Canyons of the Escalante | Wednesday, October 14, 2026
While there was a small chance for rain in the forecast overnight, Jared and I didn’t think it would amount to very much and we planned to head down the Hole-in-the-Rock (HITR) Road first thing in the morning. Boy, was that forecast way off! It ended up raining pretty heavily for much of the night which made us reconsider those plans since the HITR Road would be thoroughly soaked. Instead, we returned to Escalante for breakfast and waited around for a little while to give the road a chance to start drying out. Eventually we decided to drive down to the Devils Garden to see what shape the road was in and then we wandered around the hoodoos for the second time this week to kill even more time.
Mano Arch
Four Hoodoos
After leaving the Devils Garden we finally committed to heading down the HITR Road. We planned to take our time and make a few stops along the way, spending most of the remainder of the day on the drive out to Sooner Rocks, where we planned to spend the night.
While parts of the road had started to dry out, there were plenty of muddy sections that we had to get through along the way. Thankfully, we didn’t have much trouble and the muddy road helped keep the crowds away. We wouldn’t see many other vehicles until the road really dried out later in the week.
Our next stop was at the Twentymile Wash Dinosaur Trackway near the confluence of Left Hand Collet Canyon and Right Hand Collet Canyon where Twentymile Wash begins. I vaguely remember searching for these dinosaur tracks a long time ago, but I cannot remember if I ever found them, so I was looking forward to returning.
Since the wash was muddy and flowing from all the recent rain we had to park before the crossing and then hike across it.
We wandered around the bench and found quite a few tracks. This was probably the best of them.
A view from the bench into Right Hand Collet Canyon.
After leaving the trackway we continued down the HITR Road and had hoped to take a detour over to visit Scorpion Arch, but the road to the Early Weed Bench was washed out at the first crossing and we decided to skip it at this time. Instead, we continued on to Dance Hall Rock.
Dark clouds appeared overhead as we made our way over to Dance Hall Rock and blocked out the sun before we arrived at the trailhead.
We spent a little while exploring the sandstone domes and huge potholes that are found behind Dance Hall Rock.
There was a black film on the sandstone here which made it very slippery after the rain, so we had to be extra careful not to slip and fall into the deep potholes.
Tree In A Pothole
Black Wave Bowl
It was an interesting area to explore. It’s just too bad the light wasn’t nice while we were here. It was also very windy and chilly out.
Wet Dance Floor
Dance Hall Rock
Since we hadn’t been able to hike out to Scorpion Arch earlier and we still had some free time, we decided to return to Sunset Arch and Moonrise Arch on Fortymile Ridge since we hadn’t been out to them since our first October trip together in 2010.
It was raining between Fiftymile Mountain and us as we hiked over to the arches.
It was great to see Sunset Arch again!
The Rugged Side
The Other Side
Next we walked over to Moonrise Arch, which is also known as Sunrise Arch.
Moonrise Arch
Long View at Sunset Arch
Sunset Arch & Navajo Mountain
After returning to our vehicles from the arches we finished driving out to Sooner Rocks and found a campsite for the night. We had finally made out it down the HITR Road- only five days late!