This was my (more or less) annual backpacking trip with Carly. This was trip #21. This year, since she is in Utah for school, we did a very different trip, one that was very “Utahy”. It was in the southern part of the state in a desert area, and we hiked down into a canyon and followed a creek bed along the canyon and then up another creek in a canyon, finally climbing out of the canyon. It was a very interesting trip. There was a lot of driving involved (2316 miles in 5 days!) , but it was interesting to see lots of different country.

Since there was a long drive involved, this trip was different than other trips. This was the plan:

• Day 1 – Drive to Provo, UT – about 820 miles
• Day 2 – Drive to trailhead in Cedar Mesa & Bears Ears National Monument – Hike down Owl Canyon about 5 miles to a spot below Neville’s arch and camp – 5 miles and little elevation gain (mostly loss)
• Day 3 – Hike to the confluence of Owl and Fish Creeks and head up Fish Creek about 6 miles to a campsite – 8 miles and no elevation gain
• Day 4 – Hike up Fish Creek to the exit point and climb out of the canyon and back to the trailhead – drive back to Provo – 4 miles and 1000′ of elevation
• Day 5 – Drive back home – about 820 miles

Total Planned: 17 miles and 1000′ of elevation
Actual: 18.8 miles and 1700′ of elevation

Day 1 – Drive to Provo, UT

It is a long drive from home to Provo, but Carly has made this trip in one day several times now, so I thought I’d give it a whirl. It would be an opportunity to see some parts of the country I’ve either never seen or not seen for a long time. I started from home about 7am – the drive is about a 12 hour trip, give or take depending on how many stops you take. I mostly just stopped for gas and food. You lose an hour due to the time change as well, so I was hoping to be in Provo by about 8pm. We worked this trip out so that we could do it so Carly didn’t have to take any time off school. We snuck it in at the end of her semester break. She went up to Wentachee and was returning to Provo the same day I was driving down. Shortly after I passed the 82 junction on 84, she texted me and said she was on the same road now. She was about 20 miles behind me! A bit farther, I stopped for gas and lunch (which took longer than I thought) – she called me and she almost stopped to have lunch with me but she decided to keep going. Shortly after I got back on the freeway, she passed me! From then on, I followed her into Provo. It was a long day, but it was interesting seeing all the scenery. We got to Provo a little after 8 I think, had dinner and then she went to her apartment and I went to my hotel. After the long drive, I was pretty tired and ready for a break.

Day 2 – Drive to trailhead and hike down Owl Canyon about 5 miles to a spot below Neville’s arch and camp

Google said the drive to the trailhead was almost 300 miles and just over 5 hours, so we wanted to get an early start. We drove my truck since Carly’s car needed an oil change. I picked her up at her apartment and we headed out a little after 7. We headed east up a canyon, past a bunch of wind turbines- it must be kind of a funnel for wind since there were a bunch in a relatively small spot. We headed down and after a few hours, we stopped in Hanksville for “lunch”. It was a little after 10 I think and they didn’t serve lunch until 11, so we ended up ordering breakfast. It was pretty good. Hanksville was the last bit of civilization we would see for a few days. After “lunch”, we continued south from Hanksville and soon entered a new canyon with lots of red rocks. We got to the Hite Overlook and stopped there. This is overlooking the north end of Lake Powell and the Colorado River. Here are a couple of the views from that overlook:

After enjoying the view from the overlook, we continued down and eventually crossed the Colorado river and entered the Glen Canyon National Recreation area. Here is one interesting view:

And here was a most unusual rock formation – it looked just like a yurt!

