Trail Pictures

Glen Canyon

Tracy @ Harris Wash

Harris Wash

Harris Wash

Harris Wash

Harris Wash

Harris Wash

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The weekend of 8 May 09, we headed to Escalante.  I had been out of town for most of the winter, and

I really wanted to get into a canyon.  Well, I planned to hike Hurricane Wash down into Coyote Gulch.

We had done this hike a couple of years ago, but it was a nice canyon, and we didn't hike Coyote Gulch

at all.  So I wanted to head back and try to make it to the Escalante.  We stayed in Torrey on Friday

night and then headed to the trail.  On the way there, though, Tracy figured out we were going

somewhere we had already been, and she decided she wanted to go somewhere new.  So I scoured the

map and picked Harris Wash (Google Map).  Well, we headed down Harris Wash, and it wasn't anything

like Hurricane Wash.  It was really rocky, and the creek was completely skanked out with cow

crap...even one dead cow right in the water.  But we kept hiking.  Really, the canyon wasn't very pretty

at all.  But we kept hiking.  We went in about 6.5 miles and found a nice alcove to pitch the tent...after

clearing out piles of cow crap.  We took a short nap, then I emptied my pack and continued down-

canyon for another mile and a half to see if the canyon got prettier.  It didn't.  So I went back to camp to

find Tracy had set up camp.  She asked how I was doing on water, so I checked my Camelback, only

to find I had about 3 mouthfulls left.  Not good.  We were just a week away from our trip to France, and

there was no way I wanted to drink that skanky dead cow crap water.  So we debated, and finally

decided to just pack everything up and head back to the truck.  We figured it would be too hot to hike

back during the day, not to mention the extra time of staying overnight, to be able to make it out without

purifying water.  I just really didn't even want to purify or boil that water.  So we packed up and headed

back about 7:45.  About half of the hike back was in the dark, and we made it back to the trailhead

about 10:30 pm.  We set up camp at the trailhead, where I had more water in the truck, and we had an

uneventful rest of the night.  Good times.  Bottom line: Harris Wash sucks.  Don't bother with it.  Of

course, I love hiking in the dark, but I don't enjoy doing 16 miles in one day with my pack on only to

camp where I started.  So I'm not going back to Harris Wash.