11 hikers met to hike the popular Bell Trail #17 to the “Tongue of the Beaver” or to the locals “The Crack”.

From the trailhead, we followed an old cattle trail blasted along the contours of the canyon about 10-12' above the streambed.

We turned onto an unnamed trail leading down to the creek.

We stopped in a glade to take pictures and enjoyed the sound of rushing water.

We returned to the main trail and proceeded among the junipers and mesquite trees pausing often to view the escarpment of red sandstone.

We gathered around a rock containing petroglyphs before continuing down the trail.

We stopped where the stream flowed over a bedrock of red sandstone amid the scenic views of the riparian area.

We arrived at the White Mesa Trail #86 (1.7 miles from trailhead) and paused to looked up the trail leading to White Mesa relieved that we didn’t have to climb that. We continued down the trail passing the Apache Maid Trail #15 junction (2.2 mi) to a sign marking the entrance to the Wet Beaver Creek wilderness area.

We took a side trip down the Weir trail #86 (2.5 mi) veering right about ¼ mile toward the USGS creek gauging station. We paused on a ledge overlooking the creek for a snack and stared at the base covering the gauge. It was covered with dents probably caused by rocks and debris during flash floods.

We returned to the Bell Trail and took the left fork and began to ascend the canyon wall. We traveled up to a ledge that skirts the canyon wall and paused to admire the scenery down the creek below.

The path followed the contours of the canyon for about ½ mile before dropping down to the creek.

A spur trail leading to the left brings us to the “Beaver’s Tongue”.

We took a break, watching 30-40 students from two boarding schools take turns diving into the pools below.

No one ventured into the water and we left the kids to their fun, returning by the same route.