Travel with Manfred

Travelogues from around the world

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Copyright © 1994 by Manfred P.. All rights reserved.

October 15, 1994

On Search for Slot Canyons at the Upper Kaibito Creek

Foul Weather Causes an Early End of an Exploration

by

Manfred P.

Keywords: USA, Arizona, Kaibito Creek, Slot Canyons, tourist, travel trip report, travel log, travelogue.

Two weeks ago I explored the Upper Kaibito Creek for canyons. That trip is described in a separate trip report. I found a couple of waterfalls and a 100 yard long 30 feet deep canyon. From my friend Luis I knew that deeper and longer canyons exist in the vicinity of the town Kaibito in northern Arizona. That trip was marked by cold nights but daytime temperatures reached 90 degrees. The sun was centered in a blue cloudless sky all day long. Sun lotion was a definite must for me to avoid getting burned.

Now two weeks later we embarked on another trip to find the deeper canyons where the walls go up straight for 75 feet. Fernando and I left Phoenix Friday night and planned on meeting Luis and his companions the next day near Kaibito. Instead of driving from Phoenix to Kaibito in one sitting which would be 5 hours, we decided to spend the night in a cheap motel on Route 66 on the north end of Flagstaff. After taking a shower in the morning I pulled the window curtains aside. My eyes widened. I couldn't believe it. Everything was covered with snow. Unbelievable. There was a little more than an inch of snow on the car. We warmed our stomach with some hot coffee and headed north. Partially we were driving through slushy snowfall and I felt sorry for the poor guy on his bicycle that we passed in the middle of nowhere. Later we could be helpful to a rain soaked Indian who was standing in the rain trying to flag someone down to provide him with gas. Luckily there was a gas station nearby so it was easy to get him going again. Only when we got close to Kaibito at noontime it stopped raining. Fernando and I spend 45 minutes walking through some canyons around 10 miles east of Kaibito near the butte called Square Butte. After lunch we took a nap (inside the car of course). It was cold and the desert landscape around us was wet and muddy. The hills and buttes in the background were partially snow covered and white.

After the nap we decided to give it a try on the dirt roads. Very quickly though due to the mud, the puddles and the lack of my mud-driving skills we got stuck. The car wouldn't move an inch forward or backward. So, we went looking for help. Two Indian families live nearby. Nobody was home at all at the first trailer and at the other one the husband was at work. No luck. I was still optimistic that we could help ourselves. We started gathering rocks and pieces of wood, then we jacked up the car and placed the rocks under both front tires. That was quite a length process. The fingers were freezing from digging in the mud and water. Dirt and mud everywhere with an inch or so on our shoes. The jack was muddy and it was a heavy workout just to turn the lever what would under normal circumstances an easy task. Finally we were ready to give it a shot again. For a few seconds it looked good, then one tire started slipping and soon both of them were spinning again. The mud acted like a lubricant between the tires and the rocks and pieces of wood. Time to give up. Just at that time an Indian drove by with his pickup truck. Chains would have been helpful but he didn't have any. After seeing that he also had difficulties in this terrain it was out of the question that he could push us out bumper-to-bumper. That narrowed it down to one option. Towing us out on a rope. These modern cars don't even have any hooks for towing. (I am sure that this is some sort of devilish deal between Detroit and all towing companies who make big bucks on this.) My friend tied the rope around the front shocks and the truck's hitch. Now my friend Luis showed up just to get a big kick out of this. With everybody watching and a quick step on the pedal of the truck I was "flying" out of the mess. We thanked the nice Indian who saved us a lot of trouble and headed back to the paved road. The car looked messy: mud all over the outside but also on the steering wheel, the knobs and buttons, the shifter, the door handles, and the carpet.

The Indian indicated to us that some interesting canyons are to the south of 98 and accessible through two routes: One would be to go to the General store in Kaibito and head east on a dirt road. I am not sure which dirt road that is but he said not to take the one to Red Lake Valley. The other way of getting there is to go east on 98. Just a few miles (less than 7 miles) east of Kaibito is a water tank to the south and a dirt road right next to it. He said to take this dirt road south for about 3 miles and to start walking from there.

With Luis as our guide we ventured onto dirt roads again to find slot canyons to the north of 98. Just before mile marker 338, hence somewhere around mile 337.7 on 98, the dirt road 6330 goes north. There is a white/blue 6330 sign there. This is a fairly good dirt road so a four wheel drive shouldn't be necessary. After going straight for around 5 miles the dirt road crosses a creek on a bridge. Luis tells us that if you follow that creek for maybe 2 hours on foot it will turn into a slot canyon. I believe that there is another dirt road just a little bit east of the 338 mile marker which has a few forks. If you take the first forks in a north-westerly direction you'll run into an junction with some bricks and metal pipes next to it. Here a canyon starts and the road continues to the west and north. If you go north you will eventually merge with the dirt road labeled 6330 and you also end up at the bridge. It was getting dark now. We continued by car a little bit further and then took a dinner break. Because of the unexpected snow and rainfalls it would have been extremely unlikely that we would have had an opportunity the next day to walk within the slot canyons. Once they are filled with water and mud they are not accessible by any means. Based on that unfortunate fact we all decided to go back to Phoenix that night. Once we reached Flagstaff we were in the midst of a winter wonderland. All trees were covered with snow like in Austria at Christmas time. I sure did not expect anything like that on this trip. The weather report on the radio mentioned 4 to 8 inches of additional snow the next day. I was glad to get out of there and back into a warmer climate.

That was the end of exploring the canyons for this year. Now we'll have to wait until next summer. I'm sure we'll find other places to hang out during the winter.