Thursday June 8, 13.5mi/21.7km

Highway 389 (766.6/5160ft) (AZ) to Squirrel Creek (NA/5480ft) (UT)

I finished my laundry and resupply shopping, and checked out of the motel at 11am. I walked back through town, and I was entertained by a bunch of little things. Like this funny sign! “Adventure’s 2nd stop, Maverik is the first” Ha!

It seemed to be the last day of school, all the kids were out in the park having a catered lunch and talking excitedly.

It was a very nice park too, with tons of old leafy trees and green grass.

I went to the Main Street Cafe for lunch, and I see why it is so highly recommended.

It’s kind of hidden down a side street and didn’t look very special from the outside, but the food was excellent!

After lunch I walked down the block to the east end of town, and hitched out of Hurricane. I waited for about 30 minutes before being picked up, and it was one of the more entertaining rides I’ve had. Stacy was great to talk with, and he explained how he had invented this device that picks up all the sharp burrs (goat heads, thistle, etc) from your floor or yard.

Apparently after posting a video on TikTok and getting 80 million views, he started selling tons of his product. Cool guy. He was kind enough to drop me off at the exact spot along highway 389 where I had left off my hike yesterday.

It was an easy 6-mile road walk although the passing trucks made me nervous. One of the local properties had some very strange things in their yard.

“Apple dumplings and UFO transportation center” Huh?!? The porta-potty with the built-in TV antenna and the sign “ejection seat” was equally confusing. I kept walking. After a couple hours I entered Colorado City.

I stopped into Bee’s Marketplace for a snack, and I was impressed how big and modern the grocery store was.

After talking to a few employees I found out that most of the former townspeople (Fundamentalist LDS, aka polygamists) were forced out and now the town is modernizing and a ton of new stuff is being built. The milkshakes were pretty good!

I walked through the rest of town and noticed that while some of it seemed normal, there were definitely some blocks that had a creepy vibe and all the houses had the word “Zion” over their doorways.

A few times I had seen big groups of identical looking children roaming around, and all dressed in old-timey clothing. I’m pretty sure they were all siblings….7 kids is a big family! Even the post office was a little odd, I’d never seen one that served two different towns in two different states.

Most blocks of Colorado City had houses, but occasionally there was a block that was just a small farm with random animals roaming around. Weird.

After walking north for a mile, I technically crossed from Arizona back into Utah. There were no signs or anything showing the border, it was just a big empty park.

Finally after a couple hours I was leaving the town behind. As I walked up Water Canyon, I was intrigued by this little farm on the outskirts. I was totally excited to buy squeaky cheese curds, except they were closed. D’oh.

I walked further up Water Canyon and then it split off into Short Creek.

My maps were not quite accurate, and I could not follow the route drawn without trespassing on private property. But eventually I figured out the proper route and arrived at Squirrel Canyon Trailhead.

I walked for a couple miles on very wide trails (probably old Jeep roads), with a ton of soft deep sand that was slow going.

Soft sand is the worst. As I slowly climbed Squirrel Canyon, the trail became a little better. There was even a small creek and spring flowing!

I didn’t need any water since I had carried 2 liters from town, and with all the cows around It was probably a little polluted. I hiked uphill a few more minutes to find a flat spot, and then I set up my tent to camp.

It’s one of my last nights camping on the Hayduke and it’s a pretty nice spot overlooking the valley.