Scotty's Castle • Hike • Arizona • All Triplogs • HikeArizona.COM

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Oct 21 2022

ShatteredArm

Guides 12
Routes 192
Photos 863
Triplogs 356

42 male

Joined Nov 30 2015
Phoenix, AZ

Deer / Kanab loop, AZ

Backpack		Oct 21 2022
		ShatteredArm • Triplogs 356

Backpack	45.00 Miles	7,500 AEG

Backpack	45.00 Miles	3 Days 4 Hrs 52 Mns
	7,500 ft AEG

no routes

Linked

linked

Thunder River Trail

Deer Creek Trail - GC

Scotty's Castle

Jumpup-Nail Trail

Partners

none

no partners

This one had been on the list since I first visited Deer Creek years ago, and finally decided to give it a go. The original plan was to go to Deer Creek, then do two aggressive days to get to Showerbath, and then take it easy on the way out, with an extra night in the Kanab Creek Wilderness. But I hadn't communicated that intent clearly to a couple of the participants, and they were planning on 4 days. I communicated better with my other friends, who planned for up to five nights, so we just figured we could split up after Showerbath.

Camped at a nice campsite a mile from Sowats, dropped a couple cars in the morning, then headed to Indian Hollow, since most of us had already seen Bill Hall trail.

Friday - Indian Hollow to Deer Creek - ~12.5 miles

The first part of this was new to me. Nothing particularly noteworthy, although it was nice getting views of the area from a different angle. Cranberry Canyon really stuck out. Once on the esplanade, the walking was easy, and before we knew it, we were at the Bill Hall junction, where it becomes a superhighway. Got a little hot down in Surprise Valley. One member of our party was struggling a little bit by the descent into Deer Creek, which we had chalked up to lack of sleep, or the heat (they didn't get to Sowats until 3am due to a closure on 89 which required a significant detour). A group of 3 beat us to the campsite and took the nice big area, although they were cool enough and I set my tent up in one of the outlying parts of the big site. Talked to them a little about various canyon adventures we've done. This would be the only day when we would have any amount of "chill" time in the afternoon.

Saturday - Deer Creek to Kanab Creek - ~9.5 miles

Woke up at 5:30am because we knew we'd need all day for the hike to Kanab Creek. NPS insists this stretch is 11 miles, but my GPS had it right at 9.5, and we all know GPS tends to overestimate in canyons. In reality it's probably about 9.

We bypassed the narrows, although nobody in my group seemed to like my decision to do that. Why would we do something harder than necessary? I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to narrow shelves with a heavy pack.

Once off the main trail, things started getting rough. The path away from the overlook is pretty rough, but not too bad until we got to the river and started picking our way through rocks. Then under a cliff band, and out where we could see the tapeats cliff we'd have to traverse over. At this point, our guy who was struggling yesterday started cramping up. Other friend suggested they turn around (which was the right decision, as we still had about 7 hours of hiking left), so it was down to three of us, and I'd now be doing this trip in four days.

The traverse across the top of the tapeats was by far the easiest stretch of the day, and it was over too soon. After Fishtail it got downright miserable, and I never thought I'd appreciate walking on sand so much. Fortunately it was also mostly shady after Fishtail, on account of the sun being below the opposite cliffs. "Peak BS" occurred about a mile and a half before Kanab, when I narrowly avoided falling into the river thanks to some impossibly strong grass. Would've gone above the cliff had I known what awaited us down there. After that gem of a stretch, the walking got a lot easier the rest of the way to Kanab, which took us a full nine hours from Deer Creek.

It started getting really gusty right before Kanab, so we wanted to find a more sheltered location than right at the confluence. Around the first bend, dropped packs to scout around, and we were getting a bit discouraged, when I found a nice bench at the 2nd bend with some grassy clearings that could easily accommodate our tents, with some mesquites that could maybe provide some meager protection. I declared this our best option, and it actually turned out to be a spot the strongest winds largely avoided. When we went to bed, I discovered my new sleeping pad is garbage, and managed to pop on nothing sharp at all.

Sunday - Lower Kanab to Showerbath Spring - ~10 miles

Gave ourselves an extra half hour until alarm time this morning, which was nice because the drizzle was just ending. We knew this would be another hard day, but we saw the creek in the morning and the prospects were worse. It was several inches higher, and silty. That meant the 100 or so creek crossings would be deeper and require us to check every step. Fun.

The nice thing is it was a heck of a lot more enjoyable than the nonsense along the Colorado.

Stopped at the Whispering Falls grotto for a break, and I took advantage of its clear water for filtering. Kanab had some stretches of easy hiking, and then a few stretches of utter nonsense that let us know that a serious injury could be just one bad step away. Getting to Scotty's Hollow seemed to take forever, and by the time we did, it was almost 4pm, so we didn't have a lot of time to explore it. Just went up to the falls for a quick look.

