July 18, 2012
It was time for another hiking excursion, and since it had been 10 years since I had last explored Canyonlands, that's where I decided to go. We left Hurricane, UT after I got home from work about 4:15 and took I15 north to I70 east, then went south on UT191 and then back west on UT211 to the Needles District of Canyonlands. Since we arrived there at 10:45 at night, the campground was full so we camped about 7 miles from the entrance to Canyonlands and about 28 miles in on UT211, at a campground called Creek Pasture. It was a perfect campground with quite a few spots and vaulted toilets. We had the campground all to ourselves besides the many ants and occasional coyote howls in the morning.
The main hike I had centered this trip around was to be a grueling 18.2 miler down to the Colorado River and back in one day - a hike that maybe only a couple dozen people attempt from the Elephant Hill 4 wheel drive road each year, most preferring to do the hike as an overnight adventure.
We woke up and started breakfast around 5:30, ate about 6:30 and made our way to the Visitors Center which was still closed (opens at 8:00 am). So we continued on to the Elephant Hill Trail Head which is accessible by using a well maintained 3 mile gravel road. There is a parking area and trail marker where the trail head starts. The Elephant Hill 4 wheel drive road is one of the most technical 4 wheel drive roads in Utah and this is the road that we started our hike on. We arrived at the trail head a few minutes after 8:00 and after getting our gear together and posing for a few pictures, Holli, my 18 year old step-daughter, Matthew, my 14 year old neighbor, and I started on our way up the road at 8:15.
The trail for the first mile and a half heads for the most part in a north west direction along a rough, rocky road. It then turns south for the next 2 miles before coming to Devil's Kitchen. Along the way, the trail passes through huge boulders along a sandy bottom. Once to the Devil's Kitchen junction, the 4 wheel drive road that the correct trail down to the Colorado River follows turns back hard right (towards Devil's Lane, as indicated by a sign). It was at this point that we became uncertain as to which way to go.
We took some time exploring the Devil's Kitchen area which is like an oasis of sorts among a hot, unforgiving desert. Many huge boulders create a grotto and give much needed shade to a couple of picnic areas that are complete with picnic tables and vaulted restrooms (no water). The main 4 wheel drive road loops around at the end of Devil's Kitchen, and a small foot trail that leads to Chesler Park breaks off. Again, you'll have to back track to the sign and head toward Devil's Lane if your destination is the Colorado River.
We headed back to the 4 wheel drive road that turned back hard to the right because I knew we were supposed to be on a 4 wheel drive road for another .6 of a mile. When the 4 wheel drive road ended, we found ourselves overlooking a meadow intersected by a jeep track. A sign was there that didn't have the information that we were hoping for on it. But we saw another sign in the distance where another foot path broke off. Matthew ran over to see if it would have some info on Lower Red Lake Canyon or the Colorado River, and sure enough, it did! It told us that the Colorado River was 5.0 miles ahead.
This new trail headed right for a large reef of sorts that upon first inspection seemed a daunting task to get around or over. We were lead to a patch of trees that we went through and then up on a thin ledge which leads to a very scenic view down into Cyclone Canyon below.
Once down into Cyclone Canyon, the trail heads across another small meadow where a sign reassured us that we were still headed in the right direction by indicating that we were at Lower Red Lake and that the Colorado River was only 4 miles away. It should be noted that despite the name, there is no water here or anywhere for that matter on the hike save for the few puddles left over from the rainstorms a couple days prior.
From here, we gained about 150 feet of elevation and came to the Lower Red Lake Canyon overlook. Here we had our first view of the Colorado River far in the distance. We also saw the trail that we would have to descend to 900 feet below us.
We slowly made our way down the switchbacks until we finally realized that we were on the trail that we had spotted from way up above. We also noticed a sudden and dramatic change in the temperature. Where it was hot before, it suddenly became scorching! The high temp was supposedly supposed to be about 95 degrees on the rim, but here in the canyon it must have been at least 10 degrees hotter.
Tamarisk trees lined the final few hundred yards of the canyon as we were obliged to follow the narrow wash as it entered the Colorado River Valley. The Colorado River was very wide at the point where the trail came in and it was here that we encountered the first people of the day - they were in a kayak heading across to the other side of the river where a group was waiting for them.
At about 12:45, we rushed for the river to cool off. As I started wading into the river, my feet sank a bit in the muddy bottom. We went in where the water was just up past our knees and laid down to cool off. After spending 45 minutes at the river swimming, eating, and taking in the beautiful scenery, we decided we better get started back.
We quickly took an inventory of our water and realized that we had drunk over half of our supply on the way down. We started with 3 full camelbacks, and 12 water bottles between the 3 of us and it still wasn't going to be enough. I was a little concerned but knew that we could stretch the water we had and be ok.
We started back out, hoping that our soaking clothes would be enough to keep us cool through the extremely hot canyon that we were about to be hiking through. Our clothes dried out much faster than I had anticipated. In fact, they were about completely dry as we came to the switchbacks where we would have to gain back all that elevation while doing so in even hotter temperatures than on the way down.
We made good time up the switchbacks, though we went through a lot of our remaining water to do so as it was very difficult to find good shade to rest in. With about 4 miles remaining about another 500 vertical feet to go, we had 1 water bottle left between the 3 of us. We hiked from shade to shade, constantly looking overhead to see when the next cloud cover would soften the piercing rays of the sun.
We wet our selves in every rain puddle we could find and filled up our empty bottles with the muddy water to dump on us to keep us cool. It was actually a fun way to keep my mind occupied - trying to find the next good shade to take cover in and the next rain puddle to soak in - although the puddles were very few and far between.
We had told Liz and the girls who were back at camp that we would be done at around 6:00 or slightly later. So the plan was that they would get to the trail head where they had dropped us off, and start hiking in at 6:00. At 5:30, we had 2 miles left and no water. I knew finishing at 6:00 was out of the question, but I also knew that we wouldn't be much passed that and that we'd probably run into Liz and the girls on the trail.
Images of them coming to meet us with snow cones and Matthew's favorite drink - a Texas Twister - kept us going. We finally ran into them at about 6:15pm and made it back to the trail head, tired, thirsty, and dirty, but with a great sense of accomplishment at 6:30pm. The 18.8 mile hike (exploring made it slightly longer according to my GPS then the 18.2 I had read that it was) took us 10 hours and 15 minutes to complete. Surprisingly, my legs weren't very tired, probably since there was only 1400 feet of elevation gain/loss total on the hike. But once back to our van, water never tasted so good!
