Trip Report: Paria - Hackberry car camp

Paria - Hackberry car camp By Donn Seeley
HIKE	05/27/2022	MOD+

We did several fun hikes in the upper Paria River basin over Memorial Day (5/27 - 5/30): Booker Canyon: This is the next tributary of Hackberry Canyon on the east, going downstream from Round Valley Draw. Large expanses of glorious slickrock, some narrows, lots of routefinding challenges. We only got down to the junction with the main eastern fork. Cottonwood Wash Narrows: We hiked from the upper access point to the lower one. A fairly easy hike with wonderful scenery; both big walls and narrows. Lots of people. Yellow Rock: It's an enormous yellow dome between Hackberry Canyon and the Paria River. The access is up a very steep trail, then across a plateau and up very steep, bare slickrock. The wind blew at gale force for the entire hike, but the views were worth it. Hackberry Canyon: A large tributary of Cottonwood Wash, with greenery and stretches of wet hiking. The walls in here are very impressive. Lick Wash: This canyon is at fairly high elevation on the west side of the Paria basin. Pretty forest plus some pleasant narrows and colored sandstone walls. Willis Creek: This pretty west-side canyon has fine, walkable narrows with dry, sandy floors. We saw lots of families, plenty of dogs, and a pet goat (!). Round Valley Draw: A subset of the group visited the Round Valley Draw narrows on Monday morning. These narrows were more challenging than the earlier ones, starting with a scramble over a 17-foot drop. It's a twisty slot that never gets really technical, with wonderful light and patterns in the sandstone. The route back over the west rim was hard to find, but we did eventually manage to follow it out.

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