My 1st Backpacking Adventure: Reflection Canyon

My 1st Backpacking Adventure: Reflection Canyon

I am going to break this adventure up into 4 parts! The drive, trail conditions, our destination, and then the final stretch! So let's dive into it!

Part 1: The Drive
So let’s start with the drive to the trailhead. You’re probably wondering why would I talk about the drive to the trailhead? Well let me explain something, this isn’t an easy drive so I just want to inform you before you go so you’re prepared and ready.

When you split off of route 12 and turn onto hole in the rock road it is a long drive on a dirt road that is not so bad in the beginning but as you progress the road continues to get more bumpy, more rocky, and more twisty and steep. It takes around 55 miles to get to this trail head from Escalante and the dirt road portion is like 50 miles of it! (No joke)

As you can see there are some beautiful views along the way, thank goodness, because it helps distract you from all the bumpy terrain you have to drive through.

The first half of the drive was not too bad but once we got past hurricane wash trailhead the road turned into a straight on off road, slow crawling drive. There were much more steeper roads and way more rocks to get through.

Unfortunately, we got a flat tire on the way there with only 7 miles left to get to the trailhead! Our friends were ahead of us and so I had to flag down this nice group of people to let them tell our friends we had gotten a flat and would be a minute to meet up with them. 45 minutes later and we were back on the road and we slowly crawled our way to the trailhead. With a sense of relief we collected ourselves for the journey and got our selves and our packs ready for the hike.

So some takeaways…make sure you have a spare tire or two for this road! Download your maps ahead of time because there is no service out there and honestly we were happy we went with people in case we did get a second flat. This dirt road drive took us 3 hours because of the flat coming in but also on the way out we babied our spare tire like no other since we knew we had to get home on Sunday too. Thank goodness we didn’t get a flat coming out and we made it all the way back home safely.

Part 2: The Trail Conditions
Well we got through the drive and now we’re on the trail! (Btw make sure to pick up a permit at the hurricane wash trailhead and keep it on you throughout the journey if someone asks for it) I’m gonna talk about the first part of the trail in this post and then the final destination and camp set up on the next.

We got our 35-40 lbs. backpacking packs on for this 8 mile one way journey through the desert landscape. The trail is up and down the whole way and moderately challenging just based on the distance and the amount we were carrying. Some people will do this trail in one day (16 miles) but we decided to backpack it and split it up into two so we could enjoy the canyon longer.

You’re probably wondering…um Kimmy why are your packs so heavy for just an overnight?! Oh well let me tell you, there is no water source to get to on this trail so we had to pack 8 L each! A Liter is 2.2 lbs. so if you do the math half our pack was just water weight! And yes you want that much because it gets hot out there and there’s like no shade. For the beginning of April it was already hitting the upper 80s so we were sweating a lot more plus we needed water for our meals.

Moving along, the trail is very easy to follow up to mile 6 then after that you are traversing and following rock cairns through a wild boulder landscape. Again, it was helpful to have our AllTrails map downloaded before hand just to make sure we were on track since there’s no service out there.

I will say the last two miles did feel a bit more difficult because it is much more up and down and navigating through the boulders and we were already tired by then so take your time, stop when you find shade and continue when you’re ready.

​Part 3: Our Destination-Reflection Canyon
THE final destination! Reflection canyon is beyond breathtaking and really these photos just don’t do justice. It really is one of those places you need to see in person to fully experience it. 

You can see the boulder terrain we had to cover in some of the photos and then boom before you know it you come up to the canyon. But before me made it, we decided to set up camp first.

We scouted around for a while since we needed to find a place that had some shelter from the wind. I had heard the winds were gnarly there but I didn’t realize how strong they really could be. I would say we would get up to 30 mph wind gusts or more at times.

We found a spot that we thought was enclosed enough so we started to put our tent up and bam! Before you know it, our tent poles snapped from one big gust of wind. Nick and I looked at each other and if the flat tire wasn’t enough, the tent was now the cherry on top! We scrambled to take it down and find a new spot that had more protection.

We went a little further out and finally found a spot of trees that were giving us much better protection from the wind and we set up camp there. I would say it was about .3 miles away from the canyon overlook. Luckily I had some medical tape in our first aid kit so we used that to fix our tent poles and I am happy to say the tent held up throughout the night! (We also found some big rocks around to help keep our tents secure too, so use what you can in the environment you’re in)

After we set up, we decided to head over to the main event and take lots of photos and video plus we had our dinner on the cliff edge and watched the sunset! It was probably the best dinner view I’ve ever had. We really lucked out because the sky turned orange, pink, and purple. Plus the swirly clouds made it even more magical. It really made you forget about all the challenges you faced today go away! (Aweee)

After the sun set, we packed up and headed back to camp for the night. We slept pretty good considering the conditions and wind still buzzing around us. 

Part 4: The Final Stretch Back Home
We got up around 6 am, quickly got ready and made our way back to the canyon overlook for sunrise. Again the beautiful clouds were there and the colors were just so magical. We soaked in the sunrise for a good hour before heading back to camp to pack up and head out.

We were all feeling a bit sore and tired but we made the trek back successfully! It felt a bit easier with less lbs. to carry back but the heat was definitely harsher coming back. We had no blockage from the sun whereas Saturday we had some cloud coverage come and go to help. (On the trek back I ran into a snake too which freaked me out but luckily it wasn’t a rattle snake! Phew!)

We finally got back to the parking lot and made the drive back, like I said before we were nervous with our spare tire on the truck but we took our time even more on the way back and successfully made it home in one piece. 

For my first backpacking trip, I gotta say this definitely was a big one to tackle. As we were driving back my husband said, “I see a trend in you this year with putting us through the challenges” and all I could say back was “whelp we moved here to challenge ourselves and experience new things, so here's to getting stronger!” 

Would you add this trip to your backpacking bucket list?! Let me know! Xoxo Kimmy