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| | Deer Creek - Kanab Creek Loop, AZ | | | |
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Deer Creek - Kanab Creek Loop, AZ
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| Backpack | 52.00 Miles |
7,397 AEG |
| | Backpack | 52.00 Miles | 5 Days | | |
| 7,397 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | GPS says 69.6 miles and just short of 61,832 feet of gain. Such is what happens when you walk through narrow canyons for five days! John knocked it down to 52 miles and 6,000 feet, which is probably under-doing it a little bit. Regardless of the actual stats, the totals were a lot. And most of the miles and feet were hard. Really, really hard. No pain no gain. What an amazingly beautiful trip!
Tuesday
Drove to the north rim. It had rained and snowed overnight leaving some nice winter scenes at the highest elevations and dust-free driving on the dirt roads. We camped at Sowats on a chilly night that dropped into the upper 20s, and the road there was a deeply rutted, freshly muddy 4wd adventure mess. The kind of drive that a truck loves. It took me 25 minutes in the high-pressure self-wash after the trip to get all the mud cleaned off. 
Wednesday - 9.45 miles, -4778ft, 847aeg, 5:37
Left my truck at Sowats and piled in Karl's truck and drove over to Monument Point. The mud was noticeably better after just an extra night of drying out. Even midweek at this time of year, we were surprised to find only 3 cars at Bill Hall. We got started with the climb up to Monument and the familiar descent down to the esplanade where numerous pools of water remained after a day of rain. After a chilly start, it warmed up and by the time we dropped through the redwall break down into Surprise Valley, it became a bit warmer than my preference. I was ready for last push down into the Deer Creek drainage to be over. I took the time to stop at the throne room again. There are more thrones than the last time I was there. There was no water flowing from the spring, but it's not called the Deer Creek Spring Room, it's called the Throne Room ... thus still a worthy stop, and only a few steps off the route.
Deer Creek has flooded hard recently and there's a lot of damage. Water made its way through the camp area though it's still in mostly fine shape. BUT for a zone with "two" camp sites, NPS should really get out there and clean up some of the post-flood growth and deadfall debris. There is really only one site now, though it's certainly big enough to handle two groups. You just get to be social with anybody else who has a permit on the same night.
We headed down to the patio for a sunset happy hour bevvy before heading back up to camp for dinner and relaxation time before bed.
Thursday - ~11.4 mi, -558ft, ~1000aeg, 10:04
This was our unknown day. We had no gps route and only a couple of online reports of people having done it before. It started easy enough with the beautiful push through the Deer Creek Narrows and the drop down to the river (with great new steps constructed since last I was here - rafter permit $$$ being spent well!) along with a stop at the always spectacular falls. From here it was supposed to be about 9 miles of winging it along the Colorado. In a perfect world we could hitch a ride from boaters. But with a group of 5 that was highly unlikely. And we didn't see any boaters until we were more than halfway there anyway!
I will say this quite definitively. We would not have been able to complete this day if not for the shade that the lower angle of the sun provided along the river. I would say that anytime before October 15 or after March 1 (3 weeks before/after the equinoxes) will result in too high of a sun angle and not enough shade to do this stretch in one day. Remember ... it SNOWED on the rim the day before we started. It was not hot. River-level daytime highs were in the 70s. But while there were occasional stretches with signs of previous travel, this stretch should be considered to be 9 miles of off-trail boulder-hopping. While always "right there", the river is not always accessible. At one point we stopped near a beach to filter some water, but found it to be very difficult to get down to the water level without risking the inability to get back up! When hiking in the sun, it was physically draining. Stretches of canyon shade were critical relief.
There's one main stretch where the only route climbs about 300 feet above the river to traverse a cliff band. This is by far the easiest part of the day! The rest is an absolutely exhausting clusterF. It's also stunningly beautiful, wild, remote, and simultaneously enjoyable. We averaged 1mph on the day. There were parts where were able to move at a somewhat more normal backpacking pace, but that means that there were also really rough parts were it was taking us 2 hours to go a single mile.
As the day progressed we realized that daylight might not be a thing when we got to Kanab Creek. It was nice to mentally prepare for that a few hours out, so when we had to light up our headlamps in the last 15 minutes or so it wasn't as defeating as it could be. We set up camp in the dark on the beach adjacent to Kanab Rapid, cooked up dinner and all went to bed relatively early.
