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Show ----- - i a , vvj -vv-- - - -v J.'t r - vv :f ii . ; i r -.. r '-' 'S . ivssS.-- - ) -i i - J ' : .- r ,"- - - , 'It i ' .- ' - . j 1 r 1 f , .'-' .-- , . v'- U 1 ' " '"'. - - r " j I " ' -. - X.- . . . . . . ro I ; ' . - ' rV i i .. - i Kjr.ter Canson has many spring-fed pwls alonj; the four-mile leVJi of its lower reaches. This first piH)l, overhung bv one , limb of a hue Cottonwood tree, is within siht of the mouth of the canyon and is three or four feet deep. In the winter months this pool freezes solid, but the continuing flow of spring water builds up ice layers downstream from the pool. Hunter Canyon Big Fun AH Year r'.'lh 'T'!; .., h About a mile up Hunter Canyon, this lofty, picturesque pictures-que arch stands high above the canyon floor. To i spot the arch, watch for an area of the canyon floor that is strewn with gigantic boulders, some the size of small houses. The arch is almost directly above these boulders on the right wall of the canyon. Fran Barnes Hunter Canyon is a four-season four-season hiker's paradise. Each season this lovely canyon can-yon near Moab otters a different dif-ferent face, a different mood, to those who take the tune to explore its shadowed depths. Unlike so many of the canyons can-yons in this region that make good hiking, access to Hunter Canyon is easy. From Moab, drive downriver on Cane Creek Boulevard, then, where the pavement ends, continue on the good gravel road that enters Cane Creek Canyon. Continue on this road until it switchbacks abruptly down to the canyon floor and passes a flowing spring at the bottom r i'CHES ' K "--.NATIONAL - 1 J : park : s , MOAB v of the grade. One mile beyond the spring. Hunter Canyon joins Cane Creek Canyon on your led. To explore this lower stretch of Hunter Canyon just pick a season, any season will do, drive to the lovely canyon can-yon mouth, park, and start hiking. Dress for the season ami carry a lunch if you intend in-tend to hike the whole lower four miles of the canyon. There is so much beauty to see in that four miles that it is easy to spend a whole day ambling along and stopping stop-ping to study and appreciate what the canyon has to offer. One Nice Feature As you enter HunterCanyon, one nice feature becomes immediately im-mediately apparent it has water. In many places, the first within a few yards of the canyon mouth, water seeps from the base of the high, age-darkened sandstone walls and forms crystal-clear crystal-clear pools of water. And where there is water, there are moisture-loving plants and trees such as feathery fea-thery tamarisk and cotton-woods. cotton-woods. Ancient, gnarled cot-tonwoods cot-tonwoods that have survived decades of flash floods add to the beauty of the narrow canyon can-yon floor as it winds and twists between tall sandstone walls. I -- " .: - 7 vv ;J f 'V-,, . ', y 1 -v - N r. " '". - x ' : ' -, : . i 4 , i ff Q 4 U'V' -V; Mil K : .'.'.,. ; :;;,;v I m ,v - . ; K :i : - . 1 ? , - . V 'Vr.. . . V . :v-,:V.v ,7- V 'n toe summer, the spring-fed pools of Hunter Can-yon Can-yon invite wading. Some are even deep enough, to ! prmit swimming, with depths up to seven feet Photographers will find that the pools make colortui reflection shots, and often the reflections form weird psychedelic patterns when viewed with tilted head. 'Note the black-masked face in the center of this photo. Picturesque Characteristics Hunter Canyon is a lovely blend of all tiie more picturesque pictur-esque characteristics of can-yonlands can-yonlands country. It is deep and narrow, its sheer stone walls are sometimes painted black with desert varnish, sometimes carved into wild freefurm shapes by eons of flowing, dripping water. It has spring water and trees, arches and alcoves and caverns. cav-erns. It has archeological sites, although these are now difficult to spot due to the ravages of man and the implacable im-placable elements. It even has a small "lake" about four miles upcanyon from its mouth. This quite large spring fed pool lies at the bottom of a "jump," where the stream course plunges off of a ledge down into a deep box canyon. This natural barrier demarks the end of the wet, lower part of Hunter Canyon and the end of hiking from Cane Creek Canyon. It is possible, but dangerous, to climb up out of this deep box canyon and continue on upstream. up-stream. At one point an old weatherbeaten ladder helps the ascent from the canyon, but only experienced climbers climb-ers should attemt this. A Different Mood Hunter Canyon presents a different mood for each season, sea-son, and the beauty of the canyon varies accordingly. In the spring, the trees and shrubs exhibit new foliage, bright wildflowers bloom, the spring fed pools are full and overflowing, the air is balmy, breezes get lost trying to follow fol-low the twisting curves of the deep canyon and the narrow overhead ribbon of blue is dotted with the darting forms of the swallows that nest high in the cliffs. Summer warms the canyon, lowers the water level in many of the pools and the midday sun at its zenith drives away the canyon-wall shadows that dominate the other three seasons. Autumn adds the yellows of deciduous foliage changing color and the bright golds of fall-blooming shrubs and wildflowers. The rains of late summer and fall have renewed renew-ed the flow of the seeping springs and the bright autumn sun reflecting off of the colorful color-ful canyon walls lights the returning re-turning shadows with a warm glow. Biggest Change But of all the seasons, winter win-ter brings the biggest change to Hunter Canyon. Dress warmly, war-mly, and hike it then for a glimpse of another, seldom-seen seldom-seen aspect of canyonlands country. During the mid-winter months of December, January Jan-uary and February, the low sun and cold air combine to turn Hunter Canyon into something unique. Sunlight seldom reaches the canyon floor, letting the canyon-wall shadows dominate. I The many springs still seep, and the pools overflow, but the seeps build up immense cascades of frost-white ice and the pools freeze solid. What little water escapes this fate, flows on top of the solid pools, adding new layers lay-ers of crystalline ice, then the rest flows on downstream before finally freezing among the rounded rocks of the dry streambed, thus slowly building build-ing strange and lovely patterns pat-terns and fantasylands of ice. And where the springs drip from rocky shelves, long fang-like icicles build up, some of them six, eight and ten feet long. Truly, Hunter Canyon is a four-season hiker's paradise, para-dise, one worth exploring any time of the year. |