White Canyon, first hike

Saturday was a beautiful day. I was really curious to see what White Canyon is like, so I decided to brave the Renaissance Fair traffic and head out there. The traffic wasn't nearly as bad as I was afraid it would be on such a pretty day.

BTW, I found a map of the White Canyon Wilderness area. Wilderness.net has maps of all wilderness areas. It's pretty cool.

Battle Axe Road was rougher than it had been the last time I was on it. Rain water had cut notches through it. Parts of the road that follow a stream bed had changed quite a bit since last time. I parked as close to White Canyon as I thought I could. I didn't want to try climbing the hill out of there and finding out that I couldn't after a long, tiring hike. I could save a mile to a mile and a half of walking by going driving down that hill, though. I'll have to figure out some way of determining if it's too steep.

I was walking by the time I got to here.

Vehicles on the steep hill.

The temperature was about 70 when I started out. It was nice, but I got chilled if I sat in the shade of a boulder for too long. There was plenty of shade under boulders, too. There are dump truck size boulders all over the place.

Some large boulders.

There were waterfalls scattered here and there. I got pictures of a few of them. I also took too many pictures of the stream, because that's what I do. The water is what slowed me down most of the way and eventually stopped my progress. I guess it wouldn't have mattered if I didn't mind being it ankle to thigh deep water, but it was cold. I think the water flows year round, but I think I'll see what it's doing in July. Of course, it'll be too hot to hike then.

This is where I stopped. I might have been able to get around this, but the brush was getting thick and I was tired of pushing through it.

White Canyon is beautiful. There's plenty to explore, too. I need to find a way to get through the brush, though. I wonder if machetes are allowed in wilderness areas. Catclaw grabbed me several times. The time it grabbed my armpit really hurt. That reminds me, near the beginning of the hike, a young couple was behind me. Once, I heard the girl saying, "Ow, ow ow!" I didn't see them any more after that.

Click below to see all of the pictures.

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