Monday morning we set up the rather long car shuttle for the traverse of the upper Paria canyons. We left a vehicle at the Junction of Hackberry Canyon and Cottonwood Canyon, which is only a few miles north of the old Paria movie-set location north of Hwy. 89 on the Paria River, and two vehicles at a road crossing of Sheep Creek, which lies some 6 miles southwest of Cannondale. Cannondale itself is some 15 miles east of Bryce Canyon National Park. Sheep Canyon took us 5 miles downstream to its confluence with the Paria, where we camped. Water was taken from Sheep Creek in preference to the Paria. Incidentally, we treated all water used on the trip--save that we brought with us from home--either by suitable filters or by iodine. Tuesday, we backpacked 10 miles down the Paria to Hog Eye Canyon, where we found an excellent campsite with good water a quarter of a mile upstream from the Paria. These sections of Sheep and Paria Canyons are reminiscent of parts of the lower Paria below the famous "S-curves." Wednesday saw us backpacking up Hog Eye, a narrow but very pretty 3 or 4 mile long canyon with a couple of 3rd-class waterfall situations. Exiting Hog Eye does pose some interesting climbing and route finding opportunities. The canyon forks into a number of side canyons where it encounters a hard, gray sandstone formation, and these side canyons end in rock-cliff barriers. Our objective, Lower Death Valley (in which Sam Pallock Natural Arch is located), was reached by a scramble up a long, steep dry water course ending in a 2nd-to-3rd class headwall. On the other side of the divide, we hiked down past Sam Pollock Arch and beyond to a dry waterfall--where we had the shock of the trip. I had been led to believe that this expected waterfall was 20-30 feet high with a 3rd- class down-climb along one side. Instead, we faced a 70-80 foot dry waterfall or a 50 foot, 4th-class crud wall covered with loose debris as the best local down-climb options. The two ropes that we carried were about 50 and 75 feet in length, so we looked for alternatives. Abe Siemans climbed a short 4th-class wall out of the canyon to investigate an adjoining canyon, which joined the main canyon a few hundred yards downstream. Fortunately, he located the waterfall/down-climb configuration that had been described to me--but in that other canyon. We proceeded back up Lower Death Valley Canyon a hundred yards to a point where we could ascend to a ledge system that got us to the down-climb chute adjacent to the dry waterfalls in the other canyon. We lowered packs over a cliff about 40 feet with one rope, while some of the less experienced were belayed down the rotten 60-foot, 3rd-class chute. Our tribulations were not yet over, however. Later, after reaching the confluence, we hiked up Hackberry Canyon a mile-and-a-half to a side canyon, where a spring shows on the topo map. I had been informed that this spring was a good one, and moreover a good campsite was close at hand. Instead, we found no spring worthy of the name--but did encounter a tribe of cows--worthy of any name that comes to mind--fouling up whatever water was available; nor could we find a camp that matched our expectations. Disappointed, we marched downstream to locate a small seep we had noted on our way up Hackberry, but unfortunately missed it and had to settle for a camp near the junction with Lower Death Valley Canyon, which we had exited two hours earlier. It was Just as well, for Erick Schumacher, who later found the lost seep upstream, spent three-quarters of an hour retrieving just a single gallon of water from the seep. The rest of us satisfied ourselves with the cow-enriched stuff from Hackberry Creek. That evenings we opted to cancel our intended exploration of the upper Hackberry--in part because of those cows--and instead to use our remaining time to "do" the Under-the-Rim Trail in nearby Bryce Canyon.

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