Fall 2024 Back to the Southwest, 10.19.24 - 11.13.24, Part 2, Resurrection Canyon, UT
Our planning had been good in that we only really needed one full day to see Cedar Breaks National Monument. On the morning of October 23rd, I drove the Navibahn from Cedar City up and over the steep climb past Cedar Breaks on Hwy 14 and down to Kanab, Utah. Bridgit was following in the Jeep. I thought it would be less strain on the Navibahn not to be towing up that grade and down the other side but it really didn’t seem too bad in hindsight. Still, it gave Bridgit a chance to drive the Jeep which she loves to do. From Kanab we went east and met up with my great friend Mike who came out from his home in Steamboat Springs. It was still quite early. Luckily, the Page Lake Powell Campground said we could check in early so we got the Navibahn all situated. Bridgit was still in the throes of a bad cold so she decided to take a rest day and let Mike and me go for a hike.
Mike and I met in 1974 in high school so this year we are celebrating fifty years of friendship. We’ve logged hundreds of trail miles, climbed dozens of peaks and quite possibly rolled a joint or two over that time. What better way to celebrate than to do some hikes together?
We drove from Page up to Big Water and turned onto the Smokey Mountain Road. This was the same road Bridgit and I took last spring to drive out to Alstrom Point. After crossing Wahweap Creek we went a mile or two until we were rounding the base of a huge mesa. I parked the Jeep between two house sized boulders and our adventure began.
Our parking spot for Resurrection Canyon
I can’t remember how I heard about Resurrection Canyon. It has no trail, no trailhead, no signage. It is near another canyon called Wiregrass Canyon which has an official trail but I had read that of those who had hiked both, Resurrection Canyon was more scenic and interesting. We did have a route on Mike’s navigation app and I had a screen shot of another person’s track but as we would find out, canyon hiking is far more complex than it looks on paper.
Our biggest challenge was just figuring out how to get down into the canyon wash from the rim. Crossing the road from where we parked, we headed between two other big rocks and dropped down a hill. Soon we were on the edge of the rim and we had our first views of the canyon. All our information said the way down would be to hug the western side and look for a social trail. We didn’t find anything like that so we just went straight down the steep hill to the next level. Luckily, the steep hill was mostly soft dirt so it was more like plunge-stepping down a snowfield and not too difficult.
Looking down the first hill we needed to descend
Once we got to the bottom of the first hill, we crossed over to another rim. From this vantage point we could see down to the floor of Resurrection Canyon and it looked really cool down there. It also looked like it was still a long way down. Everything to our left seemed like it ended up in a large dropoff so we dropped down and stayed to the right. We tried several different spots only to be confronted with big drops. Continuing along the slickrock and still a ways above the canyon floor, we finally came to a large slickrock bowl with a single majestic hoodoo right in the center. Here we found a route that got us to the canyon floor, and although I wouldn’t recommend it as a great option, it was doable and we made it work.
Looking down towards the canyon floor. We traversed along the slickrock right of center until we found our down route.
The Lone Hoodoo Bowl. If you see this, you’re going the wrong way.
Looking back up our route to the canyon floor
The Lone Hoodoo from the canyon floor
Now that we had made it into the canyon, we simply followed the main wash down canyon. Almost immediately, we came to a really cool area full of white hoodoos. Dropping below the hoodoos, the canyon walls were full of holes and twisted rock. As we moved further down canyon, we passed by a huge tower of rock that could be seen from just about anywhere in the canyon. We dubbed it “Resurrection Tower”. After a mile and a half or so, the canyon began to widen a bit and the scenery got less interesting. I had read that the further you go towards its meeting with Wahweap Creek, the less exciting the hike is so we stopped at a nice shaded alcove for lunch. As we were returning back up the canyon we came to the mouth of a side canyon that we called the West Canyon. We had plenty of time and energy so we headed up West Canyon to see what there was to see. It turned out there was plenty to see. We passed a gigantic hoodoo with a great brown caprock that looked like it would slide off any day. We were now on the west side of Resurrection Tower. Mike was watching for options that we could take to get back to the main wash but before we did that we explored further up the canyon. Soon we came to an area of white mudstone with hoodoos and deep water rivulets gouged into the mudstone. It reminded me quite a bit of the Bisti/De Na Zin Wilderness in northern New Mexico. We ended up hiking quite a ways up West Canyon but it didn’t look like we would be able to connect back to the main wash that high up so we started back down. This time we worked our way around to the east side of Resurrection Tower and we found a beautiful area of flat white mudstone that led us right back to the great white hoodoos we had seen on the way down the canyon.
The beautiful white hoodoos in mid-canyon
Along the main wash
Resurrection Canyon walls
A small arch in Resurrection Canyon
Moon over Resurrection Tower
The Great Hoodoo with Resurrection Tower
The Great Hoodoo. Not sure I would stand under that for too long!
The Great Hoodoo with Resurrection Tower
Mudstone hoodoos
More hoodoos
Sunburst behind Resurrection Tower
Once we were back in the main wash, we worked our way back up canyon to the point we had accessed the wash from above. Rather than go back up the way we came, we worked our way around the eastern side of a small ridge and found a clear social trail. This led further up canyon and then over to the slickrock. Here we found a small cairn and a way to get back up onto the slickrock bench that was much easier than the way we came down. From there we followed a route that stayed mostly a little east of where we had come down and easily made it back up to the upper rim and back to the Jeep. For such a short hike of only three miles round trip or so, it sure was fun and with the route-finding it felt like quite an adventure. Oh yeah, seeing no other people the entire hike added to the sense of adventure!
Best of friends for fifty years
This last photo shows where we went down into the canyon and how we came back out. Going down we stayed just to the right of center for a long way and then took a sketchy line to the canyon floor. On the way out we came around the east side of the hill in the middle and followed a social trail straight west to the slickrock where we found an easy way back up.