Part 2: The Best Way Out?

Day Two in Coyote Gulch (Part 1 Here)

Since we’d only carved out 4 of our 11 miles on day one, we knew we needed to start the day early. Not only that, if we couldn’t make the Sneaker route, we could add another 8 miles to the whole adventure!! Motivated, we set out to get to that Jacob Hamblin area. We saw Cliff Arch and took the little saddle “shortcut” there by climbing up and over what was almost an oxbow in the creek.

Not long after, we found the trail to the Black Lagoon (a large hanging pool beneath a high sheer cliff) and made a packless side trip up that box canyon. Everyone loves Black Lagoon! For me, I’m sorry, but it was more of a yawn than anything. It is pretty, but I couldn’t quite get the vibe that others were giving off. It is surprising the amount of water you can find in this country though.

Petroglyphs

After some munchies at our orphaned packs, we set out to find the petroglyphs. We found them, about 300 feet up on the canyon wall and perhaps a ¾ mile round trip. Lucky for us, we could see them enough to tell what they were from the bottom of the canyon so we took some photos to prove it and kept on motoring. So, if we’d have started earlier we maybe would have gone to the petroglyphs, but as it was, none of us could see making another 2-hour investment in the day. Turns out we were right!

Between the sand and the many water crossings, 5 miles in Coyote Gulch is like 10 miles on a steep rocky mountain trail. I’d have never believed it if I hadn’t experienced it. We saw such truly epic treasures as multiple huge overhanging cliffs, a natural arch over the creek, a tight creek wade between walls, and the great Jacob Hamblin arch. I cannot overstate the epic beauty of this place. We were never in a spot where the view wasn’t a 10.

Sneaker Shortcut or Hurricane Wash?

Tammy spoke with a guy in the gulch who informed her he’d hung is rope at the Sneaker route and we’d be welcome to use it. Buoyed by this nice turn of fortune, I was excited to get our team up the rock face. We didn’t reckon on how hard the approach is from the bottom. There is a hand-hold that doesn’t really look like a hand-hold to me (or to any of our team), but the Youtube videos don’t lie. On my second effort, I made the round hand-hold work and was able to quickly scale the first 30 feet of the climb. A young man was letting his mother-in-law down that spot and he helped Tammy and Sydney with his rope. Amanda had the rope but was able to find the handhold and scramble up without it. Bless these kind people!

I was feeling confident, but I could see the girls didn’t share my perspective. There were some pretty sour and contemplative expressions in my view. As luck would have it there were three ropes hanging from the wall together. Each girl grabbed a rope and took turns climbing. I worked my way halfway up without a rope to be in a spot to (hopefully) help them. Sydney climbed her way to the top and Amanda followed after. I was concerned about Tammy (we were all still wearing our 25 to 40 pound packs) but I had no reason to be. She methodically worked her way up to the rope anchor point and I scrambled up behind her. Success! Relieved, I felt the worst was over. From a risk perspective I was right. From a pain perspective, I was DEAD wrong.

Final Hours on Coyote Gulch

Man, if I thought the sand was bad, the many hundreds of feet of undulating rock in the full sun turned out to be its own kind of sweet torture. Quads fairly screamed as we hauled our packs up, up, and up seemingly forever. Finally, just when up was getting to be too much, we reached the top and…sand. Yep, the sand was still really bad. Nobody believed me that the climb and trek back to the truck was only two miles. The watch doesn’t lie but that was a long trek. We made it back to beer and sandwiches and after a quick drink an bite, Amanda and I went to retrieve my truck from the other trailhead.

Our hike was way longer than we expected. We left the truck at 4:15 pm the first afternoon and didn’t get into camp until about 8:15, 4 miles later. The 7 miles the next day took us a little more than 7 hours to complete. I’ve never been on a hike that averaged only ONE mile per hour. Now, some of that was lots of stops for photos, certainly, but most of it was sand, water, scrambling, and climbing. Amanda and Sydney could have done it faster for sure, but I doubt even 1.5 MPH was going to be eclipsed by anyone overall on this trip.

Ideas for Coyote Gulch

First, we started too late. This could be done in one long day or two more luxurious days. If those ropes hadn’t been hanging at Jacob Hamblin Sneaker route, we’d have likely had to spend another unplanned night in the Gulch. That or reach the trucks on literally our last legs. I think planning for a mile each hour isn’t a bad idea, then consider your mileage and the risk of it changing like ours could have at Hurricane. We didn’t experience any biting insects in April but I’ve heard that can be the case. If you do the route clockwise instead of the way we did it, you could get down the Sneaker route first.

I think the waterproof boots turned out to be a very good idea for me. Water shoes work ok, but beware of the sand and be sure to wear socks. I got a bleeding blister within only a couple of miles in my water shoes. That said, I had heavy boots and I think maybe light waterproof boots a little above the ankles and long pants would keep both the sand and water out. My boots were great, but they were so heavy. The road is a beast. Consider taking air out of your tires to deal with the rough washboards. Don’t underestimate how long the road takes to travel. I think we were over two hours on that road, but I’m not certain now!

Finally, pack light. We didn’t need some of our gear and there were two good springs in the canyon to use for water without filtration. One was near the mouth of the canyon and the other was at Jacob Hamblin. Since they aren’t many miles apart, you don’t have to resort to filtering stream water!