Kullaberg63
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- Mar 6, 2014
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On this trip I wanted to check out a few Maze packraft access options I've been thinking about for a while.
Backpacking from the Island in the Sky trailheads is limited and mostly on the shorter side, plus water is scarce from the White Rim and up. But used as a transit to access the rivers one can enjoy the vast views and stark landscape untroubled.
On the Green river side of ISKY from near Queen Anne Bottom and 35 miles downstream to the confluence of the Colorado I know of only one route thru the White Rim to the water: Stove Canyon/White Crack at mile 26 from QAB. To create a point to point route I focused on putting in at QAB on day one via the Wilhite Trail, and taking out at Stove near the end of the trip.
The Maze side of the river is just a little more forgiving in that region. The take outs to start backpacking routes that I'm aware of begin at Tuxedo Bottom and include Dead Horse Canyon, Pre-Horse, Water Canyon and the Powell Route. After there one reaches the confluence and Spanish Bottom. There is also Anderson Bottom right across from QAB, but then one is stuck with hiking the lonely Millard Bottom road all the way to the Maze Overlook without water.
Not being able to tolerate more than 4-5 hours of boating per day I opted to go from QAB just down to Tuxedo, then start hiking down and entering Horse Canyon/the Maze via one of the scrambles. Along the way the only water we saw was the river at Dead Horse and Pre-Horse, the latter needing a 400' descent down a steep cleft.
We had several nice days in the Maze before moving to Water Canyon for a basecamp and day hikes. One of these was centered around a descent of the magnificent Powell Route just upstream from the confluence; then paddling to Spanish Bottom and returning to Water Canyon.
The last two days was a long route returning to ISKY via White Crack. Challenge #1 here was getting up the Green River the 2.5 miles from Water to Stove without battling tamarisks on shore or struggling against the current in a packraft. In the end it worked out pretty good and finally at Stove canyon we found a good trail to the top.
The terrain onwards gets confusing. We skipped the old, circuitous, hard to follow mining track and instead dropped into the canyon system below White Crack. After some putzing around we managed to escape near the sandstone tower by one of the final switchbacks on the track. We even found a couple of very good potholes in those canyons.
After that we crossed the saddle between Junction Butte and Grandview and contoured over to the Murphy Trail to finish the route.
It was about 120 miles over 8 days, some of which coincided with an unseasonably brutal heat wave
Huge beaches, lots of sandbars and slow current characterized the boating after a dry winter
Approaching Holeman Spring
Siesta during the heatwave days near the head of an unnamed canyon before Pre-Horse
Coming from Pre-Horse I am aware of three scrambles into lower Horse. This is the middle one. The numerous huge potholes just up from the dryfall by the river was all filled
The last stretch below White Crack
Backpacking from the Island in the Sky trailheads is limited and mostly on the shorter side, plus water is scarce from the White Rim and up. But used as a transit to access the rivers one can enjoy the vast views and stark landscape untroubled.
On the Green river side of ISKY from near Queen Anne Bottom and 35 miles downstream to the confluence of the Colorado I know of only one route thru the White Rim to the water: Stove Canyon/White Crack at mile 26 from QAB. To create a point to point route I focused on putting in at QAB on day one via the Wilhite Trail, and taking out at Stove near the end of the trip.
The Maze side of the river is just a little more forgiving in that region. The take outs to start backpacking routes that I'm aware of begin at Tuxedo Bottom and include Dead Horse Canyon, Pre-Horse, Water Canyon and the Powell Route. After there one reaches the confluence and Spanish Bottom. There is also Anderson Bottom right across from QAB, but then one is stuck with hiking the lonely Millard Bottom road all the way to the Maze Overlook without water.
Not being able to tolerate more than 4-5 hours of boating per day I opted to go from QAB just down to Tuxedo, then start hiking down and entering Horse Canyon/the Maze via one of the scrambles. Along the way the only water we saw was the river at Dead Horse and Pre-Horse, the latter needing a 400' descent down a steep cleft.
We had several nice days in the Maze before moving to Water Canyon for a basecamp and day hikes. One of these was centered around a descent of the magnificent Powell Route just upstream from the confluence; then paddling to Spanish Bottom and returning to Water Canyon.
The last two days was a long route returning to ISKY via White Crack. Challenge #1 here was getting up the Green River the 2.5 miles from Water to Stove without battling tamarisks on shore or struggling against the current in a packraft. In the end it worked out pretty good and finally at Stove canyon we found a good trail to the top.
The terrain onwards gets confusing. We skipped the old, circuitous, hard to follow mining track and instead dropped into the canyon system below White Crack. After some putzing around we managed to escape near the sandstone tower by one of the final switchbacks on the track. We even found a couple of very good potholes in those canyons.
After that we crossed the saddle between Junction Butte and Grandview and contoured over to the Murphy Trail to finish the route.
It was about 120 miles over 8 days, some of which coincided with an unseasonably brutal heat wave
Huge beaches, lots of sandbars and slow current characterized the boating after a dry winter
Approaching Holeman Spring
Siesta during the heatwave days near the head of an unnamed canyon before Pre-Horse
Coming from Pre-Horse I am aware of three scrambles into lower Horse. This is the middle one. The numerous huge potholes just up from the dryfall by the river was all filled
The last stretch below White Crack
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