We continued south and soon got to highway 261 – we drove down this a a ways and then stopped at the Kane Gulch Ranger station. Unfortunately, they were closed (they were only open until noon) but we were hoping they might have some additional info on the trip on a board outside. Since they didn’t have any info, we left and traveled down to Fish and Owl road which would take us to the trailhead. We got there without issue – the road was pretty good, with only a couple spots of exposed rocks we had to slow down for. Once at the trailhead, there were only 5 cars there:

That was a bit surprising since we had to get permits for the trip and Carly got the last 2 (of 20 total). I expected to see more vehicles. We weren’t sure what we needed to do about a parking permit – I was ready to just get a ticket and deal with it later but Carly looked around and they had a self issue stand which had a permit/slip we filled out that had our permit number on it. We were hoping that would keep us from getting a ticket. (spoiler: it did)

We packed up our stuff, suited up and then headed down the Owl creek trail. There are actually two trailheads here – one for Owl Creek and one for Fish Creek:

They are pretty close together but which trailhead you use determines which way you end up doing the loop. Since we decided to do the loop the “recommended” way (counterclockwise), we started on the Owl Creek trail. Pretty quickly you get into kind of a wash:

It isn’t very long before you get your first view of Owl Creek Canyon:

It doesn’t look like there is a way down, but they’ve done a pretty good job of putting rock cairns to mark the path. We got off track a few times but it wasn’t hard to figure out where we went wrong.

As we were heading down, we got our first look at something that would cause us (me, mostly) some pain on the trip – Cacti – they were EVERYWHERE:

As we headed down into the canyon, we got this better view:

A little bit farther we found a very interesting sight – some old relics:


There was an old ammo can that looked like a geocache but it had lots of info on these relics. It said they estimated they were built in 1200AD! It is amazing they are still standing.

After looking at the ruins for a bit, we continued down. It was pretty warm in the sun (this was the hottest part of the day, and the sun in the desert is especially hot) so we enjoyed any spots of shade we could find. As we were going down, I saw my next new/different/interesting thing – a small lizard ran across the rocks. Carly said she had seen a lot of them, but that was the first one I had seen (we would see hundreds of them on this trip).

We continued down into the canyon and one of the things about this trip that was a bit concerning was information about water sources. I brought several containers for water and all were full when we started, which was probably a good thing. Carly had brought extra water as well, and since we had to bring water for Otis as well, we needed a fair amount of water. Being in the desert, water sources are vitally important. As we got lower in the canyon, we saw our first glimpse of water – a stagnant pond which looked pretty gross – we could have filtered from it, but I’m glad we didn’t need to:

After a slow descent, we finally got to what I thought was the floor of the canyon:

But apparently we weren’t quite all the way down yet:

It was in this area that it was really important to be able to follow the cairns, as they directed you to a reasonably easy route down. After a bit more descending, we finally arrived at the floor of the canyon:

From here for the rest of the trip, the trail kind of alternated between the floor of the canyon and going back up a bit, usually to bypass bigger rock drops:

One thing that really surprised me was how much green was at the bottom of the canyon, even though it was pretty dry. There were LOTS of cottonwoods along the floor of the canyon, many of them REALLY, REALLY old – like this one:

And then there were these “oasis” areas – heavily wooded:

I was even shocked to see there are Oak trees growing in places!

As we progressed down the canyon, water started appearing more frequently. Most of it was stagnant, but a few places it was moving slightly:

And with every turn there was new amazing rock formations towering above us:


A bit further down the canyon the trail takes a slight detour up a side channel of the canyon – the reason is that there was a waterfall with a pretty large drop in it – so they routed the trail down the side channel to the end and then we walked down the floor of the side channel back to the main channel:

This was the waterfall we had to detour around – it had almost no flow but had a very large pool at the bottom:

Past the waterfall the canyon widens a bit:

A bit farther down the canyon we saw our first “filled” arch (I’m not sure what the correct name is, but it looks like an arch that doesn’t go all the way thru:

A bit farther down the canyon we saw something I’d never seen before – cactus blooms (we saw a few of these during the trip):

Shortly, we arrived at the bottom of Neville’s arch – this would be our campsite for the night:

More amazing rock formations:

There were several campsites in the area and Carly found a pretty primo one – here it is with Neville’s arch above it:

We had gotten to camp a bit later than expected due to the hike being a bit slower (due to terrain) – but we still had plenty of daylight available. We planned for kind of a “water rationing” evening because the next water was at least 4 miles away according to our information (which turned out to be pretty accurate). We setup camp, made dinner, chatted for a while and then turned in with the sunset. It had been a long day, but day 1 was pretty amazing – something very different for both of us.

