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Home > Archive > Oct 19, 2006

Paradise Found
By Sharon May
Managing Editor
In previous Timeouts, I’ve noted hikes that you “simply must do.” But forget those others – at least, until you’ve done this hike. And soon, before the breathtakingly vivid fall leaves of Spring Creek Canyon close their show for the winter.

The hike begins with 1.44 miles of old road, now off limits to vehicles and impassible in parts anyway. But plenty of horseshoe tracks are evidence of what kind of non-motorized “vehicles” frequent the dirt road heading into the wilderness study area.

At 1.44 miles, the road empties into the creek, and a step across reveals a footpath that travels on, crossing the stream in several places. Look for a thin trampling of grass along the stream bank for most of the way. The notch of the narrow canyon entrance ahead will draw you along the rabbit bush, sage and juniper-lined trail. If you’re like I am, a ribbon of dirt leading into the distance between sunlit flowers and shimmering trees is irresistible. I must see where it goes.

After another .5 miles, the trail leads inside the doorway of the canyon. Look for a small natural limestone bridge high to your right. Spring Creek is a thin burble of stream that, true to its name, seeps from a concealed spring you can find about halfway up the canyon. But until the creek slips under the camouflaging wet growth, the path crosses it several times, but it’s only a minor leg stretch or quick hop across.

A few yards ahead into the canyon is a scene straight from paradise – a glade of bright yellow, rusty orange and blood-scarlet leaves against a background of blindingly orange sandstone walls. Words utterly fail me in describing the brilliance of color, from the path papered with flame-like leaves to thick green pines against the incomprehensible richness of the thick arched slabs of the canyon walls. This glade, this time of year, is possibly the most beautiful place I’ve been.

Cameras were born for this scenery, but if you’re a photographer, bring your tripod, because in the shady glades, the canyon’s narrow width blocks much of the sunlight. Yet, in places, the bright overhead sun filters through the leafy canopy and fills the canyon with an ethereal smoky greenish gold.

You won’t want to turn back or stop for the next mile and a half, except to gape and stage whisper “Oh my gosh” or a breathless “Wow.”

In fact, the theme of this hike might be, “keep on going.” One dazzling scene unfolds to another. Then, the damp canyon narrows into a true slot canyon for several sections, with brick red walls closing in to a six-foot passage. And when it looks as though the way ahead is blocked to less-than hardy hikers, snoop around. Time after time, you’ll find an easy scramble past the pile of boulders, or a path abutting the canyon wall. And again, the rocky, muddy floor –absent now of creek – continues still deeper into the cool fissure of the canyon.

Finally, at 2.15 miles, I came to a higher scrabble of boulders. I could see the path continued on, and I could have picked my way up to reach it. But the fading daylight and the knell of city obligations signaled my reluctant goodbye to Spring Creek Canyon.

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