Back to Deep Creek

One of my favorite places in the world is Deep Creek. After taking the trip through there a few years earlier with Kelsey and Nick, I wanted to go back. There is just something so incredible about how remote and untrammeled that place is that makes one excited to experience it. This time I was going with Ian. We got Robbie to drive us up to Webster Flat which was an entire day of work for him because we had to drive all the way to Cedar City, then out towards Cedar Breaks until we found the Webster Flat Road. From there, we drove a ways down this dirt road.
We were using an old route description so finding the head of the route was not entirely perfect. We found where a sizable stream crossed under the road and decided to start from there. We had over 40 miles to get back to Zion Canyon which we could see from the road above was a long ways a way. The way started with us crossing the creek next to an empty house. From there it was just walking in and out of the creek in open fields with large trees next to us. The way was rather easy with no real obstacles to get in our way. There were some rockfalls to climb around from ancient volcanism.
The main creek drainage came in but we seemed to be on the right track. We were quickly deep in the canyon though with the cliffs rising steadily further above us. Soon we came upon a female deer with two brand new fawns. She took off like a crazy lady up the hill and just left these newborns there alone. We felt really bad about disturbing the peace, but hoped she would find her way back. She was a mile out of sight before we even left the fawns. We continued down canyon and the way became more brushy. There were times that we had to fight the oak and times where we would walk directly in the creek.
Sometimes we would go way up to get around obstacles, but all the time we kept Deep Creek in sight. One aspect of being out here that was truly remarkable were all the beaver dams. There were multiple places where we had to find a way around the lakes that were created by beaver. I was glad to see that here was a place where the beaver could thrive. There were also places where there were small waterfalls to get around. They offered a little bit of interest for us to break the monotony of the mountainous stream. We continued the first day until we got tired of walking and we found a place that was flat and dry to camp.
The next day we continued downstream.We had made quite a bit of progress that first day so we knew it was not going to be incredibly long before we made it to where Crystal Creek came in and the end of terra incognita. First, we ran into the largest of lakes we had seen yet. Before 9 am, we had hit a road and we followed that. It kind of took the whole wilderness experience away, but that is okay. We soon hit the confluence of Crystal Creek and Deep Creek. Since we knew we had a little bit of extra time, we decided to hike up to the waterfall.
It was well worth it and Crystal Creek really is a highlight of this trip not worth missing. When we made it back to the confluence that is when it starts to get really narrow. Hog's Heaven with a giant flow of basalt loomed to the east. We just followed this canyon downstream as it got more and more narrow. Ian really was enjoying it even though we had to be way more careful with our footing up here. The rocks were actually slippery because people had not been walking over them for decades. We decided that we were going to try to make it down to the confluence of the North Fork of the Virgin River.
It was hours of narrow canyon walking that luckily never required us to get wet. We did a good job of staying upright given the slippery rock, but truly the experience can not be wrapped up in words. It was high canyon walls on a beautiful June day to enjoy. Before dinner time, we made it to the confluence. Here we were able to hear other groups start to make their way down the canyon. We camped in the administrative site under the overhang that I love. The next morning it was the usual of checking permits and talking to visitors as we casually made our way out to the trailhead with a bit of social trail work along the way.
The masses of people was always overwhelming but it was refreshing to both of us to know that there is a place like Deep Creek out there that still is pristine and still is amazing, yet not many people have the time or energy to make it there.