Utah Trip: Sam's Mesa Box Canyon Backpack (April 17-19, 2011)

This year we planned two shorter backpacks instead of a week long trip; our first destination was 4 days of backpacking starting in Sam's Mesa Box Canyon, an unknown and very remote canyon that flows into the Dirty Devil River east of Hanksville, UT. After spending Saturday night in Green River, Utah, on Sunday morning we headed south, planning to descend into Sam's Mesa Box, follow it to the Dirty Devil River, and exit via Twin Corral Box Canyon, all pursuant to a vague description in Michael Kesley's "Canon Hiking Guide to the Colorado Plateau." The plan somewhat disintegrated after we spent a long and hard day descending into the canyon and, although close, were still not to the planned campsite and water. I managed to rock climb on down to the water, a pool and spring below a pour-off, and fill a water bucket that was then hoisted up by rope but, as is often the case on trips that are somewhat off the grid, serious adjustments in the “plan” were called for.