Deep Creek Canyon

[WorkBad]

Warning, this is a long one.

June 18^th-21^st 2013 Natalie, myself, and Jamin (jay-min) decided to explore the rarely seen depths of Deep Creek Canyon. Beta for this canyon was obtained from www.climb-utah.com, which we found very helpful.

When preparing for this challenge we needed to tackle a few obstacles. First we agreed to go as light as possible, with light packs we would be able to maneuver with agility and use less energy. Our packs including water, food, and booze, weighed in at 20lbs (Nat), 28lbs (mine, cough whiskey cough), and 26lbs (Jamin). Turns out Nat and I went a little too light (brrrrrr! More on that later) Next we also needed to get someone crazy enough to drive our sorry asses from Zion NP up to the trail head about 1 hr 45 min north, east of Cedar City. We also had to obtain an overnight permit for the Narrows because we were planning on staying our last night there. The shuttle was procured via Bogley.com. A very awesome and entertaining individual heard and answered our plight, THANK YOU AGAIN (sorry about the crappy road, my bad) more about that in a bit.

The overall interest for this canyon developed between the three of us in 2010 when doing the Narrows top down. I'm sure like everyone who does the top down hike, curiosity is high when looking up the confluence with Deep Creek. Where does all that water come from? The Narrows hike in a day is exhaustively long that exploration of another canyon is out of the question. We knew we'd have to leave Deep Creek for another adventure. This is that adventure!

Our group experience included Jamin who has done the narrows top to bottom 4 times and Natalie and I have both completed the Narrows just the one time, none of us overnight, but we are all avid backpackers. On our 2010 Narrows top down hike the North Fork of the Virgin was flowing around 80cfs. On this trip the NF Virgin was around 30cfs. Since most of the flow out of the Narrows comes from Deep Creek we knew approximately how much water we were going to be dealing with. Obviously having never done Deep Creek with a higher flow rate I'm not sure how difficult it may be, I'm guessing much more difficult but doable. If I were to do this canyon again I'd wait for something around 30cfs, it seemed just about right. At this flow rate there were plenty of places to swim if desired but for the most part belly button height was the max depth experienced.

On Tuesday the 18^th we left SLC and drove down to Zion. We dropped off our vehicle, hooked up with our shuttle partner, and took I-15 back towards Cedar City. We made great time and everything was very smooth, so we thought. In the haste of learning the hiking trail details I neglected to find out exactly how to get to the trail head. I just let Google Maps route the way and assumed it wouldn't pick a freakn' ATV Jeep road�, boy was I wrong... So before getting the shuttle vehicle stuck, we decided to say thanks and get out and hike. How far could it be right? I's not like we are going to cancel the trip because we have to hike more. After hiking basically from Highway 14 along this road� for 2.0 miles, we gained about 1000ft of elevation and came to the top of a 9,100 foot summit. We were now in adventure mode and felt like we'd left humanity behind us. Then, at the summit in front of us coming in from the left was this huge, wide, flat dirt road that Jamin said his Infinity G35 could have driven down. The road was laid out in front of us and went on into the distance forever. I look over and there is a man in slacks walking down this road, there is a minivan off to another side, a camper further down. I thought, "how the hell did all these people get their vehicles up here?" So I walked over to the guy in the slacks and asked where he came in, he gave me a crazy look and said the highway? It's about 1 mile that way, pointing to the east! Oh man did I feel dumb! We laughed about this as we walked the remaining 4 miles to the actual trailhead.

Please, enjoy the photos and adventure.

Where to and not to go...


Fresh and ready to hike


Making our way up the mountain


Large road at the top


Fife Creek going through a field


Arriving at the real trail head, Fife Creek, around 4:00 we knew we only had about 4.5 hours of light left. The trail head is very nondescript, in fact if it wasn't for the GPS waypoint we'd have never known this was the start. So! Off we went. At first, understanding that there's private property all around us we tried to stay as close to the tiny stream as possible. We also carefully stepped over any wired fences we encountered and straightened them if altered. If anyone does this canyon after us please do your best to leave no trace of your presence.