Side note: We only saw 4 people all day long – we saw two people coming up the end of Owl Canyon near the beginning of the day and then we passed two people at some point on the trail. No one was camped in the area we were in even though it had quite a few campsites.

Day 3 – Hike to the confluence of Owl and Fish Creeks and head up Fish Creek about 6 miles to a campsite

We woke up on Saturday morning mostly with the sun. It didn’t get too cold, so it was easy to get going in the morning. We did another “water rationing” meal (I tried dry granola – yuck!). We packed up camp and headed out. The sun wasn’t yet to the canyon floor when we left:

The canyon was pretty wide in this area and there was less evidence of water (less vegetation):

As we continued down the canyon, the interesting rock formations just kept coming:

As we approached the confluence with Fish Creek, the canyon got even wider:

At one point we passed an enormous old cottonwood tree – I had to take a picture with my hiking stick and Otis for scale:

There were a lot of large cottonwood trees – it just amazed me how many there were in this “desert” environment.

We kept going down the canyon and soon got to the junction with the Fish Creek Canyon trail – it was a left turn at this junction:

The Fish Creek Canyon was a lot like the last part of the Owl Creek Canyon – at the beginning it was very wide (and dry):

More amazing rock formations as we headed north:

At one point, we came to one of the “cactus gauntlets” and I had to take a picture. The cacti needles were encroaching on the trail and you had to be very careful not to hit them. The needles are SHARP – I got hit by several on the first day:

About two miles up Fish Creek we started to see evidence of water. Not too far after that we found a large pool that didn’t look too bad – we stopped to re-fill our water since we were getting a bit low. The water wasn’t the greatest, and we had to backflush our filters a faw times since the water was pretty silty, but it was water – in the desert.

As we continued up the canyon, the water continued to get more and more consistent. We passed this large pond:

And then a small waterfall – there were even little fish at the bottom of the waterfall!

And the rock formations just continued – they were so interesting and so different:

As we were hiking on the trail, I had to take a picture of this old tree that looked like it had been chewed by beavers – I couldn’t believe beavers lived down in this canyon but it had all the signs of beaver chewing (more on this in a bit):

It was getting kind of hot so Carly wanted to stop in the shade and take a break. As we were sitting there, eating some snacks, 3 trail runners passed us by. They were some of few people we saw all weekend. Carly re-soaked Otis’ cooling jacket in the water (she tried to keep it cool so he wouldn’t overheat) and we headed out after a short break.

As we progressed up Fish Creek, the water continued to get more consistent and flow faster. In this area it was like a normal small creek:

A bit further up the canyon we stopped again for a drink – Otis was getting hot – when we were sitting there, we saw a couple of people with a dog – they saw us and then apparently turned around – we didn’t ever pass them – it was a bit strange. After we rested a bit and Otis cooled off a bit, we crossed the creek on this dam – one of two that certainly looked like a beaver dam:

The second was this:

A BLM brochure on the area confirms “evidence of beaver activity in the lower reaches of Fish Creek”. Pretty amazing!

After that beaver dam crossing an interesting thing happened. The water that had been so plentiful and running suddenly disappeared. It seemed like it was still there – there was evidence (wet sand, etc), but no pools of water to pull water from anymore.

