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Gunnison River: Confluence Park to Escalante Canyon

Sunday, May 21, 2017

Over a month ago I planned a river trip with Jackson and Chris so we could check out a new section of the lower Gunnison River starting at Confluence Park in Delta to the takeout at Escalante Canyon. We had originally planned on going Saturday, but because of a late-season winter storm that came through the area at the end of the week, which really brought down the temperature, we pushed it back to Sunday and hoped it would warm up a little. With the change of plans, Diane and I went hiking in the Gunnison Gorge on the Chukar Trail on Saturday instead.

Coyote Gulch Repeat

Friday & Saturday, October 7-8, 2016

Earlier this year Diane asked me about wanting to go on a backpacking trip into Coyote Gulch after she saw some photos of the area, so we planned to do a repeat of a trip that I did with Jared a few years ago, except we would go for two nights instead of just one. We left home very early on Friday morning and drove straight to the trailhead only stopping to fill up my gas tank in Torrey. Since we left in the morning instead of the previous night like we had originally wanted to, we got a little bit later start on the hike than I would have liked, but we still had plenty of time on the first day.

Red Breaks to the Escalante Volcano

Southern Utah Wanderings
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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Upper Calf Creek Falls

Southern Utah Wanderings | Canyons of the Escalante
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.

Halfway Hollow to the Zebra & Tunnel Slot Canyons

Southern 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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Tag: escalante

Gunnison River: Confluence Park to Escalante Canyon

Coyote Gulch Repeat

Red Breaks to the Escalante Volcano

Upper Calf Creek Falls

Halfway Hollow to the Zebra & Tunnel Slot Canyons