The real trail head


Infant stream at the trail head


Immediately we knew that not many people have visited this canyon in a long time. There isn't really a trail at all, just a bunch of deer paths wandering around. Sometimes we found ourselves 50-100 feet above the creek following an old road, hopping over huge dead trees. Sometimes we were hiking down by the creek next to skin grabbing thorn bushes. The trail is very primitive but we were always treated with a great view of the wide valley as we descended. The valley that forms is picturesque. Lots of dead tall trees, new shorter trees, green bushes, deer, and the walls of the valley are capped with igneous rock. After the first major spring, about 1 mile from the TH, the flow of the creek really picks up.

Stream goes under the volcanic stream bed.


A view down canyon


Big Spring, 1 mile from


Scenery










Soon after, we were forced more or less into the shin deep water. 7.5 miles from the TH we dropped 2000ft and decided to find a place to setup camp. We happened to be at the junction of Fife and Deep Creek.

Bush whacking


Into the stream


Scenery





We couldn't find a place to camp anywhere. Thick bushes cover almost everything and clearings are very few and covered with large rocks and fallen branches. Luckily we found an area where a beaver had cleared all the wood which left moving a few rocks to accommodate our tent.

Camp 1


We ate our camp meals next to a fire, drank our whiskey, and smoked our stogies then turned in for the night. To lighten the load Nat and I decided to leave our sleeping bags and depend solely on Sea To Summit Reactor bags and emergency blankets. We've successfully done this setup before in several desert environments with great results, plus Zion was supposed to be 102 that day. But... What we didn't account for on this hike was the elevation. We were camping at approximately 7,000ft with a nighttime low of around 35f. Holy Crap! Did we freeze, worst night ever (so far)! Jamin was great in his Western Mountaineering Summerlite, Nat and I got little to no sleep, and were in and out of consciousness the whole night. At one point I gave up, got up and made a fire to stay warm. Natalie moved out of the tent and onto the cold ground next to the fire to stay warm.

It was a long night




In the morning we got a slow start and were hiking by 12:30pm. We decided to try and shorten our trip from the leisure 4 nights into a reasonable 3 nights. In order to accomplish this we would have to reach the ZNP Boundary in the next two days and hike the Narrows in the morning of our fourth and final day, instead of camping there with our permit. We decided to jump right into the stream and start slogging through the brush and fallen logs. This decision of creek hiking was quickly abandoned due to its difficulty and we ended up bush whacking for a couple of miles on the steep slopes of the valley. I really wish I'd brought gaiters for this day because the three of us looked like some leprechaun Freddie Kruger went to town on our legs. We all had so many puncture wounds and scrapes, a swimming pool of Neosporin wouldn't have been enough to treat us.

Hiking away from Fife, entering Deep Creek


Igneous rock capped cliffs


Scenery




Sego Lily


About 2 miles of bush whacking later we arrived at O'Neil Gulch and things got easier.

O'neil Gulch and Deep Creek confluence


Now, mostly hiking in the river, we just concentrated on not slipping on the mud-coated rocks. This section was very beautiful. We found a duck sitting on her eggs which we accidentally scared away, garter snakes, some large green frogs and loads of beaver dams full of large trout. Hours of this went by and at last we made it to the junction of Deep Creek and Crystal Creek and once again setup camp.

