Hiking Grand Staircase-Escalante & the Glen Canyon Region by Ron Adkison

Author:Ron Adkison
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781493028849
Publisher: Falcon Guides
Published: 2018-02-24T05:00:00+00:00

After 2.3 miles, just after passing the mouth of the first side canyon on the right (north), you find a seep and perhaps flowing water below it. There are many fine camping areas here on the trailside bench among tall pines, pinyons, and junipers. Beyond that side canyon a gentle traverse through the woodland above the wash ensues. After another 0.5 mile (2.8 miles from the trailhead), you cross the wash, with slickrock underfoot, and after 0.2 mile, you dip into the wash again. There you find another small spring, fringed with willow thickets, at 6,720 feet.

The limestone of the Elephant Canyon Formation emerges in the wash just below, and the profile of Trail Canyon grows markedly wider ahead. Trailside slopes host a well-developed woodland, and broken cliffs of red-and-white-banded Cedar Mesa Sandstone rise above in bold relief, reaching 1,200 feet up to the canyon rim. Fine views stretch southward across Dark Canyon into the precipitous gorge of Warren Canyon.

Eventually you emerge from the woodland onto a sagebrush-studded bench. Cross the broad, dry wash, then follow above its west bank for the remaining 0.25 mile to Dark Canyon, in a broad wooded section of the gorge 1,500 feet below the canyon rims. Upon reaching Dark Canyon Wash, cross to the opposite side and join the Dark Canyon Trail beneath the shade of a large, solitary plains cottonwood. A few yards south of the trail is an established campsite, one of few in this part of Dark Canyon, though potential camping places in the woodland are numerous. Follow the same route back to the trailhead.

A reliable series of seeps and springs emerge in Dark Canyon Wash between 0.2 and 0.5 mile upstream from the Trail Canyon confluence. From there, Dark Canyon is dry for 6.7 miles to the mouth of Peavine Canyon, and the only water available downcanyon in the 14-mile stretch to Young’s Canyon is a perennial spring located 1.2 miles up the course of Woodenshoe Canyon.

MILES AND DIRECTIONS

0.0 Start hiking southwest down the Trail Canyon Trail.

0.1 Enter the Dark Canyon Wilderness boundary.

4.1 Reach the confluence of Trail Canyon and Dark Canyon, and return to the trailhead via the same route.

8.2 Arrive back at the trailhead.

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