The rest of the way to Showerbath wasn't too bad compared to earlier in the day, and we got to camp with a good hour of sunlight left. Found the nice campsite a little ways upstream from Showerbath. It was considerably colder this evening than previous nights, but we were happy to have the hard stuff out of the way, and presumably easier walking the next day. Still, we were so tired that we didn't stay up super late, and the three of us couldn't even manage to kill the full 12oz of high proof bourbon I had left.

Monday - Sowats Point via Jumpup and Kwangunk Hollow - ~13 miles

We woke up early again (5:30am) since they had to drive home after, and of course the creek was nice and clear again now that we had the hard stuff out of the way. Barely had to get my feet wet the rest of the way, and the rest of Kanab Creek felt like a dream. Got to Jumpup before 9am.

Jumpup was really impressive, and one of my favorite parts of the trip. There were several flowing springs - not sure if they're all reliable, or if it was just because of the rain. Got to Indian Hollow, but didn't really explore it since we were on a schedule.

Kwangunk started out a little messy, and I was starting to dread it, but once at the bypass to the large pour-offs, things got more interesting. There was a really nice campsite between the two large pouroffs, and then a third (smaller) pouroff where we got to do our only real wall climb of the trip. Great handholds, so a novice climber like myself had no issues, although I'd probably consider lowering the pack if I were going the other direction. I actually really enjoyed Kwangunk Hollow overall, despite slightly less easy walking than Jumpup (but easier than lower Kanab).

Before we knew it, we were at the cottonwood thicket, and back on official trail. The climb out was a grind, but over quickly. Got to the cars at around 2:30pm, and I decided I may as well just drive home since I could get there at a reasonable hour (plus it was freezing up there at this point, and I had no sleeping pad). The muddy road back from Sowats Point provided a bonus adventure, fortunately nobody got stuck.

This was a ridiculously hard route, one that I'm glad I did, but won't do again. The Kanab Creek Wilderness definitely warrants some future exploration, however. The last leg of this trip was by far the most enjoyable (even though the mileage was highest and it had the most climbing).

	Deer Spring	Dry	Dry
	First time I've seen it dry.

	Fishtail Canyon	Dry	Dry
	No water at Colorado River

	Jumpup Canyon	Pools to trickle	Pools to trickle
	Pools here and there. No flow of course. Couple of flowing springs in the lower stretch.

Showerbath Spring

Gallon per minute

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Oct 27 2021

chumley

Guides 94
Routes 840
Photos 22,055
Triplogs 1,993

52 male

Joined Sep 18 2002
Tempe, AZ

Deer Creek - Kanab Creek Loop, AZ

Backpack		Oct 27 2021
		chumley • Triplogs 1,993

Backpack	52.00 Miles	7,397 AEG

Backpack	52.00 Miles	5 Days
	7,397 ft AEG

no routes

Linked

linked

Jumpup-Nail Trail

Bill Hall Trail

Deer Creek Trail - GC

Deer Creek Narrows

Scotty's Castle

Partners

partners

	BiFrost	GrottoGirl
	John9L	slowandsteady

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.

_____________________

I'm not sure what my spirit animal is, but I'm confident it has rabies.

3 archives

Mar 17 2018

FOTG

Guides 37
Routes 556
Photos 10,872
Triplogs 1,052

43 male

Joined Jan 21 2013
AZ

Hack Cyn to Jumpup Cyn

Northwest, AZ

Hack Cyn to Jumpup Cyn

Northwest, AZ

Backpack		Mar 17 2018
		FOTG • Triplogs 1,052

Backpack	63.00 Miles	2,500 AEG

Backpack	63.00 Miles
	2,500 ft AEG

no routes

Linked

linked

Hack Canyon

Jumpup-Nail Trail

Scotty's Castle

Partners

partners

BiFrost

John9L

John, Karl and myself completed a four day foray into the Kanab Creek Wilderness and it was prettty spectacular. We began our modest trek via the far lengthier Hack Canyon approach, as winter weather had access via Sowats Point out of the question.

Day one was reserved for getting to our base camp at the junctions of Jumpup Canyon and Kanab Creek. It was a 15 mile day, but the lack of AEG and long stretches of nice trail along the benches of the creek made for quick hiking. Apart from what appeared to be a perennial stretch along Kanab Creek the hike in was very dry. In fact, there was no water a camp and we had to filter water from some left over pot holes a few tenths of a mile from camp. We knew rain was coming from the time we set up camp, so we ate our dinner a little sooner than usual. Around seven, the rain chased John and I to our tents for an early night, but Karl endured a little longer. It never really rained hard throughout the night, but there was a pretty steady light period of rain after midnight that lasted for a couple of hours, but nothing to make anything too uncomfortable.

