2024 Upper and Lower Death Hollow

Our goal is to backpack in the backcountry of the Grand Canyon every spring and fall. While we didn’t score in the October lottery, we were able to put together a great, 10-day trip. Sowats, Tapeats Creek, Deer Creek, Kanab Creek, Sowats. Sadly, about a week before, we learned that the canyon was going to experience a very unusual (or maybe not so unusual anymore) heat wave. Temps would be over 100 degrees nearly every day. And, this route on the North Rim side, affords no shade. It would not only be not fun, but dangerous as well. We quickly came up with plan B, forgoing the $200+ we paid for the Grand Canyon permit.

We looked into a trip in the Escalante-Grand Staircase national monument. There was a particular area that had been on Lenny’s wish list for quite some time.

Although he had done Lower Death Hollow a couple of times, he had never done Upper Death Hollow. Looking over maps, he created a 10-day loop that included Upper Death Hollow, Lower Death Hollow, Antone Flat (actually a high mesa), and Pine Creek Box trail.

What I learned was that two of the four days in the upper canyon involved some deep potholes that would require swimming or floating in cold, dark, sometimes buggy water. We packed float rings to hopefully help us get through.

We made the 9 hour drive to the trailhead at Upper Death Hollow at about 9,000 ft. The road was easy enough for any car but the name was a little daunting – Hell’s Backbone. Fall colors were near their peak. Today, we just wanted to get a couple hours and/or a couple miles done and get to the bottom of the canyon.

We’re going down there??

When we arrived, there was a kiosk and a pullout for a couple vehicles. But, there was no visible trail. Research on reports mentioned a couple different “social” trails but, we never found them. Lenny used slope angle shading on his phone app to try to find the least steep way down. No matter which way you started, it was severe bushwhacking through downed trees, shrubs, and thorny desert rose bushes, hanging on to branches to keep from sliding.

The next morning, we packed up, scrambled back down the bank and into the dry wash. We had carried all the water we would need for the night before and all this next day. Plus, our packs were full of 10 days’ worth of food. They were heavy!

We rock-hopped and scrambled down the wash. Early on, we came upon fresh bear tracks in the sand that we followed for about 30 minutes. Not sure where the bear went! Thankfully, we never saw him. Our goal for the day was to get to the “brown stain” on the wall. This would be a spring we could get water from and promised to be a nice place to setup camp.

Pretty hot day at 7-8000 ft elevation

After a long, hot day, we arrived at the spring with the brown stain. The brown stain was due to iron leaching out into the water and the pool it created was dark and not appealing. Fortunately, there was a pothole of water in the wash right near the sandstone where we made camp.