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| Backpack | 15.00 Miles |
615 AEG |
| | Backpack | 15.00 Miles | 2 Days | | |
| 615 ft AEG | | 25 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | Left from Red Rock Visitor Center Parking lot at 11:30 am on July 8th with the goal of making it to I-17 the next day. There is an established trail for the first 5 miles - described in the Woods Canyon Trail #93 Guide. I saw a small dirty pool just as I started my hike but besides that the stream was completely dry through this section. Saw only one hiker coming opposite me on from this section of trail, unsurprising given high temps. I would not see another person until I got to the highway. I lost trail at one section and started rock-hopping before eventually finding it again (hint: it stays on the north side of the streambed/ left side going upcanyon). The trail terminates fairly abruptly with an 'End of Trail' sign. This section was sort of the drudgery before I got to the good stuff.
I continued past the end of trail sign, rock hopping upcanyon. Rocks were small enough to shift under my weight for this part. There were what seemed like multiple good potential camping spots on sand under shade towards the end and just past the end of the trail. About a mile past the end of the trail I found a pool of water I chose to take a swim in with lots of tadpoles in it. I kept going for miles of more rockhopping with some shade and some breaks from rockhopping with sections of slickrock. I saw cows and a lot of cowpies in this part. I also saw a coati and the native american ruins on the north side of the canyon. Water was intermittent through this part mostly small stagnant pools with lots of tadpoles. Eventually with the sun threatening to set I got cliffed out with my first mandatory wade and chose to set camp on flat rock. Unfortunately for me I had a leak in my camping pad and I had a long night.
I'd estimate I set camp at 34.8449, -111.6744 which puts me about 10 miles past the entrance, 5 past the end of the trail and 5 miles to go. Sunday was much more exciting than Saturday. It started with a wade followed by a few mandatory swims. My set up is a waterproof sack inside my bag with anything that shouldn't get wet inside. This was my first time using it, I had inflated a floatie to carry my bag in the past and I much preferred swimming with the pack on. The water was cold but a welcome relief in July. The last of the swims in this section ~mile 11 had a water level low enough that I could not climb out onto the large boulders choking the water channel. I was forced to go to a rocky side exit and climb my way around. I'm 5'11 and my feet cut loose and I had to mantle an overhanging boulder. Towing a dog/child up without a harness would be pretty tough. This was the hardest obstacle of the whole trip. I climbed down the backside using a tree. The pools gave way to more endless boulder hopping on grey rocks. The rocks were becoming larger which is my preference.
Just before the canyon makes its turn from running north-south to east-west (roughly 34.8573, -111.6705) begins the next set of swims, with one of them being the longest of the trip. Probably 40 yards long. About a mile more of rockhopping on large boulders takes you to the "waterfall", just a trickle in July (34.8575, -111.6554). It's not difficult to walk up. Above the "waterfall" things get greener which makes the going a little tougher and adds poison ivy. Maybe a quarter mile past is a large pool with another smaller drainage canyon coming in from the southeast. I think this is the drainage other posters complained about poison ivy in that people are using to access the canyon. I needed to make it to the highway to hitch back to my car so I kept going in the main canyon. I skirted the pool at the confluence but shortly after there were several more pools I was forced to swim through. Some of these pools had what looked to be eating sized fish, I think trout but I'm not a fishermen. I saw a small rattlesnake in this section didn't stick around to figure out what kind. Eventually the canyon got choked in with vegetation and there was a small consistent stream at the top here. I exited to the south and walked a few hundred yards to the forest road. You probably need a map to see where to exit to the road, there was no obvious sign of when to exit.
I walked out to the highway exit where the forest road started but there was no one around. I ended up walking along I-17 3 miles south to the scenic view where I got a ride from a nice couple 15 miles down the road to the turnoff for 179 to Sedona and very quickly got a hitch the last 8 miles to the red rock visitor center. In hindsight should've realized hitching from that section of I-17 would be nearly impossible. It's probably significantly easier to hitch the opposite direction but then you'd have to hike downcanyon the whole way which I'd rather not do. Staging cars would be very easy.
Overall fun hike in the heat of the summer with a bit of drudgery on either end. The solitude was excellent. If I come back I'm likely to park on the forest road, bring some people and just show them the top section of the canyon. |
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