Canal Hike: Coolest hike ever!

During Peach Days in Hurricane, guided hikes of our historic Hurricane Canal are given.  I heard about this 2 years ago and have wanted to go ever since.  This was my year!  I walked every day for 3 weeks.  There are 3 levels of hikes, easy, moderate, and strenuous.  I was going for strenuous hike!  I met at 6:00 a.m. and off we went!  We drove over by Jem trailhead and started hiking down into the canyon.  It was the perfect temperature!  The old canal used to take off from the Virgin river by way of a little dam.

The canal went through some settling ponds to get rid of some of the muddy sediment and then started to mosey along the mountainside.  This was the first tunnel, just carved out of the rock.

If you look, you can see the canal line, half way up the canyon wall.

We are walking along the edge of the canal, where "ditch riders" would ride their horses every day to make sure that the canal was running properly.  If large rocks happened to slide down into the canal from the hillside above, they would divert water out to remedy the situation.  They would build a huge fire on the rock to heat it and then pour cold river water on the rock to cause it to split.  Once the rock cracked, they could use wedges to break the rocks into smaller pieces for removal.  

There was this cool pipe we hiked across.

This gate let water out of the canal when they needed to work on it.

This flume carried water across Chinatown wash.

This was one of the last tunnels.  I think we went through about 10 tunnels all together.  This one was shored up with cedar logs.

The canal made it possible for the Hurricane pioneers to farm the valley.  It took over a decade and dedicated volunteers to make this canal possible.  They had to work all winter because they had to tend to the crops in the summer.  Walking along the 5+ miles, I kept thinking these guys had grit!  They created this canal when surveyors said they couldn't.  They had shovels, picks and a level.  It was totally nuts! I was inspired so much that I put 3 books on hold at the library to read more about the history of this canal.  I can't believe those hard-working pioneers.  I want to take the whole family on it!