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tommy750 Posts: 1040
12/13/2022
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Convinced my wife to spend Black Friday driving up Fish Creek rather than facing the marauding hordes of Xmas shoppers. We ended up in the southeastern corner of Hapaha Flat. The weather was perfect the entire weekend. Getting camp set up.
 IMG_1885 by tomteske, on Flickr
The kitchen view looking toward Whale and a sea of ocotillos in red and orange fall colors.
 IMG_1887 by tomteske, on Flickr
Tried to catch a decent pic of the ocotillos lighting up at dusk but a photo doesn't do it justice. Was a really pretty sight.
 Ocotillo Fall Colors by tomteske, on Flickr
Lots of cultural sites in the area. Here's a rather large metate fragment.
 IMG_1920 by tomteske, on Flickr
A nice intact Desert Side Notch point.
 IMG_1929 by tomteske, on Flickr
An obsidian drill or an abandoned projectile point a few feet away from the above point.
 IMG_1894 by tomteske, on Flickr
Randy and Lisa, long time Park volunteers found these nice painted sherds a while back. DStretched.
 IMG_2060 by tomteske, on Flickr
Wandering up the wash, we came across this water stash. Was next to the road and only two liters for a June hike? Hope he made it.
 IMG_1968 by tomteske, on Flickr
 IMG_1966 by tomteske, on Flickr
Bunch of shell casings and empty boxes right next to the Hapaha sign. We were planning on cleaning up the mess on our way back but ended up returning by another route.
 IMG_1911 by tomteske, on Flickr
 IMG_1917 by tomteske, on Flickr
Desiccated Chuckwalla
 IMG_2044 by tomteske, on Flickr
 IMG_2051 by tomteske, on Flickr
Found a faint trail on GE I tried to follow on the final day. Was very rocky and eroded. About a mile in, came across this unfortunate ram.
 IMG_2008 by tomteske, on Flickr
 IMG_2010 by tomteske, on Flickr
 IMG_2015 by tomteske, on Flickr
Nice view of the Carrizo badlands toward Canebrake and McCain.
 IMG_2022 by tomteske, on Flickr
Large drilled rim sherd in the middle of the trail.
 IMG_2029 by tomteske, on Flickr
 IMG_2033 by tomteske, on Flickr
On our way out, lots of nice desert sand-verbena were blooming.
 IMG_2055 by tomteske, on Flickr
Literally 30 seconds before the canyon turned to gray. A little hiking, a little exploring and a lot of relaxing. Enjoy!
 IMG_2059 by tomteske, on Flickr
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Brian Posts: 221
12/14/2022
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Hapaha is a great place for sunsets.
How was the road condition going up to Hapaha from Sandstone? I've done it in my Crosstrek, but it seems like all the roads got slammed this summer and are in worse shape than normal.
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tommy750 Posts: 1040
12/14/2022
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Brian wrote:
tommy750 wrote:
Brian wrote:
How was the road condition going up to Hapaha from Sandstone? I've done it in my Crosstrek, but it seems like all the roads got slammed this summer and are in worse shape than normal.
There's always been that one 20 ft sketchy spot when you're exiting the canyon after Olla and before Hapaha. It got way better after they ran a dozer through there a few years ago but it's icky again. Had my wife get out and help me dodge boulders on the way in and heard a few too many scrapy sounds on the way out. Don't think you'd have any problems with any other location. Hope that helps!
That does help, thanks. If you're scraping with your truck I'm going to assume it isn't Subi-friendly at the moment. When I went in before I had a similar experience as you described. Made it past that section with some care going in, but on the way out dropped off a rock and hit my skid plate hard.
Dug up a couple pics from before and after the dozer. I would say it's worse than the pre dozer pic now.
 Upper Fish Creek Squeeze (2018_09_25 07_05_23 UTC) by tomteske, on Flickr
 After the dozer by tomteske, on Flickr
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tommy750 Posts: 1040
12/16/2022
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Buford wrote:
Very nice. Good to see all the sand verbena in bloom already. I'd be almost afraid of all the vehicles in Fish Creek in a holiday weekend as black friday. Do most stop well short of Hapaha flat?
I can't believe how many points you find.
We were worried there were going to be a zillion campers out there but it was really quiet compared to just about any other weekend. We had a group of jeeps go by about every hour or two but nothing like the traffic farther down canyon. It is 15+ miles to Hapaha one way, so probably less traffic. Really nice area. With the points, it's a matter of patience. Pretty sure you, with your awesome wildlife and time lapse photography, know all about that!
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