October 20 - 29, 2025
Every spring and every fall, we try to go on an extended backpack trip, preferably in the Grand Canyon. It’s my goal to experience all the official trails in the canyon as well as much of the backcountry.
Thunder River and Deer Creek have been on the list for quite some time. In fact, we had scored a permit for this hike last year, but a sudden and unusual heat wave, with temps over 110 degrees for 10 days, was expected during that second week of October, so we cancelled and forfeited our $300 in permit fees. Our lives are worth more than that.
Again this year, we were able to score the permit, which we got last May. But then, the Dragon Bravo fire happened. The park service closed the entire North Rim and cancelled our permit (they also refunded us). Sigh.
About a month before we were supposed to start the trip, they sent an email saying they were opening that section of the park and we could have our permit back if we wanted it. Heck yeah!
Day 1 - October 20, 2025
We love loop hikes. They save you from having to repeat areas you’ve already seen. So, in planning this loop, we needed a way to fill the gap in our Kanab Creek Wilderness section. In looking at maps, I came up with a plan.
Drive in to Indian Hollow Campground (there are 3 sites) and drop our backpack stuff off. Then drive to our ending spot, Sowats Point and leave the car. That left us five miles to hike back to Indian Hollow on this first day, with virtually nothing but ourselves.
Road walking 4 of the 5 miles on Day 1
We brought lunch from the Subway in Kanab Utah, where we’d stayed the night before. As we pulled up to Sowats Point (a viewpoint, not the actual trail exit), we saw someone had built and left a nice bench!
We enjoyed the view on the most beautiful day as we looked over some of the terrain we’d be covering. Then we drove to the exit trailhead and left the car to start our journey five miles back to Indian Hollow.
Sometimes it was easy
Sometimes it wasn’t
We made it back to Indian Hollow in the late afternoon and got our tent set up. We had brought a chain saw for the drive in just in case we came to any fallen trees across the road. We didn’t, but this proved handy as we were able to cut up a dead juniper tree for firewood and we had a fire!
Also, because it would be easy enough to drive back to Indian Hollow at the end of our backpack trip and, because it was supposed to be below freezing that night, we brought extra jackets and sleeping bags to ensure we stayed warm. Then we stashed them in the morning ready to pick up 10 days later. Brilliant!
It was pretty cold!
Day 2 - October 21, 2025
We made it through the chilly night and were warm and cozy in our double sleeping bags! In the morning, we repacked our backpacks and stashed our extra sleeping bags and coats in waterproof bags. We hiked these up into the forest and hid them among the trees.
Off we went the half mile to the Indian Hollow trailhead. Clean clothes and high spirits though our packs were laden with water for the next 24 hours for what is called a “dry camp.” We wouldn’t see water until sometime on Day 3. We both had six liters – or 13+ pounds of extra weight!
The day was beautiful. It was our goal to make it the 8.6 miles to the edge of the Esplanade. We started down and immediately it was clear that these packs were heavy. With 13 pounds of water and 10 days’ worth of food, our legs were feeling it. Plus, we hadn’t trained like we usually would have, given our busy September with our wedding and honeymoon!
The trail dropped for a short ways but then traversed along the cliffside. Sometimes going a little up and sometimes a little down. The traverse seemed to go on forever.
