Halls Creek Narrows

**Swamp Thing** · 10-24-2011, 05:47 PM

A couple of weeks ago my son Connor and I traveled from Fort Lauderdale to Halls Creek in the south end of Capitol Reef. Thanks to all the folks who help me out on the planning – for this and future trips - Scott P, denaliguide, Dan, Matt Lemke, Goofball and everyone who helped. Time was short for this trip (although I worked out one extra day compared to last year’s trip – next year I’ll shoot for a full week!) so the plan was to travel to and from Halls Creek as fast as possible in order to spend as much time in-canyon as we could – 4 days in Halls Creek. Well, plans change and in this case it turned out for the better maybe, although we returned to civilization one day early.

When we arrived at the Capitol reef visitor’s center to pick up our permits, we see that there is already a party that registered for the Halls Creek Narrows area for the same 4 days we were. “Wow, that is really weird having two groups go to the narrows at the same time,” says the ranger. Oh well, but I figure that anybody spending 4 days in the narrows would be people I wouldn’t mind meeting, so off we went.

We had to stop for a quick pee so we climbed up a bentonite hill.

Notom Road.

The plan: drop down into Halls Creek via the “airstrip route,” aka the shortcut and camp about a mile north of the narrows, then spend the next two days exploring the narrows and the Waterpocket Fold north of there. On the forth day hike back to our car and out.

The drive to the airstrip route was no problem in our SUV, although we wouldn’t have stood a chance without high clearance. We arrived in the early afternoon and dropped right in.

From the parked SUV a 30 foot hike to the start of the airstrip route.

The first bit is a relatively gentle slope to the drop-off.

On the edge of the drop-off.

Steep and fun.

This is the only bit where we had to lower our packs by hand.

From about the midway point.

Connor is just visible in the lower part right-of-center.

We took plenty of time to soak in where we were.

I love mountain hiking and I love the verticals, and the airstrip route does not disappoint - a great way to get an immediate buzz after 22 hours of traveling. There are cairns but they seem to be spread liberally though several different paths mostly as evidence that someone before you tried to go the same way. We had to lower our packs in only one spot. I loved this descent.

When we got down to the very last vertical rock layer (out of six I think) we became momentarily stuck. The obvious way involved a couple of short steep slides, the second of which is about 8 feet with exposure at the bottom beyond a less-than-2-foot wide landing ledge. No way for us to get back up that way, so I spent some time looking for another way down with no luck. Down the little slide we went, understanding we had to look for an alternate way back up. I wish I had pictures of the slide but I had to literally be prepared to catch my son or risk him sliding on past the ledge for a 20 foot fall. Of course he made the short slide more easily and confidently than I did, so in hindsight I should have snapped a couple of pictures.

When we reached the creek bed, we looked around for a return route but couldn’t find one. (Maybe we could have climbed the slide?) The new plan was to now return via the Halls Creek Overlook route and circle back to our car at the airstrip, giving us a chance to spend a day exploring Brimhall Canyon.

We hiked about a mile and a half down canyon and set up camp for two nights. From the airstrip route it looked like there was water all along the creek bed, but when we got down to it turns out it was just that shiny grey sand/mud that reflects light just like water but is in fact – mud. We decided to stop at the first good supply of water as we were pretty beat and didn’t want to risk there being no more water until the narrows.

Sun break over the Waterpocket Fold.

The next morning we dayhiked down and through most of the narrows, a failure in the abstract as I screwed-up the time management and to play it safe with son turned back before we reached the southern end. It was definitely not a failure in a practical sense because the narrows is one of those places where time looses its meaning. I’ve been know to hike slowly before, but after hiking for 2 ½ hours into the narrows, it turns out we had gone a grand total of 1 (one) mile. This is flat easy walking we’re talking about here! With the right company the narrows can reveal a whole lot.

On the way to the narrows.

Incredible beauty around every trun.

The entrance to the narrows is dead center.

Proto-arch.

First alcove.

Second alcove.

Nice rock for lunch.

Connor is there in the distance lower right.

Right at the mouth of the narrows we found our friend’s campsite and at that one-mile mark we ran into him coming the other way. He was a solo hiker from Kansas named Joe and just as I suspected, a very cool and kind individual. He was doing a 2 week solo backcountry adventure all around the area. He had seen my son and I coming down the airstrip route as he passed by (thinking he was alone, he at first though he was hearing things when he heard our voices high up on the cliff face!) We chatted for a bit and realized our schedules could overlap. We decided that he would head up to our campsite that evening and join us for the night, and the following day we would all head to the Halls Creek Overlook and he would give us a ride to our car at the airstrip. We would be cutting our stay in Halls Creek short by a day, but would avoid the road walk back to our car which I was not looking forward to, and have an easy “bonus day” before heading back to SLC.

