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| Backpack | 32.30 Miles |
5,568 AEG |
| | Backpack | 32.30 Miles | 2 Days 4 Hrs 12 Mns | | |
| 5,568 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | A few years ago while completing the Deer Creek - Kanab Creek loop, we saw a wonderful campsite in Kwangunk Hollow (correction: it has been pointed out to me that it's actually "Kwangunt", which for some reason I never noticed, but I'll leave it for posterity), and I thought it would be cool to come back and camp there someday. On the same trip, we got a nice view of Racetrack Knoll on the way up Sowats Point, and that also looked fun. The pieces finally fell into place to do both.
Originally we were going to start at Sowats Point, but the suggestion was made that we could rent Jumpup Cabin the night before, and start from there, and that sounded good to me.
We drove up on Sunday, and arrived at the cabin with a few hours of daylight left. Took a little stroll down to Jumpup Spring - really pretty little area down there, with fall colors in full swing.
In the morning, we set out down Jumpup Canyon, and made good time to the Jumpup-Nail junction. Here, we headed across the Esplanade to Sowats Canyon, in order to check out a different way down. Really interesting trail construction at the Sowats Canyon crossing. The canyon was pleasant, and before long we were at Mountain Sheep Spring. The rest of Sowats Canyon was nice and lush, and somewhere definitely worth staying the night. Then, down Jumpup to the Kwangunk Hollow junction, with only the rough half mile up to the campsite remaining. Got there at around 1:30 or so, and fortunately nobody was there (was slightly worried about that).
Set up camp, and around 2:30 decided to head a little further up Kwangunk to explore (half the group hadn't been here). On the way back down, we heard voices, and found a group of hikers setting up camp above the pour-off upstream from our campsite. The woman who seemed to be the group leader said she had been trying to camp in our spot for years, but keeps getting shut out. Oh well, next time! They were from Kanab, so I didn't feel too bad...
Tuesday - We threw on our day packs and set off down Kwangunk Hollow, and set a 12:45pm time to evaluated whether we need to turn around. I brought a headlamp just in case. 100 feet or so downstream from the Kwangunk/Jumpup junction, an obvious use trail on the south side of the wash stays atop the redwall. We followed this around the corner into Indian Hollow; the trail is pretty easy to follow until it rounds the corner. After that it's easy to get off trail, but it's difficult to stray too far given we were on a bench between two cliffs. This section was easier than I antipated, and before long we were back in the wash near the Ojojojo confluence. The rest of Indian Hollow featured a handful of obstacles that were no more than minor inconveniences. We took a break at the side canyon where we would exit Indian Hollow, where there were some full potholes.
The side canyon was a little rougher, but it was pretty, and the major obstacles had obvious bypasses. The last couple hundred feet up to the Esplanade were a bit brushier, but nothing terrible. There's a cairn on the rim that is visible from a couple hundred feet away, and the route to it isn't obvious, but we managed to get there without any technical climbing by basically following the path of least resistance.
Once on the Esplanade, it was smooth sailing, with some areas requiring a lot of prickly pear dodging. We headed for the southeast ridge, was was a very straightforward climb to the top. Enjoyed the summit for 10 minutes or so, before retracing our steps back to camp. The return trip was faster, but I was definitely feeling pretty exhausted when we were back down in Indian Hollow. The last couple miles were a slog.
For the hike up, the plan was to stay in Jumpup Canyon all the way up to Ranger Trail. Jumpup Canyon got really pretty above the Sowats confluence, with occasional water and several pouroffs that required easy bypasses. We eventually got to the main 30 foot or so pouroff with the ladder up the middle part. I climbed the ladder with my pack and decided it would be difficult to do this with my pack on, so we ended up handing the packs up the ledge. This process took 5-10 minutes or so; probably much faster than hauling them up with a rope, but sketchier. We had a nice shady snack break above the pouroff.
Once we were back on Ranger Trail, it started getting quite exposed and warm. Can't imagine doing this hike in the summer. At this point we were just ready to get to the cars, and didn't bother with anymore breaks.
Really enjoyed this trip. So much to explore in the Kanab Creek Wilderness. |
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Jumpup Spring |
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| | | Nice clear water flowing from the pipe into the springbox. |
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Lower Jumpup Spring |
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| | | I'm not entirely sure where the actual spring is, but there's a good trickle in the creek for hundreds of feet upstream from the pouroff. | | _____________________
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