I'd seen some pictures, but had never done a canyon / narrows type hike before so I was unsure what to expect. It turned out to be a spectacular trip that has gotten me excited about more backpacking desert adventures in the future.
Here are some pics and a few more details about the hike.
The trail starts at Halls Creek Overlook which is situated off the Notom/Bullfrog road. From the overlook you can get a decent shot of the double arch called the Brimhall Arch.
Brimhall Arch:
From the Arch you begin an 800' descent down the steep trail to begin your hike in the normally-dry Halls Creek:
There are numerous cut-off trails that can shorten the meanders, but some recent pack horses had torn the sand up and we usually found it easier to just remain in the creekbed for the best route. As a result, a supposed 9-mile hike to the Narrows turned into about 10.5 miles.
Here is our first shot of the upstream entry to the Narrows. Our awesome camp was in that little patch of trees, but I would not recommend that if there is the slightest hint of rain in the forecast.
Our first evening we just explored this end of the Narrows as we were saving the big exploration for the next morning.
You can hike the narrows in a several different ways, but we decided to first hike over Halls Divide to the downstream entry to the canyon and then hike back upstream through the Narrows so that we would be right back at our camp when we finished.
The flowers were amazing and I just had to stop and take a whiff:
After hiking a couple miles over Halls Divide, we got a great overhead look at the entry we would use to access the Narrows:
The desert varnish on the thousand foot walls was beautiful!
I'd say you had to walk in the creek about half the time, but mostly it was just ankle or shin deep. There were a few deeper pools that could reach your waist though:
As well as a few narrow slots where you could reach out and touch both walls!
Only one pool required me to take off the backpack this time, but I've heard there are times when a little swimming could even be required.
We took our sweet time and spent over three hours to cover the three miles through the Narrows. I had my neck craned up about the whole time, speechless over this amazing place.
Towards the end we came to this gigantic undercut bank that the floods had chiseled out:
I didn't want to tempt fate in a flood zone, and the thought of hiking back outside the river bank if it was running was not a good one, so we hustled out and got back to truck about 8pm.
..... only to find the battery dead and the trailhead deserted.
We had plenty of supplies so we just ate dinner and climbed back into the camper for some sleep in hopes that someone would arrive in the morning to give us a jump...... and then the rains and snow came in overnight.... turning the bentonite clay roads to mush and making the trailhead and access roads completely inaccessible.
Here is how it looked that day over the Waterpocket Fold:
Without any other options, I loaded up the hydration pack and set off for a 20-something mile run to Bullfrog Marina at Lake Powell. I hoped I'd thump a ride, but I did not see a single vehicle until I reached Highway 276 after exactly 20 miles on the run.
When I discovered Bullfrog was still 6 more miles away, I knew it was time for some hitchhiking; luckily my soggy butt was picked up by our guardian angel almost immediately. When this man (a maintenance worker at the marina) discovered that there was a damsel in distress back at the trailhead, he sprung into action and would not rest until we were totally out of that jam. All my love to Leon!
What a trip. I highly recommend the Halls Creek Narrows for a mind-blowing experience!
