Press "Enter" to skip to content

Tag: grand staircase – escalante national monument

Coyote Gulch

Southern Utah Wanderings | Canyons of the Escalante
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.

2 Comments

Lower Calf Creek Falls

Southern Utah Wanderings | Canyons of the Escalante
Tuesday, October 7, 2014

After our long hot hike back from the Golden Cathedral on Monday, we decided to make today an easy day and drove back out to the highway so we could hike to Lower Calf Creek Falls. This hike has been on my list for many years, yet I always passed it up for other opportunities because of how crowded this popular trails seems to be. I was determined to finally make it to this classic southern Utah location this week.

1 Comment

Golden Cathedral

Southern Utah Wanderings | Canyons of the Escalante
Monday, October 6, 2014

After spending the weekend in The Gulch and then spending Sunday night camped up on the Egypt Bench, we got started hiking in the faint dawn light before sunrise Monday morning from the Egypt trailhead on our way down to Neon Canyon on the other side of the Escalante River. Our main destination for today would be the impressive alcove known as the Golden Cathedral and a few nearby petroglyph panels. From the trailhead we descended the steep sandstone ramp and then hiked cross-country while watching the sun rise before descending into the Escalante River Canyon down a large sand dune.

4 Comments

The Gulch

Southern Utah Wanderings | Canyons of the Escalante
Saturday & Sunday, October 4-5, 2014

On Saturday morning I left for my annual week-long trip into southern Utah. This year I planned to spend the whole week along the canyons of the Escalante River in the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument. I met Jared, who would be joining me for the entire trip, in Boulder and we took off down the Burr Trail to the trailhead for The Gulch. Our plan was to start out with an overnight backpack trip into The Gulch so I could visit a few rock art sites that had been on my radar for a few years.

1 Comment

Sand Cove & Yellow Rock

Friday – Sunday, January 31 – February 2, 2014

I had another permit to Coyote Buttes North this Saturday, so I decided to spend the weekend down around the Paria. The weather looked like it was going to be pretty nice so I was looking forward to getting in my first camping trip of the year. I only worked a half-day on Friday and then started driving through a snowstorm as I headed south through Utah. I finally got out of the snow shortly after passing through Monticello. I stopped for a quick dinner in Page and then hurried to make it up to the Paria Canyon Overlook in time for sunset. Unfortunately, I didn’t leave myself enough time and made it to the overlook just after the sun had set. I was a little disappointed at first, but soon realized that the canyon looked pretty good in the early twilight. I had originally planned on camping up at the overlook for the night, but it was much windier and colder up here than I had anticipated, so I decided to drive back down to the Stateline Campground for the night. That way I would also be much closer to the Wire Pass trailhead for an early start in the morning.

1 Comment