Governor’s Peak Trail
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
A perfect Sunday… Our hike this weekend found us out in the Hell’s Canyon Wilderness again. This time (as we missed it last) hitting the Governor’s Peak Trail headed to the summit. While the hike is fairly short (6 miles give or take) it is not an easy one when you consider there is about 3000 ft. net elevation gain by the time you hit the Summit.
We got an early start, and after an adventurous drive in the wash (only option) on Castle Creek Road where the car found a nice rock, we hit the trail about 9:20 or so. One big difference for this trip was we had added our full backpacks - loaded up with weight - Kimberly about 22 lbs and me with 45 lbs. We of course didn’t need all we had, the purpose was to get in a good practice for our upcoming anniversary trip down the Grand Canyon for a couple of nights. (MORE ON THAT LATER).
Anyway, we headed out and it was a very nice morning desert stroll. We saw a few desert flowers about to bloom (and they really came up in the later hours on our return trip) and for the most part had a nice steady climb for the first couple of miles. Then we hit a nice climb up to a saddle where we paused for a snack - and dropped the packs for a bit. After this we were again on our way. Well after a drop down from the saddle you reach essentially the base of Governor’s Peak. The rub is, there is no trial to speak of. In fact, the whole area is full of cat’s claw. We tried to head up for quite some time, picking our way around boulders and the aforementioned cat’s claw (real nasty stuff for sure) to not much avail. We even backtracked and headed up a ridge above the drainage to see if we could make it that way. No luck… So after many attempts we finally gave it to the prickly stuff - about 1/3 mile and 500 ft elevation short of our goal.
But the good news, was that when we went off trail (which there wasn’t one at that point) we found this way cool waterfall! In fact, it was 4 waterfalls in succession. So we pulled up a rock, had some lunch and took in the view. We have some pictures of the falls, but with the shadows they just do not do it justice (this plus the fact I forgot the camera so all pictures are from Kimberly’s iPhone!
So all-in-all another great hike, some great practice for the Canyon, and a perfect day with someone you love - as I always say “doesn’t get better than that’!
