Day 3: Hidden Spring Canyon

Day 3

October 20, 2014

Layover Day: Hike to Hidden Spring Canyon

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Today's route stats:

Distance: 3.5 miles

Elevation Gain: 600 feet

Elevation Loss: 600 feet

Today was a scheduled layover day and we all slept in a little later than usual. The only goal that I had was to explore Hidden Spring Canyon (Ken Walter's name for this un-named canyon). And I thought that I might want to hike down Surprise a ways, with no particular goal in mind.

Dave got going before Ben and me -- we were lounging around drinking coffee. I think we started hiking about 45 minutes after Dave. The mouth of Hidden Spring was only about a mile down-canyon, but because of the thick vegetation, it took us almost an hour to get there. We turned into Hidden Spring and were soon following Dave's tracks. We weren't sure how far we would get, as we knew we would get stopped by huge pouroffs.

Hidden Spring Canyon is truly amazingly beautiful. It is narrow, steep-walled, with a nice flow of water. And ferns and monkey flowers everywhere. However, we noticed that the canyon bottom had flashed recently (probably about two weeks earlier) and the carpet of monkey flowers was a bit ripped up. However I'm sure it will fully recover in a couple of months.

We were finally stopped after about 3/4 mile. The canyon branched and became un-climbable. After returning from this hike, I was told by Rich Rudow that there is an arch that we didn't see. I'm not quite sure where is would have been. We definitely could not have continued up the canyon.


Hidden Spring Canyon.	Hidden Spring Canyon.	Hidden Spring Canyon.