We continued up Fish Creek looking for campsites. There was supposed to be a campsite at 3 miles up and another at 6 miles up – we think we found the one at about 6 miles but the only water available was pretty disgusting. Since Otis was getting tired and hot (he was stopping every time there was a little bit of shade) we knew we couldn’t go too much farther for the day. It was still kind of early, so we all dropped our packs and Otis and I stayed at the campsite and Carly hiked up the canyon looking for more campsites and also a good source of water. She ended up hiking up about a mile but didn’t find either. We decided to camp where we were and then Carly took a bunch of water containers in her empty pack and headed back downstream where the water was better. She filled them up and returned to camp – we had lots of water for Saturday night!

Otis was pretty tired:

Carly setup her hammock and Otis fell asleep in it:

We had kind of a lazy late afternoon after setting up camp which was kind of nice. This was our campsite on Saturday night:

Just past our campsite was this really interesting HUGE rock on the canyon floor – I wonder if it fell off the wall of the canyon at some point:

After a lazy late afternoon we made dinner, chatted for a while and went to bed with the sun. We had one more day in the canyons.

Day 4 – Hike up Fish Creek to the exit point and climb out of the canyon and back to the trailhead – drive back to Provo

We woke up with the sun – we wanted to get an early start to the day for two reasons:

1. We wanted to try and do the climb out of the canyon before it got too hot
2. We still had a 5+ hour drive back to Provo

We quickly made breakfast and then packed up camp. We were hiking before 8.

As we hiked north on Fish Creek the rock formations continued to amaze. At one point there was this blocky outcropping which was very interesting:

I’d love to know the geologic events that made that form – usually you don’t see straight lines in nature but these were very straight lines (at least vertically)

More interesting cliffs:

And some more “filled in” arches:

As we continued up Fish Creek, which had been completely dry for a couple of miles probably, we started to see water again – it was crazy:

At some point in that area, we started to feel some drips. It wasn’t much rain, but it was enough to wet part of the ground. We didn’t get wet – it was just nice to have kind of an overcast sky to keep things a bit cooler.

As we got closer to our exit point, the canyon changed a bit – there were some really cool overhangs:

As we continued up Fish Creek, the map showed a “Natural Arch” – we weren’t sure what that would look like, but we both looked for it quite a bit and didn’t see anything that fit the description. It sounded like many people couldn’t find it either, so I guess we weren’t the only ones.

As we got close to the exit point, the canyon started getting narrower:

We passed this interesting campsite – it was completely level – it almost looked like a poured concrete slab it was so flat:

I can’t remember exactly where, but shortly before we hit the climb out spot, we took a wrong turn. The route wasn’t terribly clear and we just kept hiking down what we thought was the creek. A side creek joined Fish Creek and we started hiking down it instead of following Fish Creek. We quickly realized our mistake and backtracked and found the right path. Once back on the correct path, at some point, we started to slowly climb a bit, and then encountered a pretty large, deep pool:

Before coming to the sign directing us to our exit point:

It was at this point the ascent really began – it was steep but not too bad:

As we ascended the view of the canyon got more and more interesting:


Here was one of the more difficult spots – especially for Otis – but he successfully climbed the rock:

Most of the ascent was relatively easy – it was steep, but nothing technical.

Another view as we ascended higher:

At points the trail would level out for a bit:

We finally got to the infamous “crack” – this was warned about in the reports we saw. We weren’t too worried by it but we stopped at the bottom of it to drink some water, rest a bit and eat some snacks. It is a 10-12 foot crack but it has kind of a mid point flat spot and then up a bit higher it starts to level out a bit, so if you can get up to the mid spot, it is pretty easy to go all the way up:

As we were sitting there, we noticed a couple of people coming up the hill behind us. We figured they would catch up before we got everyone and everything up. I brought my bear bag with the paracord and carabiner on it, so we dropped our packs and I climbed up and then pulled up the packs with the cord so we wouldn’t have all that weight on our backs trying to climb up the crack. After that, we let the two guys who were behind us climb it next. They offered to help with Otis but we felt like we had it handled. After they climbed up, we worked on getting Otis up. The plan was to clip the rope onto his harness as a safety and then have Carly push him up from below while he climbed. We were both a little nervous about it all but figured it would work out OK. It was significantly easier then either of us expected. I didn’t end up pulling him up at all – Carly pushed him up a bit and he just walked right up. Easy Peasy…..

