Hike of the Month

HIKE OF THE MONTH This Peak Trail Is Tough, but You'll Love the View

I thought the Grand Canyon's North Rim roads would be open in early May. But six inches of snow put an end to my hopes of hiking there. While looking for an alternate place to hike, I discovered Hack Canyon Road leading to the Kanab Creek Wilderness.

From the trailhead, the path dodges down into the Hack Canyon Wash, with grasses and scrub sweeping up to multicolored buttes on both sides. Sandstone boulders appear, and soon I'm walking down between red stone walls with black wash stripes and eroded honeycomb undercuts.

Bright fuchsia cactus flowers catch my eye. They don't look like any beavertail blooms I've seen; they look like hedgehog cactus blooms on prickly pear bodies.

Luxuriant yellow-green grasses define the shaded wash eddies as I amble gradually downgrade through the white sandstone to a brownish-red layer, the walls drawing closer.

Occasionally my walking startles a lizard, who startles me and then zips off into the rocks. Twice, horned lizards stay long enough for me to get my first long look at them.

After I cross the boundary dividing the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service's Kanab Creek Wilderness, marked by a barbed-wire fence across the wash, the canyon begins to zig left and zag right repeatedly. I can tell I'm approaching the confluence with Kanab Creek, but it's nearly 4 P.M. and I'm getting tired. I've hiked more than six miles, and it's uphill on the way back. It's time to turn back. It will be hard to find the exit from the wash when it's dark.The hike upgrade is easy, though my pace is not. The cactus blooms are closing, and with clouds obscuring sunset, the rock walls and buttes are becoming soft and gray. The only sound is my scrabbling in the wash and thumping on packed orange dirt amidst the grass. As the canyon opens again, I realize I'm the only person in all I can see.

In indistinct twilight, I reach my vehicle. For a moment, I think about sleeping in the canyon in all this magnificent space and solitude. Then I look up at the clouds, thicker now than before, and think of rain-slick roads. Maybe next time.

WHEN YOU GO

To reach Hack Canyon, take State Route 389 a little more than 20 miles west from Fredonia to unpaved Mount Trumbull Road, Mohave County Road 109. Travel southwest about another 22 miles to Hack Canyon Road on the left, which heads east (across from the intersection of County Road 109 and BLM Route 1014, which is marked). High-clearance and four-wheel-drive vehicles are recommended. Along the way, there are three cattle gates to close after you pass through.

This hike is best in late spring or early fall; it's hot, though tolerable, in summer. And a caution: Rain and snow can make the dirt roads impassable. For more information, contact the Bureau of Land Management, Vermilion Resource Area, 225 N. Bluff Street, St. George, UT 84770; (801) 628-4491, or the Forest Service, North Kaibab Ranger District, 430 S. Main, Fredonia, AZ 86022; (520) 643-7395. Use the Jumpup Canyon topographic map.