Summers are kind of tough to find time to play outdoors with Ryan.
If you’re new here, Ryan is a wildland firefighter, which means he has a bit of a weird work schedule. While I’m lucky enough to work a 9-to-5, Ryan’s “weekends” are Thursdays and Fridays — assuming he’s not out on a wildfire assignment where he’s committed to an incident for at least 14 days straight.
Ryan recently got back from a 14-day fire assignment downstate, so he got three paid days off work (Monday through Wednesday) followed by his usual Thursday-Friday weekend.
Because there’s absolutely no way our weekends will line up any time soon, we decided to just go ahead and have a little weeknight adventure while it’s still summer here in Flagstaff!
We made the decision to do an easy hike through Kelly Canyon, south of Kachina Village, and stay the night.
Before I get too far into this, just a note: Camping and campfires are prohibited in Kelly Canyon.
HOWEVER, camping and campfires are allowed on the south rim of Kelly Canyon, which is where we camped.
Cool? Cool. We’re rule-followers over here.
I left work about an hour early on Tuesday afternoon and made it home. Ryan had spent most of the day preparing, so all I had to do was load up my pack and toss it in the back of Ryan’s truck.
(If you’re new here, here’s a list of all my beloved backpacking and other outdoors gear, and here’s a list of all our backpacking and outdoors gear for Ochi.)
We ventured off to the trailhead, which was about a 20-minute drive from our apartment.
The trailhead isn’t the best for parking. There isn’t an “official” trailhead with a lot and signage, so we just parked along Forest Road 237 and hoped we were out of the way.
We loaded up Ochi and we were off!
We hiked through the canyon, following the Kelly Pocket Trail for about two miles, and then hiked up the side wall of the canyon to get to a clearing in the pines where we were allowed to set up our camp.
Our hike from the trailhead to our campsite took us about an hour.
I set up the tent while Ryan built a fire pit and got a fire going, since it’s monsoon season here in northern Arizona and we aren’t under fire restrictions of any kind.
Because Ryan is, well, Ryan, any hike is an excuse to load his pack with as much weight as possible and call it “physical training” (aka, PT).
As such, he packed a fire grate, a frying pan, utensils and an entire spread with which to make Beyond Brats with onions, mustard and sauerkraut.
He also packed beer.
After dinner and drinks, we watched the sunset and spent a few minutes talking and watching the stars poke out through the clouds before we crawled into our tent at 9 p.m. for some sleep.
Ochi did great with his first night in the tent! While we usually carry a smaller and lighter 2-person Big Agnes tent for backpacking trips, Ryan wanted to load himself up with as much weight as possible for the sake of PT pack the bigger 3-person tent just to make sure Ochi was comfortable.
While Yukon was a cuddler and preferred to sleep in bed sandwiched between the two of us, Ochi prefers to sleep on the floor of our bedroom, far away from the two of us.
Ochi slept pretty well, although he was very, VERY confused by the mesh sidewalls of the tent and kept smashing his nose up against the space between the tent wall and the rainfly, wondering what was holding him back.
After a full night of sleep, Ryan and I were both up at about 6 a.m.
We made coffee, had breakfast, dismantled camp and then started our hour-long hike back out.
It was a really quiet trip — we only ran into two day hikers on our venture out of the canyon and back to Ryan’s truck.
We made it back to Ryan’s truck and home with plenty of time to spare for me to shower and settle into my work day.
Overall, it was a great trip, and I’m glad I was able to sneak it in during the work week! We also really lucked out with the weather. Given that it’s monsoon season, I was fully prepared to get stuck in a rain storm, but our hike was completely dry.
Planning this trip, or something similar?
what to know before you go:
- As always, leave no trace! Pack everything (including food scraps, toilet paper and all trash) out with you. Abide by posted camping and campfire restrictions.
- If you do decide to stay the night near Kelly Canyon, make sure you’re staying in an area where camping and campfires are allowed. To get there, you may need to hike a bit away from the trail.
- There wasn’t any water along our trek, so make sure you hike in what you need — including what you’ll need to fully extinguish any campfire.
- Prepare for some traffic noise. Our site was about halfway between Interstate 17 and Highway 89A, and we could hear some of the larger trucks on I-17 throughout our night.
Happy camping!
