River Mile: 143.4- right
Time: 2 to 3 hours to get to the “overhanging curve” and back
Difficulty: Moderate
Wet or Dry?: Wet
Ideal Weather: Moderate or Hot
Potential: The Kanab Creek drainage has a lifetime of hiking in it.
Kanab is a massive drainage. Its waters gather in the juniper hills above the town of Kanab, Utah, fifty air miles away. From the air, Kanab Creek is so sinuous and deep that it is sometimes confused with Marble Gorge to the east.
Walking along the bottom of this chasm is a quintessential Gran Canyon experience. A clear stream accordians between pools and tumbling cascades. Redwall cliffs stretch upward more high and sheer than anywhere else in the Canyon. There is no trail here. Nature’s floods take care of any path that develops in the gravel creekbed. The footing in the creek is sometimes gravel, sometimes mud. Shortcut around deep pools will take you over rounded boulders and across sidewalk terraces of limestone.
If you have the time, explore as far as you can the main creekbed, or check out one of the side canyons that enter Kanab Creek. Kanab is full of surprises.