Tuckup Canyon: Art, Hiking, and the Grand Canyon
I went down to Tuckup Canyon with Alicia Scotter, Jane Arhart and Heather McIlvenna. For them, Spring Break. For me, an opportunity to go do some canyon hiking, test out how my recovery is going, and get out of the office for a few days. Which would have been a better break if I had not just hosted my niece and nephew for a week of similar adventures, their Spring Break.
The four hour drive to the trailhead included only one flat tire, quickly changed. The hike down Tuckup Canyon in the heat, starting at noon, was a bit difficult. We stopped for lunch at the first shade, a lonely juniper casting a sufficient shadow for the four of us to hide from the big ball of fire. We were glad to be going downhill.
Somewhere in there is one of the most outrageous rockart sites - Shaman Gallery is outrageous. Made me a bit sad I did not bring the big camera and tripod to fully record the whole place... but not too sad. After that, the canyon got deeper and we got into the cool shade. Numerous short obstacles required hunting around to find the easiest route, as the canyon got deeper and the Supai Sandstone, then the Redwall Limestone produced large, red walls, with a few arches here and there. Very scenic.
With not much water to be found, we dropped canyon gear at the Redwall exit near Rocky Point Canyon, then proceeded downcanyon looking for a water source, finally finding it at Dome Pocket Canyon intersection, camping there at twilight.
She-ra, oops, I mean Slawa came by with Carol Petrelli, William Formachek and Rick Kent in the morning, on their way to doing Dome Pocket Canyon. We walked down to the river, on the way meeting Rich Rudow, Danno de Ransomo and Rick Demarest leading the "oldsters" for a Hades Knoll overnight, and chatted for a bit. So far no flips, but low water means some tough rafting and a lot of downstream rowing, and not all that much canyoning/hiking.
Down at the river, we found D'Nally and Rich's BIL Dale guarding camp. They promptly offered us malt beverages and M&Ms, and we chatted for a bit, enjoying the comfort of chairs, and basking in the wan sunlight. Then back to our camp for lunch. I was beat, so I took a nap while the gals went upcanyon to climb out and do Rocky Point Canyon, but they did not find the right climbup and diddled around and then it was too late to drop the canyon, so they came back still warm and dry. We had dinner and went to bed early, planning a big day doing Hades Knoll Canyon from Tuckup Canyon in one day.
Woke up at 1 am and tossed cookies, then at 2 am, at 3 am, at 4 am. Then I got up and walked around for a while, drank some water with some cookies (vanilla wafers), felt better and went back to bed at 5 am. I diagnosed this as acute dehydration, ie, not taking care of myself. The tosses were low volume, almost no solids. Thus not much actual fluid lost, but a clear message from the body of 'confusion'. (No pictures.) By this point, the pump had broken and we were worried about water (though we had plenty at the moment); so we decided to all walk out that day. It was nice and cool and we made good time to Shaman's. Then we had lunch and I took a nap. A cool wind helped on the climb out, as did the gals carrying 1/3 of my weight. No problems on the drive out. Back to town with a nice dinner at the Rockin' V in Kanab.
Wonderful trip overall, despite a few unpleasant moments.
Tom