Friday - ~10.2 miles, 691ft, ~900aeg, 7:57
After a rough day along the Colorado, it was a relief to begin heading up Kanab. The water was a little bit turbid after the rain a few days earlier, but became clearer as we headed upstream, and was always fine for filtering. The lower stretch of Kanab was a pleasant creek walk. There was a little bit of mud and lots of shallow water crossings. But as the miles went on, it was still a little slow going. When we reached the side canyon for Whispering Falls, we dropped our packs and headed up. Here we encountered the only other people on our hike other than at the Deer Creek Camp. A group of four that was camped farther up Kanab had day hiked down to see the falls and we were all there at the same time. Whispering is a really special spot and worthy of the little side trip.
After the falls, we headed upstream with the goal of reaching Showerbath for camp. The canyon got rougher as we went along. Deeper pools, larger boulders, slower travel in general. After yesterday's suckfest along the river, we were all a bit exhausted. We were in unknown territory yesterday and today, but Karl and 9L had both been to the upper part of Kanab previously and assured us that travel would improve tomorrow. As I did math based on travel speed, miles to go, daylight, etc. I started to suggest that perhaps we consider an option for camp near Scotty's Hollow, more than a mile less than our plan. I didn't hear any arguments, and I think we were all happy to find a great shelf to camp at less than an hour before sunset that would prevent a second consecutive day of arriving at camp in the dark.
Saturday ~13.8mi, 1050ft, ~1650aeg, 8:23
We started the day by taking the side trip up Scotty's Hollow. There's a picturesque little waterfall near the beginning and the route up above it goes through a cool little rabbit hole. We proceeded about a mile up canyon, a narrow, winding canyon with a pleasant creek flowing through it. Next time, I'll plan an extra day to spend in this part of Kanab as there is much to explore and we simply didn't have the time to give it the attention it deserved.
Back to Kanab proper, we began our upstream progress and realized how happy we were to stop where we did last night. This first mile or so between Scotty's and Showerbath is a pretty slow section with huge boulders and some water obstacles. We took a break at Showerbath, filtered water and took a few photos.
As promised, from this point up, the canyon was easier to hike through (and quicker). The water dried up in about 2 miles and we finally started to dry our feet out for the first time in two days. We stopped at the Jumpup Kanab junction before heading up into the Jumpup narrows. A couple of miles up the narrows we took a break at Indian Hollow and another short side trip into this scenic side canyon before heading upstream again.
A couple more miles and the narrows open, and the views open and reminded us all that we were in Grand Canyon. Another mile or so and we reached our planned night 4 camp where we set up along a trickling creek for a relaxing evening.
Sunday 6.7mi, 2451ft, ~3000aeg, 3:59
Easy like Sunday Morning! A couple miles of creek hiking through golden autumn cottonwoods in Sowats Canyon led us to where the Jumpup Nail trail crosses and we were happy to be back on a developed trail. Along the way I ignored Mountain Sheep spring. It had nice water flowing. I wasn't interested and kept going! A short climb out of Sowats landed us back on the esplanade, where we enjoyed a couple of the most pleasant miles of walking since the last time we were on the esplanade 4 days earlier!
Once we topped off our water at Kwagunt, it's about 2 miles and 2000 feet to reach the trailhead back at Sowats point. Of course, we missed the wilderness boundary and had to do a quick backtrack for the obligatory wilderness sign photo. Back at the truck, we found a couple of gifts from friends we knew would be in the area.
We shuttled back to Bill Hall where there were now a dozen vehicles. A few days of drying had the Sowats road in pristine condition. It's impressive how such a mess could recover so quickly. It's a mandatory 4wd road when wet, but a careful driver could have gotten out there in a sedan when dry.
Stopped at Jacob's Lake and ran into Wendy and friends and chatted for a bit. Always fun to find other Hazzers out an about on hiking adventures!
Recap
A truly phenomenal trip through some amazing, beautiful, wild, and remote country. Very difficult hiking and easy to underestimate. Weather/heat/sun is critical especially during the river portion and could easily overwhelm even experienced desert hikers. Obviously Kanab and Jumpup are subject to flooding and that's always a factor when planning a trip here. I could have easily done this as a 6 night trip instead of 4. This is a trip that will be fodder for stories I tell the grandkids one day.  |
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| I'm not sure what my spirit animal is, but I'm confident it has rabies. |
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