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Arizona Strip & Southern Utah Wanderings Trip Reports

Willow Gulch

Southern Utah Wanderings 2010 | Day 3
Monday, October 4, 2010

Monday morning we woke up to rain. We had a quick breakfast inside the Jeep to stay dry. The sky to the south looked clear, so we headed in that direction to hike down Willow Gulch to Broken Bow Arch. When we arrived at the Willow Gulch trailhead we got lucky and the sky was indeed clear here with the sun shining….so we grabbed our backpacks and headed down canyon.

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Dry Fork of Coyote Gulch Slots

Southern Utah Wanderings 2010 | Day 2
Sunday, October 3, 2010

After getting some more sleep we still managed to get up for an early start and headed down into the Dry Fork of Coyote Gulch after some breakfast. Our destination this morning would be the Peek-A-Boo and Spooky slot canyons. There were some storm clouds north of us towards Escalante and some way at the southern end of the Straight Cliffs, but the area above this drainage was still clear. On our way down into the canyon those clouds provided us with a couple of rainbows to photograph.

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Capitol Reef to Chimney Rock

Southern Utah Wanderings 2010 | Day 1
Saturday, October 2, 2010

On Saturday morning I left Grand Junction and headed into Utah. I made my way through Green River and Hanksville before reaching Capitol Reef. My destination was Escalante, but I would be getting off of the pavement for a little bit on the way. I took the Scenic Drive past Capitol Gorge where the pavement turned to dirt. With all the storms Southern Utah had seen this year, I wasn’t sure if the road was going to be washed out or not, but I got lucky and it wasn’t ...

Southern Utah Wanderings | Day 7

Friday, October 9, 2009 | Starting Odometer: 144942

This wasn’t intended to be the final day of my trip, but that’s the way it ended. By the end of the day I was tired and wanted to just relax for the final weekend of my vacation. I had entertained the thought of getting a hotel room in Moab and having Amanda join me, but since I was so close to home and didn’t want to spend the money on a hotel room for the weekend, I decided it would be best to just head home for the weekend.

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Southern Utah Wanderings | Day 6

Thursday, October 8, 2009 | Starting Odometer: 144703

This was an indecisive day for me. My original plan was to head back to Bullfrog and take the ferry across Lake Powell. However, I did not feel like going that far out of my way, and I also knew Amanda would probably like to join me for a ferry trip sometime in the future, so I decided to skip it. That left me with a big empty gap in my day. What would I do? I had always wanted to check out the Flint Trail and the Maze District of Canyonlands ...

Southern Utah Wanderings | Day 5

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 | Starting Odometer: 144445

Since it was getting dark pretty quickly when I arrived at the Hole in the Rock the evening before, I didn’t really get any good photos. When I woke up today, I grabbed my camera and started shooting away 🙂 I was up before sunrise and hung out for a little while until the sun was up in the sky…well, actually behind some clouds.

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Southern Utah Wanderings | Day 4

Tuesday, October 6, 2009 | Starting Odometer: 144260

It was a great start to a day. The wind had finally died down overnight and I woke up to a great sunrise over Lake Powell from Alstrom Point. Since it was my mom’s birthday and I had full signal up there, I gave her a call to wish her a happy birthday. I took some photos before packing up the Jeep and heading back to Big Water from some more gas.

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Southern Utah Wanderings | Day 3

Monday, October 5, 2009 | Starting Odometer: 144040

Monday was yet another early morning. I got some breakfast for me and gas for the Jeep and then headed out of Page and back over Glen Canyon Dam. My main goal for today was to finish up at Alstrom Point to catch the sunset and to camp. Since I was already pretty close to Alstrom Point, I needed to find something to fill my day until then. I looked at my maps and strung together a large loop that would let me finish up back near Big Water. My first destination ...

Southern Utah Wanderings | Day 2

Sunday, October 4, 2009 | Starting Odometer: 143789

After a pretty decent nights sleep (even though it got pretty windy overnight), I ended up waking around 7:00am. Though the wind had died down by now, it was still pretty cloudy out. I broke down camp and had a quick snack before heading out through Cathedral Valley and Caineville Wash. After making my way though Upper Cathedral Valley that I had visited the evening before, I passed the Baker Ranch Road that could take me to I-70 if I was headed that way (This is a road I will have to ...

Southern Utah Wanderings | Day 1

Saturday, October 3, 2009 | Starting Odometer: 143517

I woke up early on Saturday morning, finished loading up the Jeep and then headed out for a quick breakfast with Amanda before starting on my week-long trip to Southern Utah. After breakfast I hopped onto I-70 west and made my way to Green River and then south to Hanksville, where I topped off my fuel tank and filled my extra gas containers, just in case. Heading further west on UT24 I soon reached Capitol Reef National Park and decided to stop at the Visitor’s Center to see if they had any ...