper Paria/Kitchen Creek/Starlight, UT | | -
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| | Upper Paria/Kitchen Creek/Starlight, UT | | | |
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Upper Paria/Kitchen Creek/Starlight, UT
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| Backpack | 18.00 Miles |
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| | Backpack | 18.00 Miles | 1 Day 4 Hrs | | |
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| no partners | | Car camped at the end of the road to the Paria from the movie set access. Things have changed. What used to be a network of sandy 4X4 roads in the brush has one main smooth graded road with a sandy turn around at the end. Good light at the end of day and as I was sitting in the car eating dark clouds and rumbling of a thunder storm cell overhead. Gentle rain off and on all night. In the morning didn't look like it had rained at all. I took off but explored the colorful bentonite hills on the east side of the huge stream bed. The Paria was low and easily crossed but you can still get wet feet at some of the crossings. There were some mud tube like caves in the mud hills, and I crawled around in a few of them. I finally got with the program and hiked up to Kitchen Creek Canyon and went up that. The canyon bottoms of both Kitchen Creek and Starlight are just ripped up from past flooding. You hike in a mud walled trench along a tiny stream. Again, a little boggy but not terribly soft so good tread. The walls of both canyons are a rich mostly brick red. Kitchen Creek falls actually had a bit more flow this time.
This trip I had two personal and up close first events.
It started to cloud up and rain enough where I had to don my poncho. I chose a high camp at the juncture of Starlight and Kitchen. Best camping is at Kitchen and the Paria, and up Starlight quite aways. I had hoped to use Dripping Tank canyon, a side canyon to Kitchen, to circumvent the falls and get to some historic ranch sites up canyon. A severe flood about 15 years before had taken out the old stock trail which bypassed the falls. I was defeated by a pour off in Dripping tanks and the walls rather sheer with no go round available. I studied a huge talus slope near the falls, I knew Mike Kelsey ( guide book writer) stated there was no way around from here. It looked doable but very scary and if the dirt was unstable a long and nasty fall.
So I gave up that idea and grabbed my day pack and went up Starlight. No pools in the wet narrows but it kinda creeped me out in there. These narrows are in the Kayenta sandstone so supposedly unusual. Starlight branches and gets shallower as you get toward the head. A side canyon has a huge alcove and in there are large pictographs. The huge area looks pot hunted with multiple old dig sites in the shelter. A few corn cobs and pot shards on display. Some local graffiti.
Coming back to camp a cold wind was blowing up the canyon. A small about 25 foot cottonwood sapling gracefully fell right in front of me across the canyon bottom. It made a soft swooshing sound. I guess the old question if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it does it make a sound??-- it does but this one was very gentle. Cottonwoods have it tough in here, the water they crave when it comes down in torrents cuts away the banks and pushes many small trees over and leaves other with roots hanging.
The sun came out to dry out my wet shoes. The next morning I wanted to take a few more pictures at the little falls. As I was shooting a rock cut loose from above, I sprinted to the side, it was a small rock and it blew apart as it hit another rock coming down, I was pelted by a few shards. I've heard plenty of rock falls and seen some fresh evidence but this was the first close experience I've had. It wouldn't have killed me I suppose but probably hurt pretty well if I took a direct hit.
I took some pictures of the fresh red water coming down beside the falls from the shattered sandstone.
Hiking out the sun was out but it was still refreshingly cool, I had thought I would have to tolerate a lot more heat and bugs this trip.
I had time so went down Nipple Ranch road. I was sizing up a Mollies' Nipple peak hike. I had been down this road too many moons ago, and met author Steve Allen almost stuck in the sand in his van, and had a little run in with a BLM guy over a closed road whose sign was obscured by brush. Sure enough a German gentleman was stuck in the sand in his rental car. A shovel and a little tug and he was out and on his way back to pavement. I checked on the small ruin site in the West Swag then was out of there.
Trip notes---
Ghetto, probably rancher made bridge over a 30 foot gully on the Four mile bench road. No way that's county approved. Was solid but I drove over it rapidly.
Pack train on Cottonwood canyon road. Young cowboys trailing fully panniered pack horses.
Because of the road closure took the long way around to Page to access this area. Wrong. If you have a suitable vehicle much better to go by Lee's Ferry and take Rock House canyon road up past the TH's for Buckskin, etc to get to pavement. Quicker and more scenic.
On that road met a group of modified Unimogs with full camper like shells. Don't know where you could go, a lot of clearance but very top heavy.
Great trip but I did not allocate enough time. I had good alone time though, didn't see another hiker on my little forays, and that was good for me. |
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