This was the view looking down from top of the crack:

And the view from the canyon rim:


Here is a Panorama I took from the canyon rim:

Last segment to the trailhead – lots of this – small trees and brush:

We made it back to the trailhead about noon. Once there, we looked around for another thing notated on the map – “drill hole” – I looked and looked in the exact spot on the map and didn’t see any evidence of any kind of hole. After I got home, I found this note on the BLM brochure for the area: “…to a drill hole which is the parking area.” Still not sure what a “drill hole” is, but at least the mystery is solved.

We decided to clean up a bit before starting our long drive back to Provo. We both changed our clothes and cleaned up as best we could and then headed out. Our plan was to drive a different way home – it was slightly longer but we would see Moab and some other areas before joining the same route back. I didn’t quite expect it, but it was kind of the second adventure of the day.

We drove a couple of hours and soon got to the town of Moab. This is a town geared towards 4 wheeling and rock crawling. There were offroad rentals everywhere. We decided to stop at the Moab Brewery for lunch. We had a nice lunch and then headed back out on our way back to Provo. We passed the entrance to the Arches National Park – Carly had a discover pass and she said we should do a quick trip in there. We had to sit in line for about 10 – 15 minutes, and we found out that technically we should have had a timed entry pass – they only do timed entry passes from 7am-4pm – fortunately, it was like 5 minutes to 4 and the Ranger let us in. We drove up the entrance road and took pictures of some of the amazing formations and arches.

I think this is the Courthouse Towers – it was HUGE:

I think this is the Three Gossips:

I think this might be the Rock Pinnacles:

This is Balanced Rock:

North and South Window arches:

This is the delicate arch – this is on the Utah License Plate:

The scale of these rock formations is pretty incredible – they have to be seen to really be appreciated I think.

After doing our whirlwind tour of Arches National Park – we spent a little over an hour there – we headed back and continued our trip back to Provo.

Since we had kind of a big lunch and we had lunch kind of late, I wasn’t really hungry for dinner, but I thought maybe some ice cream sounded good. I found an ice cream place in Provo that had non dairy stuff as well, so we stopped there and had some ice cream. By the time we got done with that it was after 8:00 – time to call it a day. I drove Carly back to her apartment and we said goodnight. The plan was for us to have a quick breakfast before I took off in the morning and before she had to go to class.

Day 5 – Drive back home

This trip, although it was a lot of driving seemed to go by really fast. I couldn’t believe it was already time to head back home. Originally we were going to have breakfast at my hotel but we decided to go to “Hruska’s Kolaches”. It is a small place in Provo that Carly frequents. A Kolache is a pastry that has filling in it. Typically it is a sweet filling but this place has them filled with bacon, eggs, sausage, etc as well as sweet fillings. It was a really interesting way to end our time together. I really liked them. We met at the place a little after 7 I think. We got our Kolaches and ate at the tables outside. We talked for a bit and then I needed to head out for my long drive home so we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.

The drive home was mostly just a lot of driving. I was surprised I didn’t really get caught in much traffic in Salt Lake City – just a brief slowdown and then we sped up again. I-15 near Salt Lake is a crazy road to drive – it is 4-6 lanes with a 70 MPH speed limit and people are constantly changing lanes. The only thing of note on the drive home was that just outside Ontario there was a dust storm along the interstate:

It was bad enough they put up messages on the reader boards about reduced visibility – it wasn’t that bad when I went thru, but it was pretty gusty in Idaho in places. I got home close to 7pm – another almost 12 hours of driving but I was glad to be home safely.

This was another amazing adventure with Carly – one that took us to a very different environment than we are both used to. I’m glad she chose this one – it was quite an interesting trip with lots of cool scenery. What will be do next year?