TRIP REPORT: “A Dirty Tradition”

May 4

A Loop of the Dirty Devil via the Hayduke Trail

LENGTH: 3 Days/2 Night
PADDLE: 10 miles
HIKE: 8 Miles
CLASS: Class I
SEASON: March 2025
CFS: ~100 - 80ish???
WATER: Filter or BYOW
PERMITS: None
LINKS: American Whitewater Association
WASTE MANAGEMENT: Best practice - wag bag
DRONE: Not Allowed

Put In/Take Out: Poison Springs

*A serendipitous backstory as to how this trip happened: last fall I walked into Bike Fiend in Moab, UT looking for some bikepacking gear and subsequently met Nathaniel ‘Sidequest’. I mentioned I packrafted, and we exchanged contact information. Also working in that shop was Randy, who I didn’t know at the time, was THE DEAN HILL - who inspired my first solo packrafting trip on the Dirty Devil River in 2023. Fast foward 6 months and we are all down on the Dirty together. My mind was blown to come full circle only 2 years later and enjoy the river with one of the niche packrafting legends around the South West. Thanks for a spectacular time guys.

*Image by [Zion] Geoscientist-In-the Park David Tarailo, sponsored by the Geological Society of America, GeoCorps Program, 2012.*

Day 1: Poison Springs to Happy Canyon

On our first day, we rallied together and left the end shuttle vehicle at Hite. A short 30-minute drive later, we veered off onto Poison Springs Canyon Road, a somewhat rugged 4x4 that surprislingly had a lot more water than last year - yet not a lot seemed to reach the river. The plan was to trek up to Happy Canyon, where we'd set up camp beneath the stars. After that, we would head downriver for several days, racing against time. Unfortunately, a faulty watergauge turned this trip into an overnight, but stunning just the same.

The trail to Happy Canyon is straight forward, it follows and old washed out ranching road perched precariously on the ever eroding sandstone cliffs. The father you hike down the road, the better the views become of the entire Dirty Devil watershed. The hike down to Happy took less than 2 hours, we crossed the river, and made camp on a spectacular sandstone ledge in the shade. Even though it’s only April, temps were reaching the 80’s.

We spent the afternoon exploring Happy Canyon and hiding from the afternoon sun while the water settled. We hiked about a mile down the canyon before we decided to head back to camp. Temps were so perfect, we all decided to cowboy camp. I delusionally brought a 3/4 season thinking I would be “cold”.

Day 2: Happy Canyon - Somewhere Below Poison Springs

Tuesday morning was balmy, and again, I regretted having a drysuit instead of a splash top/bottoms, but a quick dip (in 6in water) and I was ready to go. Boats inflated, we headed down the river. At about 95cfs we had a little dragging, but not too many spots. The river bed was full of a lot more debris than the 2024 season, indicative it did not get the same high flows to blast out the channel, which is pretty consistent with this year’s below average snowpack.

We noticed as we went through Poison Springs that the water seems very low, much lower than the “160cfs” that the water meter was reporting online. We decided to continue through Poison Springs and see how the river bed felt. Unfortunately, both Randy and I texted separate contacts for information, and we realized it was more likely running around 80cfs, and the meter was malfunctioning

At that point, we scanned our maps and decided a Hayduke Exit back to the truck was a better bet than dragging ass for another 2 days down the river. We pulled up on bank at the end of a bend and scrambled up the steep sandy bank to the top. There, searching for shade, we discovered the perfect campsite beneath a huge sandstone wall, with the words “CAMP HERE January 19, 1919”. We spent the evening on a “rock walk” up the side canyons, watching the incredible sunset from high above camp, among the petrified palm trees.

While we were down there, we thought we would check out a rarely used Hayduke Exit Alt aptly named “The Hayduke Escape” that Randy had found. On the map it looked like it might go, and even when you get right below it on the wall it even looks like it might go. The exit is a short scramble up some sand and rockfall to a vein/crack that leads out - the only issue is a 1000ft fall to your death for about 40’. We milled about the bottom of the move for a while, all trying various options, and ultimately decided it was not worth the Class 5 exposure risk. So, after only a mile detour, we scrambled back down to the canyon floor and followed the standard Hayduke trail out back to Poison Springs road and then scrambled another 500ft up back to the truck. We were back in Hanksville with burgers and shakes by midafternoon. On our way out, I almost stepped on a Western Desert Tarantula collecting morning dew from his den! Seeing a scorpion or tarantula in Utah has evaded me, so this was a real treat!

Our route from the road back up to the truck

P.S. I did my first ever solo packrafting trip on the Dirty Devil River in spring of 2023 based of the blog post of “Deal Hill”. I linked him in my original blog (see post below). Little