Scenery


Giant log jam


Scenery


Largest waterfall we found


Deep pool


Beaver dam


Duck eggs


Garter snake


Jamin moving along


Scenery


3.5ft long Bull snake


Scenery


Yours Truly


This night was pretty much just like the last. At 5,800ft we thought it would be a little bit warmer, nope! It actually felt worse! Nat and I put on every bit of clothing we brought with us, and still had one hell of a miserable night. Shaking, delirious, in and out of consciousness, I thought the morning was never going to come. I thought I was going to die in my sleep, ok not really but it sucked for sure. One thing we learned, we'll never leave our sleeping bags home again. During breakfast I thought about telling everyone that I just want to get the hell out of the canyon and haul ass to the end. Problem was we were still 15 miles to the end, across very harsh terrain and I am now suffering from lack of sleep, and couldn't stop yawning. We pulled ourselves together and got moving by 10:00am.

Nat getting stuff together


Crystal Creek meets Deep Creek


On the move

Scenery




Today we planned on making it to the park boundary. We felt like we really put the miles in the day before and kept a slightly slower pace. Then 1 mile into this day my Five Ten Canyoneer shoe's sole decided to come almost all the way off. Damn I hate/love these shoes. They are new this year and have maybe 20 canyons on them and they are about to completely come undone 14 miles from the end. I sat down and pulled out some cord and sewed them back together in about an hour. This really would have been a setback if I hadn't been able to fix it, and it stressed us out.

Shoe repair job


Back on the trail we found ourselves deeper and deeper in a big-wall canyon. It was really like being in the Narrows with absolutely no one around. In fact, that last person we saw was that guy in the slacks days earlier. It is neat to be able to be somewhere so secluded and beautiful. I'm used to seeing at least someone even in remote places. There is nobody here.

Cougar print


Scenery






At lunch we stopped and swam in the creek and enjoyed the sun. We only had a mile or so left to go until camp and took that opportunity to really enjoy ourselves in the canyon.

Lunch break swim




Jamin doing his best to avoid the quick sand


Slot canyon at Hogs Heaven. Anyone want to do this with me? :-)


Scenery


















At our chosen camp Nat and I decided to setup a reflective screen for the fire and sleep outside. Each night we pretty much ended up next to the fire anyway so we thought, What the hell, let's give it a try.

Camp 3




We were definitely in higher spirits this night because we knew this would be our last night and we could relax from the stress. Jamin and I busted out the booze and cigars and got pretty loopy.


At night the moon illuminated the steep walls 700-800 feet straight up, really awesome to be in such an amazing place. The reflective screen worked really well when there were flames but not so much when only coals. At 5000ft the air temp, even being so close to the river, was much better and we did manage to get some rest.

Breaking camp


In the morning we hiked the remainder of Deep Creek to the confluence with the NF Virgin River. I always find it so satisfying to come out of a canyon I've hiked past before and didn't know what is up it. I remember the first time I came out Orderville into the Narrows because I got the same sense of satisfaction there too. There always seems to be some sort of mental pathway that bridges together which feels so good to me.

NF Virgin confluence with Deep Creek


Looking up the Virgin River


Looking back towards Deep Creek


With 4 hours of hiking we made our way to the River Walk.

Kolob confluence


Goose Creek confluence


Big Spring


Narrows






Looking up to the last rap of Imlay Canyon



Then back to our vehicle, over to the Flying Monkey for a giant calzone and drove back to SLC. We really enjoyed this trip! What a great adventure that we hope to do again someday. A couple of notes: I have the GPS coordinates for most of the narrows campsites if anyone is interested, PM me.

We collected all garbage we found in both canyons, mostly granola bar wrappers, and a Happy Birthday Mylar balloon in Deep Creek.

We buried our poop at least 9 inches, high above and at least 250 feet from the river

Campsites were returned to the state we found them in, or as best we could do.

Ashes from our fires were buried very deep and rings disassembled.

[Scott P]

Nice Trip Report.

I haven't done the full Deep Creek route because I have heard that the bang for buck ratio is much lower than coming in from the bottom.

Would you agree/disagree with this statement? Would you say that it worth coming in from the top?

[Iceaxe]

Awesome TR

If you really want to do Hogs Heaven send me a PM.

[WorkBad]

Nice Trip Report.

