January 25, 2022

By Tim Briese

8.5 miles, 400’ elevation gain, 4:50 roundtrip time

My wife Teresa and I left Cortez, CO early in the morning, drove through spectacular Monument Valley, and headed on to Page, AZ.

impressive agathla peak along us 163 near monument valley

We continued a few miles on US 89 to Bigwater, UT and found an old dirt road past a fish hatchery north of town to the trailhead for the Wahweap Hoodoos.

at the trailhead

There was just one other vehicle at this remote trailhead. It was mostly cloudy and chilly on this January day. A little after noon we began hiking north up the drainage of Wahweap Creek, which was mostly dry today. This drainage lies in a broad flat valley about a half mile wide with low cliffs on each side. There is no formal trail but multiple footpaths lead up the valley. We passed through a gate in a fence after a quarter of a mile or so. We found the footing to generally be better down in the drainage itself, but followed sandy paths across wide benches where the creek bed made long meanders in order to save some distance.

the wahweap creek drainage that we hiked up

this interesting white material is not snow but a mineral deposit in the drainage

The hike was rather drab and uninspiring for the first three miles until we reached the first of the hoodoos, or rocky beige-colored towers with dark brown caps, along the west wall of the drainage.

approaching some of the hoodoos

We hiked up into this first group of hoodoos on a rough trail before descending back into the drainage. We pushed our way through some bushes for a short distance further up the drainage and then reached a second and more spectacular group of hoodoos in a large cove on the west side of the main drainage.

there were a lot of interesting formations back in this area

We hiked up into this area and explored for a while among the strange other-worldly and imagination-defying formations. This was really a cool place to visit.

After admiring these wonders for a while we turned back and hiked rapidly back to trailhead and drove into Page for the night.

interesting clouds and sunlight on the hike back out