Day two was a trip up to the Jumpup “obstacle” via Jump Canyon and Lower Jumpup Canyon. This route was a tad heavy on the boulder hopping, but big on the reward side. There was an awesome narrows secttion reminiscent of Buckskin along with some dramatic stretches with towering walls through Jumpup Canyon. Eventually the narrows relented to the much more open lower Jumpup Canyon, which was a real treat. There was flowing water, countless cascades and small waterfalls topped off by some excellent views of a snow dusted rim in the distance. I got an itch to explore a cave about a half a mile from the “obstacle,” so I let John and Karl explore that while I checked out the cave. The cave was a dud for prehistory, but offered some cool views. After meeting back up, we headed down to Indian Hollow. We held off on exploring Kwagunut and Sowats in order to save more time on what looked like a promising Indian Hollow. The beginning of Indian Hollow proved worthy with a short but spectacular little slot section, however, the excitement quickly wore off when we reached an impassable chockstone not too far in. A little disappointed, we turned around there and headed back to camp with modest plans to explore an unnamed canyon downstream of camp. The unnamed canyon proved to be a little bit of a dud, but nobody was complaining after the first rate hike up Jumpup earlier in the day.

Showerbath Spring and maybe a peak in Scotty’s Hollow was the goal of day three. Kanab Creek becomes a whole different world one you hit the stretch when it begins to flow above the surface and although it was a boukder hop, the hike to Showerbath was pleasant. Showerbath itself is also a pretty cool destination, complete with some nice deep swimming holes occupied by some rather large and unexpected fish. John went back to camp from Showerbath, while Karl and I headed further downstream to Scotty’s Hollow. This proved to be a worthy side trip, as we both left Scotty’s Hollow very impressed. A scenic little waterfall and grotto greets your entry into this special canyon and it just get better with each step further up canyon. We turned around at the “swimmer” as we were not planning on getting wet and we knew we still had a six mile camp relocation to complete once we got back to camp. The hike back up stream was boulders for days and a little redundant at times, but we still made decent time. Once we got back to camp, it was a quick breakdown and then back on the trail to set up camp six miles closer to the trailhead along a flowing stretch of Kanab Creek.

Day four was just a brisk 8.5 mile hike back to the trailhead. The recent snow had made some of the views in the distance nicer, but the last stretch to the Hack Canyon trailhead was certainly a little more mundane than the previous stretches from the days before.

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Scotty's Castle Showerbath Spring

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Apr 27 2016

toddak

Guides 13
Routes 38
Photos 1,651
Triplogs 577

60 male

Joined Nov 15 2005
Jackson, CA

Kanab Creek to the CO River, AZ

Backpack		Apr 27 2016
		toddak • Triplogs 577

Backpack	45.00 Miles	4,500 AEG

Backpack	45.00 Miles	3 Days 8 Hrs
	4,500 ft AEG

no routes

Linked

linked

Jumpup-Nail Trail

Scotty's Castle

Partners

none

no partners

Rugged non-technical canyoneering route into pristine lower Kanab Creek, where springs, streams and waterfalls abound. Started at the Sowats Point trailhead and dropped down the Jumpup-Nail trail for a couple of miles, then off-trail down beautiful Kwagunt Hollow, on down Jumpup Canyon through a section of narrow slots, then down winding Kanab Creek to the Colorado, with sidetrips up Scotty's Hollow and to Whispering Falls grotto. Didn't see another soul, a scrap of trash, a trampled campsite or a fire ring for 3 days - wonderful!

No need to worry about water sources on this one. Kwagunt had light flow and pools along much of its length. Jumpup and the first 3 miles in Kanab are dry, then water suddenly appears and grows to a lovely year-round creek that persists to the Colorado. Showerbath Spring is amazing.

FR #233 to the trailhead is deeply rutted - high clearance probably required, and it will be very muddy if wet.

More hike details can be found in Todd Martin's Grand Canyoneering book or on his website. Just don't follow his advice to turn around before reaching the Colorado - the walking gets easier the further you go, and the scenery is just as spectacular.

Fauna

Fauna [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Bighorn Sheep Grass Carp

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Showerbath Spring

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4 archives

Oct 10 2015

pseudalpine

Guides 59
Routes 1,100
Photos 1,176
Triplogs 1,290

male

Joined Jan 01 2023
Arizona

Scotty's Castle

Northwest, AZ

Scotty's Castle

Northwest, AZ

Hike & Climb		Oct 10 2015
		pseudalpine • Triplogs 1,290

Hike & Climb	2.26 Miles	2,205 AEG

Hike & Climb	2.26 Miles
	2,205 ft AEG

no routes

Linked

none

no linked trail guides

Partners

none

no partners

This was day two when we climbed Scotty's Castle and then moved our camp up to the top layer of Supai.

@ShatteredArm, @Chumley, @FOTG and @toddak
None of your four triplogs posted with dates following this trip actually climbed Scotty's Castle?!?
Just sayin'

Approach is obvious, route is mostly on the south side. Chumley, LindaAnn or tibber will post a more detailed guide once they climb it.

7 archives

WARNING! Hiking and outdoor related sports can be dangerous. Be responsible and prepare for the trip. Study the area you are entering and plan accordingly. Dress for the current and unexpected weather changes. Take plenty of water. Never go alone. Make an itinerary with your plan(s), route(s), destination(s) and expected return time. Give your itinerary to trusted family and/or friends.

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