Toadstools and Hoodoos in the White Rock Valley

[powderglut]

So....Here we are, another day in Page AZ. Where should we go today that will excite us visually, but......have no people. I got just the place. An area I had planned on exploring a few years back, but got thwarted by a ridiculously windy day. You know the kind of day. Sand in your hair, ears, eyes, mouth, well... you get the idea.
OK... If you started at the Cockscomb, (that cuts across hwy 89), and went all the way east to Big Water and Wahweap creek, you will find one of the largest concentration of hoodoos and toadstools in the state of Utah. All on the north side of 89. I had been to the Wahweap Hoodoos and some of the rimrock toadstools, but the place I was thinking this time is north of Church Wells. A booming metropolis between Big Water and the Paria Guard Station. The area is known as the White Rock Valley. A nice little BLM road takes you north until you can go no further than the fenced turnaround. There is one main feature in this area that sticks up like a sore thumb. Chimney Rock. We decided we would start our hiking to the west side of this feature and see what we could find. Trails????? We don't need no stinkin trails!!! Many cow paths to follow, keeping us off the crust, as we made our way north into some superb little cuts in the cliffs. We are the hoodoos hunters! Here's a few shot's of this "No Man's Land".

Toadstool rubble

A French cap

I wonder why they call it the White Valley?

Toadstool progression

Next Valley

The cobra

Bitch!

Drippy candles

Hoodoo envy

The crown

An impressive beast

Kinda looked like Dick Nixon's nose "I'm not a crook"

Chimney Rock makes an appearance

The twins (not really)

slick rock gulley

The chimney with his pet hoodoo

The sentinels of the White Valley

This is only a fraction of what can be seen if you have the time and inclination to explore these badlands just west of Page. Will be planning future exploration on the east side of Chimney Rock, into Colored Canyon and SideStep Canyon for more hoodoo hunting. (Some day soon) Definitely an extremely worthy day with nary a soul in sight.

 

[Titans]

Great report-thank you so much! We hiked into Wahweap Hoodoos in December 2017 and we loved it. We also saw 2 people come back from (what we later found out was) SideStep canyon. We are going back this November/December 2018 and we will explore Colored Canyon and SideStep canyon via the access road you mentioned at Church Wells. A ranger in Kanab told us about that access road when we asked him for more info.
But.... do we need a high clearance vehicle for that access road at Church Wells? What did you experience in November 2017?
We only have 5.5" underneath our WRX Subaru- fun to drive, but not a lot of clearance.....

 

[regehr]

But.... do we need a high clearance vehicle for that access road at Church Wells? What did you experience in November 2017? We only have 5.5" underneath our WRX Subaru- fun to drive, but not a lot of clearance.....

No, we were there in early 2018 and a Prius would have been fine for driving to the trailhead at the end of K7065.

 

[Titans]

No, we were there in early 2018 and a Prius would have been fine for driving to the trailhead at the end of K7065.

THANKS SO MUCH- I wanted to ask you too) I saw your excellent report and photos from your February 2018 trip to SideStep canyon. Also noticed the road conditions in the link you provided and we were surprised it looked so perfectly graded. It looks so much better than the road to the Wave.
I need to spend some more time looking at your exact track into SideStep- especially how to get down into the canyon, which I heard can be challenging.
Last December I read some European websites which mentioned parking just before the "cow water hole" - and follow a 'cow-trail' up to SideStep.
What do you think about that? Is it all fenced off around the the water hole? Or should we just avoid it because it smells bad?
(We will have a GPS, so we will likely just use that through the sage brush- like you did).

 

[regehr]

The cow water hole is ugly and there's a fence or two to cross, I'd just give it a miss, I don't think it saves time anyhow.
The surface route (on my gps track) is easy and boring.
If I were going to do Sidestep again (wish I had plans to do this in the near future!) I'd take the route suggested by @cmgz which seems a ton more interesting.
Anyhow I look forward to hearing how this goes, it's a spectacular area.

 

[Titans]

The cow water hole is ugly and there's a fence or two to cross, I'd just give it a miss, I don't think it saves time anyhow.
The surface route (on my gps track) is easy and boring.
If I were going to do Sidestep again (wish I had plans to do this in the near future!) I'd take the route suggested by @cmgz which seems a ton more interesting.
Anyhow I look forward to hearing how this goes, it's a spectacular area.

Ok- thanks- we will check that out! We will post some pictures in Nov/Dec.
That area is incredible! Hope you make it back soon )

 

[NorthwestWanderer]

Looks like an alien lunar surface!

 

[Stephanie B]

Hello! Thanks for sharing. This looks like an awesome place to see. We're new to backcountrypost, so forgive me if this is a dumb question, but I don't see your GPS track for the hike??

 

[Yvonne]

I just hiked to Wahweap Hoodoos last week, it’s such a cool place. I saw no one out there


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