[John Morrow]

The Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument (GSENM) in southern Utah has become a favorite. Previously, all my explorations (alone or with friends) have been in the eastern Escalante River drainage portion. This trip explored the western portion through "The Grand Staircase" and can be called the Paria River-Hackberry Canyon Loop. Within the National Monument is the Paria-Hackberry Wilderness Study Area and the majority of the hike took place in this 136,000 acre WSA. Kimberly (Rainie Too), who did the bulk of the research for the trip, was joined by and fellow Escalante explorers Linda, Jerry, Robert and myself. We are all becoming annual regulars down here. Gwen, diving head first into her first desert experience, joined us for week two! Total mileage with side canyon trips added up to nearly 100 miles over 10 days. I'll break the trip into three parts: Part 1: Paria River Canyon from Paria Movie Set/Kitchen and Starlight Canyons/Deer Canyon Part 2: Paria River to Rock Springs/Asay Canyon/Sheep Canyon/Bull Valley-Willis Slot Canyons Loop Part 3: Round Valley Draw/Hackberry Canyon/Yellow Rock/Paria Box

GSENM P-H Loop Overview

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Part 1: Highlights: Petroglyphs, pictographs, colors, broad river canyon, narrow tributary canyons, beautiful camps, big mesa views, wildflowers. We began with the car shuttle. After leaving my car (full of resupply for Part 3) at Rock Springs Creek near Kodachrome Basin State Park and the Cottonwood Road, we drove the other two vehicles down the Cottonwood Road. Then, popping out on US 89, we went up the Paria Movie Set road to the Paria River and trailhead start. First, we stopped for a quick 1.5 mile hike of the Cottonwood Narrows along the Cottonwood Road.

Cottonwood Road colors

Cottonwood Narrows

Narrowest

Robert strolls through

lower down

Navajo sandstone walls

Day 1 was short with a little over 4 miles to a nice camp at the junction of Kitchen Canyon and the Paria River. We'd camp here for two nights. The Paria River and Kitchen were both running muddy so we walked upcanyon about 3/4 mile to Drip Tank Canyon for clear water. Starlight Canyon also ran clear.

Calico Peak textures

colorful chinle formation bands

Headed upriver!

To that distant Navajo dome

snake!

Kitchen and Paria junction camp

Kitchen panel

Day 2 was our hike up Kitchen Canyon to Starlight Canyon, in hopes of a loop including a scramble of Mollie's Nipple 7271'. Well, didn't quite work out that way. Kitchen is now impassable at 1 mile, just upstream from Starlight junction, due to a landslide at the Kitchen Falls. It is now nearly vertical to attempt passage around the waterfall.

Kitchen Falls and Prince's plume

Kitchen Canyon

Thus we walked Starlight to near its end where we ran into another dryfall impasse! No Mollie's for us. Several of us made a small loop of it by finding an exit out of Starlight to the north and walking the mesa to a north-western fork of Starlight where we descended a gentle rib through cliff bands back to the main canyon. Starlight Cave with its pictographs was a highlight, as were the views and canyon narrows.

Starlight Narrows

falls in the narrows

Kimberly scrambles through

Starlight Canyon

To Mollies Nipple...not quite

Starlight Cave

petros in years of soot

Denied in Starlight!

Exiting Starlight

Too late for Mollie's

The White Cliffs

descending back into Starligh

good game trail

buffaloberry and phlox

back through the narrows

downclimbing

Day 3 we packed up our Kitchen camp and continued upstream about 6 miles along the Paria River Canyon. The four days on the Paria River included much wading through ankle deep water. It led us to a nice camp near the mouth of Deer Canyon.

Big canyon walls day 2

yellow flower

Paria Canyon

Towards Deer Canyon

Deer Canyon mouth

near Deer Canyon

Sandpipers on sandbar

In the afternoon, we explored idyllic Deer Canyon and its pictograph alcoves and beautiful canyon scenery.

idyllic Deer Canyon

Impasse!

Kimberly and Linda explore

pictographs detail

picto alcove 1

wow!

2nd alcove

colorful

beautiful

I later checked out an old cattle trail exit that rises near the mouth of a western fork of the main canyon to reach the mesa above the canyon. Much to explore up there for another time. Deer Canyon was running clear enough for filtering water.

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument

Deer Canyon from above

Left Fork Deer canyon

L. Fk. Deer Canyon trail

Near camp, at the mouth of Deer Canyon, was another petroglyph panel. A petroglyph panel with very interesting designs and mask like representations, if a bit faded.

Deer Canyon petros

faded petros rain and clouds???

dot lines and sun and faces

Parts 2 and 3 to come at some point....

[sticky buns]

Looks pretty fabulous. I'm looking forward to the next two installments! I'm especially curious to see Hackberry in spring compared to my one night there last fall. What did you wear on your feet for all the water?

[John Morrow]

Hi sticky buns, Thanks for the comment! Jerry only had a more substantial pair of hiking boots and somehow kept them mostly dry searching for rocks to hop. The rest of us had low cut running or approach shoes that we just let get soaked. One 38 degree morning really froze my wet toes. Otherwise, you just get used to it! We all seemed to stop fairly often for some kind of foot maintenance: wringing out socks, pouring out sand, rubbing the toes to warm them up.

[Gwen]