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| | | Deer - Kanab - Scotty's - Sowats, AZ | | | |
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Deer - Kanab - Scotty's - Sowats, AZ
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| Backpack | 56.00 Miles |
13,000 AEG |
| | Backpack | 56.00 Miles | 6 Days | | |
| 13,000 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | I remembered that I wanted to attempt Scotty’s Hollow while the weather was still warm (to make the swimming tolerable). We happened to be in the midst of a 2+ week heat wave with temps at the river around 105. That's hot, but I decided I could use the experience.
Day 0: I left Flagstaff around sunset on Saturday to drive up to the North Rim. I arrived at one of the pullouts near Monument Point around 11pm and set my alarm for 4:30 to facilitate a dawn start and good breakfast.
Day 1: I left my car around dawn and walked the road to Monument Point, rather than subject my car to the rocks. I saw several cars at the trailhead and several hikers climbing out of their sleeping bags (too late, in my opinion). It would be hot that day (and every other day of this trip) and I hoped to reach Deer Creek by 11am, but I carried 6L water so I could wait out the heat under a boulder if I fell behind schedule. That, plus 6 days of food, meant my pack felt heavy.
I had reasonably consistent shade until about halfway along the Esplanade, and then it still wasn’t too hot. I took only quick shade breaks to snack and reached Deer Creek around 11:30. Just before reaching the creek, I rolled my right ankle hard. I was worried about it, but it actually seemed to improve the more I hiked on it over the following days. There was also a lot of blood dripped on the trail near here but it sounds like the person didn't need an evac.
I proceeded to the patio to while the hot day away. The patio was crowded, with a full private group of boaters and a couple other hikers. I got to chatting with a boater who knew a fair bit about canyon hiking. A little later, he said he had talked to his TL and they were willing to ferry me across to their camp then down the river to Kanab the next day. I had wanted to walk this section for the sake of walking it, but that was also assuming I would have to beg for a ride. It would have been silly to refuse and hike on my rolled ankle through the 105-degree sun over all those boulders!
Day 2: I rode down to Kanab. It took about 2 hours, meaning I was able to start hiking up the creek before noon. On the river, I was splashed by big waves in Doris and Fishtail rapids. It was hot when I started up the creek, but I wore sandals and waded to cool off. Soon, it became shady. I saw fewer large suckermouth fish near the mouth of Kanab than last year. There were also much, much fewer 1-2 inch fish than last year. When stepping across one pool, I noticed a fish swimming towards me fast. That got my attention, and thinking it could be some predatory invasive species, I took detailed notes on this fish [A person at NPS thinks it was green sunfish, which has been found in Kanab before]. I saw a few dozen of its species in total.
Around 4pm I stopped at a beautiful fluted section of the creek where there was a nice sandy spot to camp. Since I was a day ahead and didn’t want to start swimming first thing in the morning, I figured it was appropriate to lounge around and read my book.
Day 3: I rose and packed when it started getting light. Walking up the creek, I found a dead bat (2/2 times in Kanab!) and startled two pairs of bighorn sheep.
In Scotty’s Hollow, I found a rattlesnake on the trail above the rabbit hole. It helpfully moved out of the way so I could pass. For a while, progress was quick with no significant obstacles. I startled one more sheep, which bounded across the creek in front of me and onto a high ledge. Eventually, I encountered deeper pools and larger chockstones, but I ascended these and kept my pack mostly dry by lifting it to the halfway point of the climb and climbing above it. I was able to climb these all in my Bedrocks. I've since learned that these pools were filled with gravel and much shallower than usual. Scotty's changes often.
The water dried up just below the fork in the arms. I filtered about 11L then continued up. The first chockstone, right at the fork, was easy. Comparing it to old photos, the pit below had completely filled in with gravel. However, I still had a heck of a time hauling my pack, which felt ridiculously heavy, up this chockstone. Above here, there were some easy chockstones and one deep pool filled with dead bugs (so, so many bugs) that went up to my chest.
I’d read the second big chockstone is the crux, and it was. I could crawl through a whole to easily climb the bottom half, but the top part had no good footholds. I experimented with rigging my webbing at the pinch point between the upper chocks and tying a foothold, but didn’t commit before I heard voices in the canyon above me. Then, I figured I should do something useful (eating) while I waited for a boost.
