Big Hollow

Continuing the new tradition of hiking after work, I was ready to go at noon. It was like the magic time when I transitioned from online learning teacher and parent supervisor of online learning for my own children to having the entire rest of the day to myself. We were keeping ourselves safe and the best way to do that was to go hike in the wide open spaces of Southern Utah. This day was a day I had to myself to hike. I had always wanted to make my way up Cottonwood Canyon. There were two options in Cottonwood Canyon and on this day, I was planning to go through Big Hollow. 

I had heard that it was nice and slotty up above, but the main motivation was just to put in some miles. The beginning part of Cottonwood Canyon I had done numerous times. It is a dry wash with many big boulders in it. I had tried running it even and it was not a very easy run. Today, I was just hiking but my goal was to move as fast as I could up it. The great part about having a watch with a GPS and a map that always told me where I was, was that I didn't have to take any time to pull out a map. So I kept a good steady pace through the beginning part until I came to the junction.

 I could go to the left and head up the main branch of Cottonwood Canyon or I can turn right and head up Big Hollow. Big Hollow it was and right away I was rewarded with a narrower canyon with slickrock peaks rising right above me. It was still a wash and for quite a bit of time it was dry. As I got closer to the end, though, there were definitely some potholes of water to get around while also having to climb through some rocky areas with a few pour-offs to get around. This was definitely a nice canyon and as I was getting closer to the top, I heard first then saw the only other people on this hike. Yankee Doodle Canyon comes in to Big Hollow and when I got to it, I made sure to walk up it a bit to just check it out. Eventually the narrowness and even the canyon and slickrock feel went away and as I got closer to the top, it became much more forested. 

There was even some old structures there built obviously long ago for some unknown reason now. The goal was to make it all the way to the road and in the upper stretches, this goal was apparent because the scenery wasn't more than walking through a pinon-juniper forest. Near the end the route paralleled the road until finally popping out onto the gravel surface. It had been nearly 7 miles of hiking to get to this point, so that meant that I got to go back 7 miles. The 1200 feet of elevation gain was deceiving though, because when you are in a wash, you just go steadily uphill without really noticing it. 

Going back down the wash, though, it really feels like you are going downhill because you are moving much quicker without getting as tired. Also, going down the obstacles is usually much easier than going up. There is something just so great about just putting in the miles and feeling good. After about 5 hours of hiking I was back at the car and feeling pretty good about a trip up Big Hollow.