North Salt Wash

[Udink]

Yesterday my kids and I hiked down into North Salt Wash and then up a little side canyon between Saddle Horse Canyon and McCarty Canyon. We hiked for about five hours and covered five miles.

http://castlecountry.org/geo/NorthSaltWash.kmz


The first part of the hike was a steep scramble down into the bottom of North Salt Wash. There are very few places to get down the vertical canyon walls into North Salt Wash, but luckily I'd stumbled across this spot several years ago while trying to get onto Sid's Mountain. Once we were in the bottom of the canyon, we hiked upstream until we reached the side canyon that I'd been wanting to explore, bushwhacking and making an easy water crossing along the way. There were several big dryfalls in the side canyon that couldn't be scrambled up, but with some tricky routefinding I found some ridges on one side of the canyon that we could scramble up and then drop back down into the canyon above the dryfalls.


At the rim of North Salt Wash


Scrambling down into the canyon


Almost to the bottom


Walking in the bottom of the canyon


Hiking through some cottonwoods


Starting up the side canyon


Water seeping out of a cliff


Almost to the first dryfall


Above the first dryfall


Odd concretions in the Navajo Sandstone


The second dryfall


Concretions


More scrambling to get around a dryfall



Past the dryfalls it was fairly easy hiking for a while. Eventually we came across another dryfall that I couldn't climb up easily. It might be doable with a partner assist or by stacking up some rocks, but the kids were getting tired at that point, so we turned back. There was still another mile or more of narrow canyon above our turnaround point, and someday this fall I'll go back (without kids) to check it out.


In the side canyon


Easy walking past the dryfalls








Another dryfall that stopped us


Hiking back into North Salt Wash


North Salt Wash pano


After the water crossing


Petroglyphs


Scrambling out of the canyon


More scrambling


Pano taken from the canyon rim


A look up the side canyon from the trailhead (at 10x zoom)

http://picasaweb.google.com/Dennis.Udink/NorthSaltWash#

[ibenick]

Great trip report! I'm feeling another trip to the swell coming on...

[oldno7]

Very cool TR.
Looks like a great outing with some great partners.

[rwpontius]

Looks like a great hike with some fantastic country.
RP

[accadacca]

How old are your boys? I need to tag along sometime with my 8 year old. Looks like you guys hit all the sweet spots.

[Udink]

They're 7 and 9. They've been working up to longer and longer hikes and bike rides, but it's been tough motivating them. They never want to go at first, but after we get home from a trip they're always glad they went.

[pixie1339]

Another great trip report, as usual. You have some amazing scenery in your backyard!

[trackrunner]

nice