sooner wash // ADVENTR.co

Willow Gulch & Fortymile Gulch

Canyons of the Escalante | Friday, October 16, 2026

After hiking into Fiftymile Creek on Thursday we planned to return to Willow Gulch on Friday since we hadn’t been back there since our 2010 trip and I was interested in returning. Originally, I was thinking about doing a loop with Willow Gulch and Fortymile Gulch, but I know there can be some deep water in Fortymile Gulch and figured with all the recent rain that that might not be the best idea at this time, so we decided to hike each of them separately instead. That turned out to be a good choice since the recent storms had flooded the canyons which made the hiking a bit more challenging, plus we would have had a difficult time finding our way out for Fortymile Gulch near the end of the loop. So after another good night of sleep we were up just before the sunrise on Friday morning and then headed over to the nearby trailhead for Willow Gulch shortly after.

Cave Point to Fiftymile Creek

Canyons of the Escalante | Thursday, October 15, 2026

After a very wet start to the week, we finally made it out the Hole-in-the-Rock Road to the Sooner Rocks late on Wednesday afternoon, ate our dinners and then went to bed after dark. I got a great night of sleep and we both woke up shortly before sunrise on Thursday morning so we could spend the day hiking into Fiftymile Creek. We had been planning to hike into Fiftymile Creek back in 2022 after our hike into Davis Gulch, but I got sick on that day and headed home early instead, so I was really looking forward to getting back and finally getting to go on this hike!

Hole-In-The-Rock Road to Sooner Rocks

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.

4 Comments

Fiftymile Point to Davis Gulch & The Hole-in-the-Rock

Fiftymile Point to Davis Gulch & The Hole-in-the-Rock

Canyons of the Escalante | Southern Utah Wanderings
Wednesday – Friday, October 5-7, 2022

After spending the last day and a half along the western end of the Vermilion Cliffs we headed back over the Paunsaugunt Plateau and returned to Escalante early on Wednesday afternoon. While we were in town we grabbed some dinner and topped off our fuel tanks before heading southeast down the Hole-in-the-Rock Road below the Straight Cliffs. Surprisingly, the road was in better condition than we were expecting and we made great time to the Davis Gulch Trailhead located just below Fiftymile Point. We still had plenty of time until sunset, so we decided to continue on to the very end of the road so we could maybe hike down the Hole-in-the-Rock to Lake Powell. I hadn’t been out to the end of the Hole-in-the-Rock Road since 2009, so it was nice to refresh my memory of the area.

4 Comments

Tag: sooner wash

Willow Gulch & Fortymile Gulch

Cave Point to Fiftymile Creek

Hole-In-The-Rock Road to Sooner Rocks

Fiftymile Point to Davis Gulch & The Hole-in-the-Rock