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Jun 30, 2015
3:12:14pm
Went canyoneering for first time ever! in death hollow last week.

I had never been to this part of Utah ever and it was amazing. This is the road you take to get to the non-existent trailhead.

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We left the truck off the side of the road and then bushwacked for 11 miles till we reached the mouth of the canyon marked by a freshwater spring(this is the only water source so you'd better bring lots of water.) I've never backpacked without a trail and it's pretty exhausting tbh. It's amazing how wild this part of Utah is though, there's no evidence of people or cairns or anything anywhere. Once the canyon starts to narrow you start to encounter obstacles called chockstones like this.

 

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These block the canyon and can be quite tricky to scramble over and drop into the pool beneath them. Usually we had to take our packs off and float them to the other side of the pools while safely climbed down into the pool. Note going cheap on dry bags is a bad idea unless you like sleeping in a wet bag and clothes the remainder of the hike. Luckily it was really hot so getting soaked over and over again actually was a relief. We did the first 11 miles of the hike in about 5 hours and managed only about 3 miles through the canyon for the next 6 hours which made for a very long day.

The next day we hiked for a few hours till we hit "perennial water" which means the water in the canyon started forming a small stream which eventually became a river. This was the by far the hardest day of the hike because it involved a 10+ miles of hiking downstream in the river over millions of rocks and boulders trying not to sprain ankles or break bones. Also long pants and long sleeves are basically a must because there is massive amounts of poison ivy everywhere on the banks which you have to hike through from time to time. I went as far as wearing gloves because I don't mix well with ivy. This was the prettiest part of the hike as well with the canyon walls becoming 400 ft sheer cliffs on either side. After another 10+ hours of hiking we reached the Boulder mail trail where we camped for the night.

 

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The downside of canyoneering is that it tears up your feet. If you wear water shoes you won't have enough cushion for all the rock hopping/scrambling you need to do. If you wear hiking shoes it feels like your lugging around in cement all day as you cross the river over and over again. Either way, your feet will be in bad shape. The third day we actually had somewhat of trails to hike for the first time so it was much faster and easier. The scenery was amazing, you enter a part of the canyon called the narrows where you're hiking on straight sandstone and there's amazing waterfalls. Once we passed this part the canyon opened up and wasn't as pretty so we booked it as fast as we could to the parking lot and civilization. The last day we hiked about 12 miles but it only took about 7 hours, much easier than the first few days. Then it was off the the local burger joint and lodge in Boulder, UT which was also amazing. We checked out some of the local slot canyons (peakaboo, spooky) the next day and then headed for home.

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If I had to do it over again, I would do the same hike in 5 days and enjoy it more. 

Windward_Coug
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Windward_Coug
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