// Adventures and Photography from the Colorado Plateau, Rocky Mountains & Beyond
Friday – Sunday, October 24-26, 2014
Since Diane and I had a great long weekend in The Maze over Memorial Day weekend I wanted to show her some of my favorite places in The Needles district this weekend so she could experience more of Canyonlands National Park. Plus, I’ve been having a great year in Canyonlands by finally completing the White Rim and backpacking Salt Creek Canyon, so I wanted to keep the momentum going!
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Saturday, October 11, 2014
On Saturday morning we woke up before the sun came up and were able to watch the sunrise as we drove down the Old Sheffield Road to it’s end near the Red Breaks. Today we would be hiking to the unusual sandstone formation known as the Escalante Volcano. This interesting landform is known by many names including the Red Breaks Crater, Cosmic Ashtray, Cosmic Navel and Islomania Dome, but I’m just going to stick to simply calling it the Volcano.
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Friday, October 10, 2014
After visiting a few short slot canyons in the morning we still had plenty of time to find something else to do for the rest of the day. First we stopped in Escalante for a bite to eat and then found a campsite along the Old Sheffield Road so we could get camp setup early and not have to worry about it later. We decided to spend the late afternoon hiking to Upper Calf Creek Falls since we had visited the lower falls earlier in the week. The hike was a short but steep descent to the falls from the top of New Home Bench. After visiting the main waterfall, which wasn’t flowing very much this late in the season, we climbed above to visit a few small pools. This would make a great place to swim when the temperature is warmer.
Leave a CommentSouthern Utah Wanderings | Canyons of the Escalante
Friday, October 10, 2014
After another good night of sleep under the stars we awoke to clear skies with the morning sunlight striking the Straight Cliffs in the distance. Today we planned to hike to a couple of popular and short slot canyons known as Zebra and Tunnel. Jared and I had actually planned on hiking to these two slot canyons back in 2010 when we were in the area for our first October trip to southern Utah together, however we were chased away by heavy rain and flash flooding that week, so we never did get to visit them. After a quick breakfast we packed up camp and drove back to the Hole-in-the-Rock Road and parked at the trailhead for Halfway Hollow. We hiked down Halfway Hollow a few miles until we reached it’s confluence with Harris Wash and then hiked up Harris Wash a short distance to the entrance for Zebra.
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Wednesday & Thursday, October 8-9, 2014
Wednesday morning arrived with another beautiful sunrise from our campsite on Fortymile Ridge. Today we would be starting an overnight backpacking trip into Coyote Gulch. This is a popular backpacking destination in the area, and for good reason since it’s a beautiful hike. I had planned to do this hike in the middle of the week so it hopefully wouldn’t be as crowded as a weekend, and I think it ended up working well for us.
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