Above the crux, there were two more large chockstones that were easier than they looked. The final obstacle was unexpected and climby, but there was a mud streak on an obvious foothold about waist height, so I grabbed the good hold near the top of the rock and pulled up to stradle the top of the chockstone. Hauling my pack over each of these chockstones was meant my triceps were just exhausted by this point.
The going was easier for a while in the Supai, where the bed widened out. I made a short bypass or two then found two cairns near the top of the Supai clearly indicating I should leave the bed. I was tired and moving slowly up this steep slope, but eventually I topped out and saw the mushroom rock Steck mentions. By this time, the sun had set. I walked around a corner and found a flat spot to sleep next to my exit point.
Day 4: I set an alarm early so I could start hiking at dawn this day. I started walking by headlamp and the walking steadily improved from the annoying, many-armed head of Scotty's Hollow. I began picking up an old trail near the north fork of Scotty’s and even saw some old horse poo. The sun hit me after about an hour but I kept moving until reaching the drop-in to Flipoff around 11am. There, I had an hour lunch under a shady overhang and tried to remember which arm I should drop in to access Flipoff. I think there are several ways through the top Supai band near the head of the canyon, but I wouldn’t bet on access from a longer arm.
Near the top of Flipoff, I found a few large potholes. Flipoff faces west and is very straight, so the afternoon sun shone hot. The obstacles were minor but around 2-3 pm, I couldn’t tolerate more than 15 minutes of walking between 15 minute shade breaks. Reaching shady Kanab was a relief. In the bed of Kanab, I saw horse tracks and even bike tracks.
I collected water at Crack Baby, where I was happy to throw out the remainder of my hot Scotty’s Hollow water (which possibly also caused stomach issues). Collecting water wasn’t too hard, but a rope was required to throw my water bag into the pool and pull it towards me to fill it.
I left Crack Baby around 4:30 and realized I’d probably end up finishing my hike in the dark. I walked about as fast as I could for the next two hours, and reached Kwagunt Hollow at dusk at 6:30. There, I picked the exact campsite I used last January.
Day 5: I started hiking around 6:30 this morning, looking forward to meeting a friend coming down Sowats. I found water in Kwagunt Hollow after passing a few cottonwoods, and it went quite a ways higher. I grabbed 2L to supplement my 3L left over from Crack Baby. The plan had been to meet my friend on the Esplanade and get more water at the spring with the Cottonwood trees below the Sowats Trail. However, as I neared the top of the Supai, I got a sat message that the Sowats spring was dry, and was there any water in Kwagunt Hollow? We met up in the creekbed 15 minutes later and discussed our options for the day, which were suddenly limited by our lack of easy water on the Esplanade.
In the end, we decided to stash our overnight gear near the trail and wander out on the terrace between Kwagunt and Indian hollows until reaching our 1.5L-each turnaround point. Those 2L I picked up paid off now, because we were able to spend most of the day hiking/ lounging under rocks on the Esplanade.
We picked up an old trail on the Esplanade towards Indian Hollow, then shortly left it to walk out on the terrace. Initially, we looked for rock art. However, we decided we were interested in walking all the way to the point between the canyons, so we had to skip a lot of overhangs. On our way out, we found an Ocotillo! This is the furthest east I'm aware of one. We also found half a horseshoe out here, but no rock art.
We had a long shady lunch around noon near the point of this terrace, then walked out to the very edge to look down on the Redwall. We had a fabulous view of the Jumpup Narrows from above and Jumpup Point looked very close across the canyon. On our way back to our gear, we were much slower with many shade breaks. It felt hot now, but we found good overhangs and mushroom rocks to rest under.
We returned to our packs after 4pm and slowly meandered down Kwagunt Hollow. We stopped near a ferny spring where we found ledges flat enough to sleep on. As it got dark, the cicadas became noisy and bats flew low. I ate two cold-soak dinners (having conserved water by eating dry snacks all day) and passed out.
Day 6: We got up when it got light and took our sweet time hiking out of the canyon. One of the potholes on the hike up was teaming with freshly metamorphosed toadlets. We had a quick shade break near the last clump of Cottonwood trees below Sowats Point, then put our heads down and started the hot march uphill. In the final ravine, my friend spotted something shiny: an old mylar balloon! Now I am only due one more balloon before my next rattlesnake. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
(after this, I changed my call to "beaaaary bear"). I forgot how small the bears are here. 
