[John Morrow]

Part 5 of my 2014 Canyon Country Travels My delightful canyon hiking continues! After a great hike with a new partner, Abert, in Cedar Mesa https://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8010398 , I continued on to Capitol Reef National Park. Tentative plans to meet up with Rainie Too! at Capitol Reef, and do a hike together, took full fruition with an easy rendezvous at the Visitor Center. After discussing plans the night before while dining at the wonderful Cafe Diablo in Torrey, we set out to the south end of the park and the Halls Overlook Trailhead. An excellent trail dropped us 1000 vertical feet to the canyon bottom.

Bridge visible center right with shadow

Grand Gulch Halls Creek

South view on descent

Entrada formation blob

First stop was to investigate the possibility of reaching the Brimhall Double Bridges, provided the route was swim free. Not only was it swim free, but it was completely dry!!! A couple fun class 3 friction moves, and a chockstone mantel took us in to the oasis of a beautiful canyon.

Brimhall Canyon

Capitol Reef National Park

Wow, Brimhall Double Bridge

Brimhall Double Bridge, Capitol Reef National Park, UT

Kimberly having canyon fun

tall walls

Enjoying the reverse route out through the few scramble moves, we departed Brimhall and did a bit of a Halls canyon-bottom slog to our planned camp near the Fountain Tanks. For those interested, clear water reappeared in Halls Creek every hour or so of hiking. It was dry right at camp but the Fountain Tanks had ample water. A nice small camp, under a juniper, above the wash and 500 feet from the tanks became home.

barrel bloom!

continuing south

Prickly Pear

Yucca flowering

Sun setting above camp

The next morning it was a casual start and hike to the start of the Halls Narrows. The hiking down the main Grand Gulch of Halls Creek was a combo of nice firm gravel wash-bottom mixed with occasional shortcut trails that detoured the long meanders.

Sunrise color behind camp

strange box

globemallow

the Halls Grand Gulch country

Hot temps exceeding Ninety degrees allowed us to really enjoy the cold water wades in each of three sets of Narrows. Clear short pools maxed at about (my) waist deep, but all were less than 20 feet long at that depth. The rest of the canyon was ankle deep bubbling clear water. Instead of doing the loop through Halls Divide, we opted to go right back up the 3.5 mile long Narrows and enjoy the cool wading! We exited around 4:30PM which allowed us to return to camp after the heat of the day.

Enter Halls Narrows

Big alcove

Fun hiking

Capitol Reef National Park

Capitol Reef National Park

reflections

Capitol Reef National Park

Pleasant scene

strange forms

belly button deep!

toward the final narrows

perspective!

entry

the Halls Narrows

big oxbow formation

headed back through

deep spot, refreshing in the heat

love canyon narrows

A slow steady pace in the early evening heat brought us back to the Tanks and camp.

big paintbrush

long slog to camp

more color

Capitol Reef National Park

On our last day, Rainee Too! planned to continue up Halls and do the length of Lower Muley twist Canyon, while I exited via our entry route at Halls Overlook. Having already done Lower Muley, it worked out great for me to depart early and relocate Rainie Too!'s rental at the Lower Muley TH allowing her to hike to it over the next two days.

spectacular reef!

Capitol Reef National Park, Grand Gulch of Halls Creek

Grand Gulch of Halls Creek, Capitol Reef National Park. UT

lupine!

not sure????

With Rainie's help, I had finally done the famous Halls Narrows and Brimhall Bridges! What a great partner she is, and I hope we get to do another canyon adventure again next April!

[Abert]

Halls would have been one too many canyons for me. The heat and wind chased me right out of Southern Utah on Sunday. I tried to make a stand at Temple Mountain near Goblin State Park but was still getting sand-blasted. I ended up spending a quiet night near Nine-Mile Canyon east of Price. If you're still at Capitol Reef I hope you're hydrating while filing trip reports.

[John Morrow]

It almost sent me packing too, Abert. But now they are talking snow on Wednesday again! After the constant chilly wind we experienced in Natural Bridges, I almost welcomed, almost, the Halls Creek heat. The dehydration was indeed extreme. And the heat brought on the gnats too. I look like I have chicken pox on my forehead. Thanks for the company, and the Fish hike last week, very special. Be safe heading home. John

[Matt Lemke]

Great choice...Halls Creek Narrows is one of my all time favorite places

[John Morrow]

thanks Matt, Hey, by any chance do you know if the southern Fork of Sheets Gulch is non technical to its head? I am thinking of trying to loop it back with Oak Creek. Looks like cool steep Navaho sandstone formations. Yesterday I discovered a couple more Navaho canyons on the Reef between Grand Wash and Capitol Gorge while I unsuccessfully tried a circumnavigation of Golden throne. Oh, it is snowing here in Torrey at the moment! John