Tuesday morning (4.20.2010) Jason, Lusha, my wife, and I - - left Escalante to take the Lower Calf Creek Falls hike together. It clouded up by the end of our hike, but there were blue skies on our way up to the falls.
On the way to the falls, Lusha and I waded across Calf Creek and scrambled up to some cliff dwelling ruins and pictographs to get some photographs, while Jason and my wife continued on the main trail up to the waterfalls.
Hiking back down the canyon from Lower Calf Creek falls, we ran into “Barbara and Anita”, two “trail friends” my wife had met while on the hike in Dry Fork Coyote Gulch, the day before. So while they visited on the trail, Jason, Lusha and I waded Calf Creek and scrambled up the opposite canyon wall to yet some other pictograph panels (some of which had been sadly vandalized).
Back in Escalante, Jason and Lusha drove out to Devil’s Garden while my wife and I visited the Escalante Rangers station and shopped in Escalante. At the end of the day the four of us got together for a nice dinner and visit at Escalante Outfitters. We discussed our plans for the next day which would include traveling the Burr Trail Road from Boulder to Notom and then some hiking near Goblin Valley State Park.
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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)
Monday 4.19.2010
> Drive out the Hole In The Rock Road. Visit Devil’s Garden and Metate Arch.
> Drive to Dry Fork of Coyote Gulch. Hike down to Peek-a-boo and Spooky slot canyons. I hiked the loop up Peek-a-boo and down Spooky while my wife hiked with another lady hiker up Dry Fork and then down to the bottom of Spooky.
Tuesday 4.20.2010
> Hike Lower Calf Creek Falls (my third hike here and my wife’s second) and scramble up to two sets of pictograph panels.
Wednesday 4.21.2010
> Drive the Burr Trail road from Boulder to Notom (my fourth time on this scenic route and my wife’s second). Photograph in Long Canyon and along Waterpocket Fold. Race a rain storm north on the dirt (rapidly turning to mud) portion of this route.
> Hike to the Wild Horse twin caves across the slickrock. Hit with hailstorm as we arrived and watched a “mud storm” (thunderstorm falling through a dust storm), travel across to the east of us. The wind caught up with us at Goblin Valley State Park.
> Revisit the pictographs on Temple Mountain.
> Visit Goblin Valley State Park (my second visit and my wife’s first). Howling winds.
Thursday 4.22.2010
> Drive from Hanksville (we had a motel room there) to South Mule Canyon.
> Hike two miles up South Mule Canyon photographing “house on fire” ruins along the way.
> Check with Kane Ranger Station. Decide to skip a hike down Kane Gulch (too much water and mud on route).
> Take short, but beautiful hike to Yellow House ruins.
> Drive Valley of the gods loop from west to east.
> Drive up through Bluff to Monticello, Utah (cold winds). Stay in motel there.
Friday 4.23.2010
> Drive Monticello, Price, Salt Lake City, Wendover, Wells, Jackpot (where my wife got to spend a couple of hours at the penny slot investment center at Cactus Pete casino - while I slept in the truck canopy bed and read). Drive through the night through Boise, Baker City, Pendleton, and on to our home in Eastern Washington.
Saturday 2.14. 2010
> Arrived home at 5:30 am.
Note:
As long planned (discussions started back in November of 2009): we met a couple, also from Eastern Washington in Escalante on Monday night. These nice friends, whom we met through flickr, joined us on all the hikes and drives we took on Tuesday and Wednesday, as well as the South Mule Canyon hike on Thursday morning.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time with Jason and Lusha. Their company added greatly to the fun we had on this trip. We took different routes down to Escalante as well as back home, so we could all customize a portion of this road trip to fit our individual “must see/must do” priorities. A good time was had by all.
Visit Fly Flipper’s flickr photo stream to see their photographs from this road trip: