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Spring Canyon Adventure 2007 – Day 3

Synopsis: Dayhike in T— Canyon. 8 miles. Wednesday, March 14.

Camp on the morning of Day 3.

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Today the plan was to explore a different side canyon of T— Canyon. The guidebook’s map promised a “Spurting Spring” to be found.

After the usual morning chores, we were off. We were retracing our steps up the main canyon, where we had been two days before with full packs in search of a campsite.

Making our way through the rocks just above where we had turned around previously with the packs. This is indeed the easiest way.

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Another promising green area on the map. There was a landslide in this area, which was the source of the boulders in the stream pictured above. We theorized that the flat area on top of the banks was the result of silt filling in behind the slide, and that the area had flooded out recently (or at least since the map was revised).

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We continued on up T— Canyon. Soon our fork appeared on the left; we took it. It was brushy and rocky.

We didn’t see any sign of a spurting spring, unfortunately. Soon we climbed out of the Chinle Formation into the Wingate Sandstone, and the walls began to close in a little. One pool appeared, and then we skirted another. Finally, we arrived at a pool which afforded no bypass ledges, which seemed like a good place for lunch.

There were cat-tails about. I threw one up onto the rock, and it tumbled down and made neat piles of white goobers floating in the air.

After lunch, we climbed up the talus slope in an effort to bypass the pool and get higher.

Looking back towards our lunch pool. We ate in the shade out of sight to the left of the pool.

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There wasn’t anywhere to drop back to the canyon bed, so we just continued higher and higher. Quickly, the canyon floor was hidden in shadow hundreds of feet below.

Then, we rounded a corner and found ourselves looking into a grotto with a small pool not far down. It must have been a pretty spectacular waterfall down there.