Start: Paria Canyon between Second and Third Crack
Finish: Cow Tank on Vermillion Cliffs
Daily Mileage: 18.0
Trip Mileage: 617.2
Elevation gain/loss: 3270/1367ft
It was one of the warmer nights that I’ve had out here last night. I didn’t even have my hat on for the whole night, which is a first since very early on the trip. Also, my socks and insoles dried overnight, though my shoes were still damp. I guess an advantage of the dry desert air. That never would have dried in other places I frequent overnight.
I put my feet into my dry socks and dry-ish shoes and proceeded to immediately cross the Paria River and get them wet again. At least they weren’t wet when I put my feet in them, which is the hard part.
Where I was, the Paria River did a bunch of tight switchbacks. Early on, I found myself looking around and appreciating the canyon a lot more than I was late in the day yesterday, which validates my decision to stop a little bit early since I wasn’t enjoying it too much being tired. The cliff walls were sheer, and as I progressed into the canyon, they got taller and taller. There were some big alcoves like in some other canyons I have seen, and in general, just great rock and views along with a relatively easy “trail”.
I bumped into another backpacker a couple of times in the morning, and when I saw her filling her Platypuses at a spring, I asked if she had trouble with her caps leaking. I replaced one bladder in Kanab due to a leaking cap, but since then, another bladder has started leaking from the cap as well. These are brand new bladders, just used a few times each, and I have no idea why they started leaking so quickly, not due to a puncture. It also really hampers my water capacity since they’re 2.5 liters each. Well, the backpacker had a spare cap which I tried, but unfortunately, it still leaked past her cap so I guess it’s something on my bladder. Oh well, I’ll just have to deal with it.
The Paria changed as I went downstream. The river went through ledges like Dark Canyon earlier on the trail, and became a lot more fun and scenic to traverse. There were also a lot more rock formations with the river cutting closer to the rock.
As I got further downstream, the walls got enormous and very tall. That worried me a little bit since I knew that at some point, I would be climbing straight up them to Vermilion Cliffs. I would be exiting the canyon without any information on water for the next day and a half on the high plateau I was climbing to. I loaded up with eight liters of water. That was quite the load even on flat terrain, let alone a 2,100 foot climb.
I got downstream to my exit point. I cleaned out my shoes and socks and emptied all the sand and wrang them out best I could since this was possibly my last wet river walk. I was following a route that another hiker posted for how to get out of the Paria Canyon. I only found information about 2 groups doing the route on the internet, though there could have been more. The route was pretty much scrambling up scree and rock. It started going up a scree slope, then traversing over to another scree slope where there was a cliff band I had to get up. A little bit of exposure on the cliff band but not bad. The scree was mixed with dirt and definitely unstable at times, and it was extremely steep. I found myself following mostly sheep trails since they obviously know what they’re doing.
I headed upward with the river disappearing quickly below me. I climbed to a narrow buttress where there were actually a couple of cairns showing the way. They led me to a crack to get over the next cliff band, where I had to take off my pack and carry it because it was too narrow. From that point on, it got steeper, steeper, steeper. I’m not sure who looked at the slope and thought “I can climb that”. The sun was out, and with my heavy load of water, I basically just took it slow and steady with frequent short breaks. I trudged up and up. There was a bit of exposure towards the top, but not too bad either. It was just so incredibly steep and unrelenting, though doable.
I finally crested the steep part and took a good long break, taking in the Paria Canyon 2,100 feet below me. It was quite a sight, and looking down, it was astounding how vertical it was below me that I had gone straight up with my big load. Just taking it all in, steep slope, the river below me, and the canyon spread out in both directions, I just started laughing, trying to comprehend the situation. It was one of the hardest climbs I’ve ever done, but I beat it! And I’m glad I did; it was well worth the views. I was just so happy and excited to be on top and take everything in.
I had to keep moving, and I had about a mile of cross-country to an old reservoir that used to be a ranch. The cross-country wasn’t too bad after I got my bearings. The reservoir had water in it but did not look or taste the most appetizing. Tasted like a mix of algae and dirt even after filtering. I decided to just take on one more liter in my filter bag and try not to use it. From this point, I’m not going to see water for either 25 or 35 miles, though I think there’s a good chance I’ll see people tomorrow and might be able to ask for some. Either way, I should have enough water to make it 35 miles worse case.
After the reservoir, I did some brief cross-country until I got to a road which I could follow for a couple of miles. The road was a 4×4 track that looks like it’s used by one or two people a year, but easier going than through the weeds and desert growth. At this point, I was looking for a campsite, but was not seeing anything flat or open up here. The road passed right next to an old short water tank with a cement bottom. The tank was dry, and the cement was clean and flat. Looked like a perfect camp spot to me. I set up a cowboy camp, and I could even walk around without my shoes and socks on to let everything air out. It’s hard to do in the desert with all the pickers. It should be a good spot for stars since the moon is new right now and I’m in the middle of nowhere. I’ll hit the harder part of the alternate that I’m doing tomorrow with about 5 miles of straight cross-country. We’ll see how that goes.