Connor and Joe take a last look back at the narrows area.

Back to camp.

After exiting the narrows we found Joe had just finished packing his gear, so we hiked back to our campsite together and turned in. The next morning we hiked up to the overlook trail arriving just after noon. Joe and my son poked their heads into the canyon a bit while I had the most amazing semi-nap on a nice grassy(!) patch beneath some trees at the mouth of Brimhall – amazingly beautiful. Scott P recommended I do both the airstrip route and the overlook trail if I could arrange it, and of course that is perfect advice. Both are fantastic and completely different, one being a well marked trail and one being – not.

Upper Muley Twist Canyon on the right.

On the way back to Torrey, we had a great drive via Boulder. Had a great Mexican meal at the little restaurant/convenience store just north of Torrey. Pretty authentic Guerrero-style food. The next day we picked some apples at Capitol Reef, the developed part of which is as beautiful as any park I’ve been to and a place I am budgeting a future week of family-vacation. We made the beautiful drive to Little Wild Horse Canyon and took a few hours to prance though the slots with all the other little ponies, saw Goblin Valley for a good 80 seconds, and headed to SLC for a truly terrible meal (I did not know downtown was just one big college-town) before hitting the sack for an early morning flight home.

Capitol Reef apple orchard.

Super highway to Little Wild Horse.

There must have been an easier way in, but this was good too.

Near the split between LWH and Bell.

My favorite part, a nice alcove.

For scale, you can just make out a person in the distance, light blue pants and white shirt.

As close as we got to Goblin Valley.

**Sponsored Link** · 10-24-2011 05:47 PM

**oldno7** · 10-24-2011, 06:31 PM

Great TR and Vacation.

**homerj** · 10-24-2011, 10:42 PM

SWEET!!! Love the reflection shots the most!

**powderglut** · 10-25-2011, 06:01 AM

Nice report! Beauty pictures! I love that area!

**ststephen** · 10-25-2011, 09:15 AM

Some excellent photos and a great TR to with. Thanks!

**goofball** · 10-25-2011, 09:00 PM

looks like a great time. love those halls creek undercuts !

**ibenick** · 10-26-2011, 09:02 AM

Very nice!

**trackrunner** · 10-26-2011, 09:20 AM

nice

**Sandstone Addiction** · 10-27-2011, 10:33 PM

Gorgeous pictures! I need to add Hall Creek to my list.

Thanks Swamp Thing for sharing your adventure.

**Swamp Thing** · 10-29-2011, 12:24 PM

Thanks everyone!

I stuck a Gopro on my hiking pole and shot my first hiking video. I've definitely mastered the "shaky-cam" technique, so hopefully it's watchable without inducing nausea. Since my hikes are usually precious to me (in time and money) I've never shot video before as it takes much more effort to get right than stills, but with the Gopro I was able to forget about the process - unfortunately it shows - and still get something to remember the trip by.

It's long and boring (it's a hike after all) but that's the way I like it! Shows the shortcut route and the narrows mostly.

Enjoy.

**Sandstone Addiction** · 10-29-2011, 10:23 PM

Excellent video, I enjoyed it!

**wingate** · 10-31-2011, 07:27 PM

Awesome photos and a stunning day to be there. What camera were you using for these shots? Someday I gotta get there.

**Swamp Thing** · 11-11-2011, 01:46 PM

Sorry wingate, I did not see your question. All photos were taken with a canon 60D + 10-22mm lens.

**Sombeech** · 11-11-2011, 03:03 PM

Incredible report! Thanks

**wingate** · 11-11-2011, 06:40 PM

We spent a week at Capitol Reef five years ago and did a lot of hiking including cathedral valley but did not have time for this. Next time for sure.

**americanhero** · 11-11-2011, 07:32 PM

Great report and wonderful pictures.
The Narrows look awesome. That could be something for me for my next year's trip

**Swamp Thing** · 09-14-2012, 09:45 AM

I'm finally able to upload HD video to YouTube, so here's an HD version of the descent into halls creak drainage and the narrows, as well as a dashboard cam of the drive down Notom Rd from the visitor's center to the airstrip by the narrows, for those wondering whether to make the drive.