Paria Bailout

[Arthur]

We are doing the Buckskin Gulch-Paria river in October.  I have done the Paria, but the other guys, no. The slot canyons can be a last minute cancel due to rain, so I am looking for a last minute bailout.  3-4 days, southern Utah, northern AZ. Have 4WD.  Tanner-Granview in the GC comes to mind, but would like to find something less permit dependent.  No ropes or serious exposure.  Any ideas?  Thanks.

[D M]

AZT SOBO. You can leave a vehicle at Jacob Lake and one at the Stateline Campground.

[Kief H]

You can do a highly scenic canyon loop in the Kanab Creek Wilderness without a permit requirement. Take FS roads out of Jacob Lake to the Sowats Point trailhead. Descend the Ranger Trail to the Esplanade and follow to Sowats Canyon, leaving the trail on the canyon floor and continuing downstream to good camping at Mountain Sheep Spring. Follow Sowats to the confluence with Jumpup Canyon. Nice side trip up Jumpup to the “Jump” below lower Jumpup Spring. Going down Jumpup you pass the narrow cleft of Indian Hollow (another worthwhile side trip) and the mouth of Kwagunt Hollow, which will be your exit route back  to Sowats Point. You then pass through the awesome limestone Jumpup Narrows and reach the confluence with Kanab Creek. To your immediate left is the park boundary. Directly ahead is a grassy bench above the stream bed with good legal camping outside the park. There is reliable water above a chock stone in a gully on the left side of Kanab a 15 minute walk upstream. It is a five mile walk down canyon to Shower Bath Spring, a prime Grand Canyon landmark destination since the days of John Wesley Powell. Delicious pure cold water pouring down from a mass of ferns and monkey flowers. Scotty’s Castle and Scotty’s Hollow are another 45 minutes to an hour farther. As long as you day hike it from the Jumpup confluence you need no permit. Returning up Kwagunt is a fun hike with good camping and water. It’s a beautiful canyon. There are use trails in three places where you need to circumvent pouroffs. One has very slight exposure but nothing close to sphincter tightening. You rejoin the Ranger Trail at the head of the canyon near a cluster of oak trees and retrace your steps to the trailhead. I’ve hiked these canyons three times in October without any weather issues.

[Arthur]

DM, Kief

Thanks for the great ideas. These sound like good hikes anyway for another time too.

[Eric Blumensaadt]

I’ve done Paria and the poopy-smelling junction with the Buckskin Gulch, where it appears everybody passing through has to do #2 and not bury it OR their TP. GAK! Nearly impossible to camp there on the “beach”.

Now one is REQUIRED to carry “wag bags” when hiking Paria and that means I’m absolutely out from ever, ever doing Paria again. Same with Coyote Gulch B/C some Boy Scouts burned down the very nice mulching Clivus Multrum style toilet just below the big bend arch-over and it was never replaced by theBLM.  If our militaristic Federal government can support TWELVE aircraft carriers then they can surely support mulching toilets in these heavily used areas. Probably cost about the same as a toilet on a B-52. But NOOOOOOO!

 

[Roger Caffin]

You have got to be kidding! Those are MILITARY toilets!
A mulching loo would be less than 1/10 the cost of a toilet on a B52!

Cheers

[Author]

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