We had NRS socks and water pants and a full suite of dry bags and liners and … we were pretty prepared. Even had four liters each for carrying daily water and food for four days to cover 42 miles of trail.
Then it rained. A lot. We drove down instead of canceling since it was supposed to be much lighter rain down south.
It turned out that the South had half an inch of rain over a large area (all draining into the canyon) and some additional snow and seriously cold weather. We also were a little sick and getting worse. On the approach trail the dry stream beds were flowing briskly.
We ended up not even getting to the trail on our trip to just look at what the canyon looked like. The approach trail had flood outs, fast flowing water and quick sand. We stopped at the quicksand.
So. We drove down, spent the night in a hotel in Kanab, then Monday picked up our permits and drove down to check out the trailhead to get ready to hike Tuesday.
While picking up our permits, the Ranger informed us that instead of the expected 40-60 degree weather it was 13-35 degrees and instead of up to ankle deep water it was chest deep water in places.
That was a cause for reflection and we decided he was right that chest deep water in low to mid teen weather wasn’t what we were really planning on.
Especially since there was the potential for more rain while we were down in the canyon. Getting rained on in a box canyon is far from pleasant (to understate it).
We will head back and do Paria when the weather is better.
