Canyons of the Escalante | Tuesday, October 13, 2026
We woke up on Tuesday morning with high hopes of driving down towards the far end of the Hole-in-the-Rock Road, but then we checked the latest weather forecast and saw that there was yet another full day of rain in store for us, so we made the reluctant decision to stay closer to town for one more day. All this rain was really beginning to put a damper on our trip and I was getting anxious to get back to our regularly scheduled program! The weather for the rest of the week was looking dry, so we were pretty sure that we would be heading out first thing on Wednesday morning. Until then we needed to find another hike for today. We wanted to do something a little longer this time, so we went on another sandstone sojourn- this time from the end of the Old Sheffield Road to the Escalante River following the rim of Spencer Canyon to Ladder Canyon. Then we were thinking about hiking up and through the Milagro Passage, depending on how our legs were feeling by then…
It was still raining lightly when we reached the trailhead at the end of the Old Sheffield Road.
We hiked through the rain as we made our way through the Ponderosa Valley and then followed the rim of Spencer Canyon.
The potholes along the way were all full and the washes were flowing.
Potholes & Waterfalls
We climbed up higher to find a better place to cross the wash.
Waterfalls
There was a good view over Spencer Canyon on the other side of the wash.
This wave-like formation caught my attention.
The rain finally stopped and there was a little blue in the sky as we hiked above this colorful little canyon on our way to Ladder Canyon.
After finding a way down into Ladder Canyon we eventually reached the aluminum ladders that were apparently installed by a youth group in the 1990’s. We didn’t like the approach from above and decided not to try to descend them.
It’s really hard to see in this video, but there was a large waterfall flowing beneath a natural bridge just upstream from the ladders.
We walked over to the rim above the Escalante River and ate a snack while enjoying the views.
As we followed the rim back up Ladder Canyon we got a view of the mouth of The Gulch.
Escalante River Bend
The sun actually started to come out a little as we crossed Ladder Canyon and started climbing up to the Milagro Passage.
Leaving Ladder Canyon
Following Jared up to the Milagro Passage.
Escalante Country
Milagro Passage
The hike through the passage was easy, just a little brushy in places.
It wasn’t long until we were looking out across the sandstone landscape on the other side.
Looking back up to the Milagro Passage as we descended the other side.
Sandstone Domes
We hiked above this colorful sandstone valley as we looped around back towards the trailhead.
We returned to the rim of Spencer Canyon and then followed the sandy track back to our vehicles.
When we returned we saw that Jared’s Jeep had been ducked! This was the first time he had ever been ducked since that usually only happens to Wranglers.
After returning to town we ate one last dinner at Escalante Outfitters and then returned to the same campsite along the Hole-in-the-Rock (HITR) Road we had been using during this trip since we planned to continue down the HITR Road from there first thing in the morning.