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I think I said something like "Hi wife, I hope some of my trail chocolates are left in my pack". From the laughter, I don't think there were any chocolate survivors.

After finishing my loop hike up Peekaboo and down Spooky canyons, I hiked up the Dry Fork of Coyote Gulch to find my wife and her impromptu hiking partner, Karen. They had picked a nice shady spot for theif hiking break spot.

Early Monday morning (4.19.2010), with a light day pack and cameras, we drove down the Hole In The Rock Road a little over 12 miles and turned into Escalante’s “Devil’s Garden”. I had driven the HITR road four times over the last few years for a hike at:
Zebra and Tunnel slot canyons
Davis Gulch (near the end of the road)
Hurricane Wash (where my wife and I backpacked down Coyote Gulch in 2009), and
Egypt Trailhead for a hike to the Golden Cathedral and Neon Canyon.

On each of those trips I had no idea that Devil’s Garden existed. Not until I saw a flickr friend’s photos of Metate Arch in Devil’s Garden, was I even aware of it. So I made sure we had plenty of time to visit it on this trip. It was our first stop Monday morning. We really enjoyed it and had the entire area all to ourselves.

After leaving Devil’s Garden we drove to the Dry Fork Coyote Gulch trailhead to hike down to the bottom of: Peekaboo; Spooky; and Brimstone Canyons. The plan was to make the loop hike, up Peekaboo and down Spooky. I wasn’t sure if my wife would be able to make it up and down this route, so we had discussed all the permutations of up and back hiking or her letting me make a quick run through it if needed.

On the way to the outlet to Peekaboo, we met a lady hiker, whom I will call Karen. Her husband and bunch of hiking club members had already left to do the up Peekaboo; down Spooky route, and then with ropes and equipment, hike some of Brimstone. Karen had opted out and so was content to hike up and down Dry Fork and just enjoy the scenery.

She hiked with us over to the short “climb” up into Peekaboo to give my wife a hand if needed, getting up into that canyon. I had brought leather gloves for us both and a short section of rope and nylon webbing to help my wife. To make this short, my wife got halfway up and we both decided it wasn’t a good idea for her to try to go farther. So, she and Karen worked up a plan to hike the wash together while I hiked the Peekaboo/Spooky route solo.

I enjoyed the hike up Peekaboo. Slickrock hiking, dry, very scenic. Quiet. I found the obvious trail leading across the canyon rim that would run from the upper portion of Peekaboo over to the entry into Spooky. At least when I arrived I hoped I had arrived at Spooky and not the top of Brimstone by mistake. I had grabbed my map, both cameras, and leather gloves, but left my pack with water, candy, GPS, and more maps, with my wife.

So I decided to continue down what I hoped was Spooky and pledged not to go over any pour overs that I couldn’t get back up. A short distance down Spooky I heard voices, which was a relief to me, unless they were coming UP Spooky as it is a narrow passage.
It was Karen’s husband (I will call him Bob) and the hiking club, most of the hikers of my age (old).

Bob and I got along well so we exchanged cameras and I followed his hiking club group on through Spooky back down to the Dry Fork of Coyote. There I thanked the hiking club for their company (at the time I had no idea there were so many of them since the narrow confines of Spooky allowed me to see and interact with only four of the members.

I found my wife and Karen waiting in a cool shade part of Dry Fork and the three of us hiked back up to the trailhead together. I was really pleased to have completed this hike that had been on my “to do” list and that I had such an accommodating, understanding and helpful wife.

My wife and I drove back to Escalante at a slow pace, and met up with our friends from Washington, (Jason and Lusha), that night for dinner.
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Road Trip - Utah April 17th - 24th, 2010: My wife and I headed for Southern Utah, just before midnight on Friday the 16th of April (after she got off work at her part time job). We drove straight through to Southern Utah, to take advantage of the good weather forecast early on in our trip. Storms were forecast for later in the trip and in fact we got a pretty good taste of same on Wednesday the 21st.

Here in outline form are the places we visited and hiked:

Saturday 4.17.2010
> Rochester Rock Art Panel near Emery, Utah
> The Moore cutoff road
> Sinbad’s head pictograph panel (we camped under a pinon pine near here)

Sunday 4.18.2010
> Black Dragon Canyon rock art panel (after first taking the wrong turn and doing some interesting four wheel drive travel way up the San Rafael River). Short hike.
> Pictograph Canyon pictographs. Short but interesting hike.
> Drive Hanksville, Torrey, Boulder, to Escalante (check into motel)

Mond

My friend had this wicked mustache, and I couldn't help but paint him. This was the first canvas I ever stretched. I didn't do the best job. You can see the creases in the canvas from where the old painting was rolled and folded. The original artist entitled it "Self-portrait as a Dragon." Part of the dragon is visible from behind the girl's left leg.