|
| | | |
| |
|
| Backpack | 34.50 Miles |
1,346 AEG |
| | Backpack | 34.50 Miles | 4 Days | | |
| 1,346 ft AEG | | | | |
|
|
| |
| Linked |
|
none
[ show ]
| no linked trail guides |
| Partners |
|
none
[ show ]
| no partners | | Harrowing but breathtaking journey into the grand gulch for my first backcountry trip in UT this year. Had been planning this one for a while and was worried about water sources, especially with the government shutdown making any beta from rangers impossible to get. Little did we know...
I took this on with my coworker and originally planned to do a point to point 3-nighter from bullet canyon to collins canyons. I had done bullet as a day hike before but this was both of our first times staying overnight in the gulch. Drove up Friday night, dropped my car off at the collins trailhead (rough road but we made it in two small SUVs), then took the other car to bullet and camped at the trailhead. Things started getting interesting when it rained all night and the ground beneath our tent was so saturated that we woke up to almost an inch of standing water.
We got a late start after spending some time drying things out and deliberating on whether it was safe to proceed. We decided we would at least hike to the confluence and assess conditions from there. It was mostly clear, and bullet was running the whole way, so water was a non-issue. We set up camp on a plateau just above the confluence and were surprised to see the gulch running very fast and full. It rained again just around sundown and the brief waterfalls appearing along every wall were magical.
Saturday was the only nice day we knew for sure we would have, so we planned to make tracks. We quickly discovered that while bullet had been easy going with a very established trail, the gulch itself is significantly harder to navigate. We only clocked about 8 miles (not including side canyons) after a full day of scrambling, falling, bushwacking, crawling, and wading. The path of least resistance is to follow the wash, but because that involved wading through shin to waist high water that was at times moving pretty fast, we alternated between that and scrambling up the bank to fight our way through the foliage. It was exhausting and we ended up setting up camp around dripping canyon, pretty far off from our target of polly's island. It was an amazing day though, and we resolved to get an earlier start the next day to make up the distance.
On Sunday, we hit the trail by 8 and while there had been some rain in the night, the flow had reduced significantly in the gulch. This made walking in the wash a little easier, as you could get away with fewer crossings and stay a bit drier. However, it also made mud a much bigger issue as the lower water levels exposed huge swathes of quickmud to avoid. Around noon, it began raining hard and we were forced to make a decision- try to finish the 14 difficult miles through the gulch today, or leave the canyon via government trail and walk back to bullet canyon on dirt roads. We both agreed that it wasn't safe to remain in the canyon for another night because it was really coming down and we couldn't be sure what the next day was going to look like. We hustled down to polly's island and made the call to leave the canyon there. It was bittersweet, as I really wanted to finish the original route, but it was definitely the smart thing to do. After getting out the canyon, however, we were completely exposed and the 3 miles to the trailhead were brutal. I started getting very cold and we clocked ourselves at 4.42 mph during this stretch just because we wanted to get out of there so bad. We were hoping to find some kind of shelter or pit toilet at the trailhead, but no such luck.
We were both completely soaked so we set up the tent and got dry. After deliberating we decided to take the rest of the day easy even though it was only 2pm. We had 12 miles to go if we wanted to get back to bullet canyon, and we figured that would be easy enough to do the next day.
The last day of the trip didn't go as intended, with 12 miles on dirt road being a much less spectacular backdrop than the final stretch of the gulch to collins, but we knocked it out in under 5 hours and were on our way back to ABQ in no time. I absolutely loved the grand gulch and will definitely have to come back at a more hospitable time. Be safe, everyone! We made the right call by leaving the canyon when we did but in retrospect it might have been irresponsible to have entered in the first place. |
| | |
|
|
|
Route Editor
Route Scout
