Memorial Day weekend with a couple of additional days of to make for a 5 day weekend. Pretty hard to pass up an opportunity like that to get in an adventure of some kind! Still being early in the season, we decided to head south as the temps would still be bearable to be out adventuring in the desert. We decided to do something the neither one of had done before…backpacking in the desert! This would be my first backpacking trip into the desert and SuzAnn’s first backpacking trip every!
We got our start after work on Thursday night, and made the drive down to the Grand Staircase/Escalante National Monument area. Arriving at near midnight, we tossed our bags down on what is known as Devils Backbone to get a few hours of rest. We awoke at 6:00am or so to a full moon setting over the canyons of Escalante, and broke out the Thermos of coffee that SuzAnn had prepared the evening before. We enjoyed a hot cup of “Joe” as I captured a few shots of the full moon setting as the light began to change with the rising sun.
After packing our bags, we hurried into the town of Escalante to acquire the required camping permit and check with the rangers on the current conditions. We were heading for a remote slot canyon of Grand Staircase/Escalante National Monument called Little Death Hallow. The rangers stated that the conditions ought to be fairly dry, but that they had received a report that a section of waist deep water had been encountered somewhere in the canyon.
Little Death Hallow lies in the remote eastern portion of the Grand Staircase/Escalante National Monument and south of the Burr Trail. I had been just to the north of this area a couple of years prior when exploring Wolverine Canyon. You can read about that adventure here.
In researching Little Death Hallow, I had found that there was supposed to be a series of natural springs that provided water most of the year. But after speaking with the rangers, decided it would be best that we bring in as much water as we could. So, we loaded up my already heavy backpack with enough water to get us through about two days out in the desert. Then we would need to find a source or ditch our trip and hightail it back out to the car dehydrated.
The plan was to backpack about 5 miles in to the point where the canyon began to really narrow down and set up a base camp. With my pack weighing in at what must have been near 100 pounds, we headed off slowly into the desert towards previously untraveled (by us) terrain.
The expedition pack I was carrying was overloaded, but I felt pretty good as the terrain we were hiking was pretty flat as we made our way into the wide but narrowing canyon. We stopped for a break a few miles in, and had a bite of trail food and pushed on through the desert. When the canyon walls began to close in to about 100 yards wide, we began searching for an adequate spot to set up a camp.
We decided upon a nice little alcove tucked back in behind some trees. Far enough off the trail that we would have our privacy and not have to encounter any of the other crazy desert travelers that may be passing by. After setting up the tent, we decided to venture further into the canyon to see if we could find any of the natural springs that I had read about. We did find some relatively close to camp, but the water was so shallow (maybe a half an inch deep) that pumping it out with the filter would have been difficult. But at least we knew it was there in a pinch.
We enjoyed our dinner of Ramen and chicken and settled in for a nights rest eager for the adventure awaiting us the following day…
We awoke before sunrise as the sky began to change with the approaching sun, heated up some water for coffee and oatmeal, and gathered the essentials for the adventure into the slot. The morning was cool, about mid 50’s, nice hiking temperature.
The canyon was the typically beautiful red Navajo sandstone found throughout southern Utah. And the ever narrowing canyon walls winding there way in a serpentine kind of way, never letting you see very far off into the distance, keeps you wondering and anticipating for what is around the next corner.
After a couple of miles we came upon a wonderful little oasis spot that had a nice little pool of water at least a foot or so deep. I stopped, splashed the water on my face and wet my hair down and mad a mental note that this would be a good spot to gather water if needed.
We soon realized why the canyon was named what it is, as we passed bones of all sorts and partially decomposed carcasses. Continually reminding you just how dangerous this place can be in times of heavy precipitation!
The walls closed in to about two feet wide in spots and we encountered several chokestones that needed to be negotiated by carefully down climbing. One spot that had a very large boulder blocking the way required climbing down ten feet or so into a dark hole and shimmying through while laying down on our sides barely squeezing through! Great fun, but no place for the claustrophobic!
At about 5 miles in from our base camp, we reached our end of the road at a huge chokestone. The boulder probably could have been downclimbed into the pool of water on the far side, but getting back up it on the way back would have required a rope to secure. So we wisely decided that this was where we should turn back.
As we made our way back we were constantly greeted by curious little lizards which would run along side us to get a better look at us. They were everywhere and soon became our little travel friends!
By the time we made it back to camp, we had drank all the water we had been carrying and had only about a liter left at camp! So I left SuzAnn at camp to rest and headed out to refill our water bag. I remembered the little oasis we had passed early in the morning on the way in, and decided to high tail it that spot to filter the water. Although while hiking I found it curious that we had not seen it on our way out. After a long way, I decided that I must have missed it and turned back towards camp. I indeed found the spot that I had taken the bird bath in, but now instead of a nice little pool of water, all I found was a muddy hole with no water at all! I searched and searched, thinking that if there was spring water around here there must be some to be found somewhere. After about 20 minutes of searching here and there, I found what would have to do. It was far from a nice place to get water, but I felt sure that my filter would get us some safe drinking water. By the time I had finished pumping several liters, the pump was just about completely clogged from the muddy silt in the water! But we would have enough to get through the night and the hike out the following day.
After a good nights rest, we packed up camp and made the hike back out across the desert to the car at the trailhead. It was the end of another safe adventure into the heart of the Grand Staircase/Escalante National Monument. As much time in the many trips I have made to this area, I still feel that I have barely scratched the surface of what there is to explore out there…
