Wednesday, April 21.
15.5 miles
The first 8.4 miles to Shower Bath Springs took us most of the day though not just because they were tough miles.
Another incredible day. Hard at times but still so amazing. The campsite was warm and cozy and despite being on a beach, we didn’t have too much of a problem with sand. That would come later.
We entered Kanab Creek and it might be my favorite canyon so far (aside from the Grand Canyon itself). The canyon was beautiful with huge layered walls of all kinds of different kinds of rocks, some I knew (tapeats, conglomerate, and muav), most I didn’t. The canyon wound its way all over heading east and west as it contoured its way up towards Hack Canyon.
I’d read there were boulder fields strewn about the creek, massive chunks of canyon walls that had fallen right into the creek and yep, quite a few of them. We saw one big rock that had a little impact crater around it in the sand. Must have been pretty recent. Just a little reminder to watch our heads. The boulder fields weren’t too bad though, just lots of scrambling and route finding through the big rocks. The rocks also created perfect swimming holes. We ended up jumping in a few of them to cool off and because they just seemed too perfect to not jump in.
There were also fish! Lots of little fish swimming all over in the pools but also in the flowing parts of the creek. Felt bad stepping in the creek and disturbing them but hopefully they weren’t too upset by our intrusion.
We kept stopping to take breaks into the pools or just because we felt like it. We even had an early lunch although that might have been more because the hiker hunger has kicked in hard. I’ve had hiker hunger for weeks now but it’s been especially bad in this harder section.
We hiked the 8.5 miles to Showerbath Springs in about 5 and half hours, blazing fast for this section. From all the journals I’ve read, Showerbath Springs seems to be the end of the really hard part of the Hayduke Trail. From here on its mostly back to washes and dirt roads until Zion.
Showerbath is a spectacular spring. It’s a spring right over an overhang that drips down into a beautiful aquamarine pool. It’s surrounded by lush green leaves and blooming flowers. We found a short overhang near it and filled up water from a trickle right under a rock. I’m pretty diligent about always filtering water but this one seemed so pure that I filled up 6 liters and drank 1 without bothering. The next reliable not radioactive water is in 30 miles at our cache (assuming our cache is still there) so we had to camel up. I only have 1 day of food left but 6 liters of water is still heavy af. At least it’s delicious spring water this time.
There was a big pool right next to showerbath spring with tons of little fishes. There was also one big aggressive one who didn’t seem to like us very much. He kept staring at us and when Rowan went into the pool it started headbutting him. It was hilarious but also very admirable. The fish seemed to be defending the other fish. Anytime another fish came by the big fish would scare it off.
We spent a while at the spring, admiring how beautiful and magical it seemed. Perfect little oasis in the middle of the desert. Jack especially was really drawn to it and kept saying he didn’t want to leave. But all good things must come to an end so we had to skedaddle. Miles to go and all.
After Showerbath the boulder fields let up and the canyon opened up. The hiking was much faster as we hiked on a rocky sandy wash. Every so often we’d find little cutoff sidetrails but they were usually short lived. The hiking wasn’t hard and definitely a lot faster but it still kinda sucked. The rocks weren’t the big boulders we had spent the morning overcoming but they still required a lot of maneuvering and micro path finding. Nothing very hard but just tedious after days of hard hiking. The gravel sand was also tough, less steady and requiring more energy to travel over.
After not too long we reached the confluence with Jumpup Canyon and the Grand Canyon National Park boundary. We left the park unceremoniously without even having to go through a gate or anything. We got to spend 10 amazing days in the Grand Canyon, experiencing so much in those ten days. So much hard hiking, so much generosity, so much beauty. And it’s still such a small part of the canyon. I think both Jordan and I now want to someday come back and spend even more time here and see what else the Grand Canyon has to offer.
We hiked a few more miles after that, ate dinner, and found the closest spot not in the wash we could find to camp on. One of the most enjoyable parts of this section has been our pretty bedtime talks. This time we talked about our demographic backgrounds and our fears.
Funny enough, I have a fear of fish. Or at least I used to. When I was a kid I went swimming in a river once, slipped, bonked my head, and almost drowned. As I was drowning, a fish swam right by my face and I can still see it’s weird gross face. For a long time I couldn’t even walk past the fish section in the grocery store. As I’ve learned more about fish and how complicated they actually are (like being petted, remember divers) I lost some of my fear of them. I really respected the fish today who stood up to us. It’s face still weirds me out but it respect it. Props to my fish homie holding it down.
We are all pretty worn out after such hard days and definitely need a town day to rest up. My feet are so messed up from the wet gravel that embedded itself in my shoes. I think we all had to keep prying off the tiny rocks from our shoes. One of my little piggies has a big crack right under it and it looks pretty red. Hurts every so often but hopefully not infected or anything.
We should be able to get to our cache pretty early tomorrow so we’re good on food. I think our food bucket should be okay but I am worried about our water. There is water maybe there in a reservoir and some gross cow tanks but really hoping to not have to drink that. Either way, should be a comparatively easy day tomorrow then only left to town.
Already missing the Grand Canyon but I’ll definitely be back someday.
Plants Outside 