I haven't done the full Deep Creek route because I have heard that the bang for buck ratio is much lower than coming in from the bottom.

Would you agree/disagree with this statement? Would you say that it worth coming in from the top?

I can see how someone would say that the most bang for your buck would be to come in from the bottom. I respect that statement but, I really enjoyed watching the transition from its wide valley like expanse into a narrow steep canyon. To me coming in from the bottom would be too rushed unless staying the night. This isn't a technical canyon obviously so unless a person is into backpacking then they may not enjoy the top down at all. To me there are three distinct sections to this canyon if doing it from the top down. The first part is bush whacking, Second is river hiking through some nice riparian, third is huge towering sandstone cliffs. I think something that could be pretty interesting to try would be to go down from Chamberlain Ranch, up Deep Creek to the Zion Boundary, and stay a night. Then in the morning hike up Deep Creek further for half a day and back to camp for another night and then back out to Chamberlain Ranch. This way it would be possible to get to some of the beautiful riparian sections and cliff sections and skip the bush whacking. I would love to do the top down again but I'm not in any rush. Is it worth is hard to say because everyone has their own likes and dislikes and therefore their own definition of bang for your buck. YMMV

Great question thanks!
Andrew

[Scott P]

Thanks for the input!

[Slot Machine]

Great report and photos! Sounds like an awesome adventure! Great repair job on the shoe.

[Byron]

Nice!!! I love it, especially as I'm a backpacking freak.

Another nice thing about the whole top down trip would certainly be the solitude...personally, even if there's a bit of bushwacking or the scenery isn't particularly "spectacular"...that's fine. Just being 100% away from the vestiges of humanity does it for me. String a few days like that together and it's a win.

I've looked up there and wondered the same thing, now I know...thanks! Now I'm going to plan it!

[jman]

75 pics - nice job! Great pics and a fun read. That waterfall pic is cool.

There are not too many TRs of the full Deep Creek adventure. I'm sure this will be a primer for people now thinking of doing it.

Thanks again!

[WorkBad]

Great report and photos! Sounds like an awesome adventure! Great repair job on the shoe.

Thanks Slot! Funny, the repair lasted all the way until I got back to my truck, then the cord finally broke.

[WorkBad]

75 pics - nice job! Great pics and a fun read. That waterfall pic is cool.

There are not too many TRs of the full Deep Creek adventure. I'm sure this will be a primer for people now thinking of doing it.

Thanks again!

Yea a lot of photos indeed. Because the trip was 4 days long in an area less traveled I decided to go for gusto on this report. Glad you liked it Jman. By the way, every time I talk to another Boglite about my friend Jamin they think I'm talking about you and get really excited that I know you, but I don't. lol.

[spinesnaper]

Love it. Great trip report.

Ken

[blueeyes]

Nice report, great photos. Kind of chuckling about the ATV/Jeep road. I guess in my head I pictured this as a trail you were taking not a bunch of bushwacking. We will be backpacking Ashdown this coming weekend I will make sure to take a sleeping bag!

[nelsonccc]

Great TR. I love all the pics.

[jman]

Yea a lot of photos indeed. Because the trip was 4 days long in an area less traveled I decided to go for gusto on this report. Glad you liked it Jman. By the way, every time I talk to another Boglite about my friend Jamin they think I'm talking about you and get really excited that I know you, but I don't. lol.

Lol too funny. :)

[Iceaxe]

In addition to the "Standard Entrance" to Deep Creek that Workbad used I also have beta for the technical "Crystal Springs Entrance". I have never done the Crystal Springs entrance, but it's probably the entrance I would use if I visited Deep Creek again. And when I say the route is technical I mean just barely. The obstacales are an 80-foot rappel and a little downclimbing. The route does visit the Crystal Springs waterfall.

Anyhoo... I'd share the beta if anyone intends to do the route this summer. Hit me up with a PM. In exchange for the beta I'd expect a TR in return.

Crystal Springs Waterfall