Author Archives: Jill and Bud

Twelve days and 57 miles from where we took our first hike in this awesome national monument, we parked the truck at the Escalante River Trailhead to take the lesser known trail up by the cliffs to three petroglyph panels.

Unfortunately, the beginning of the hike, which was described as “a bit of a scramble” or even “bouldering” by past hikers, involves climbing up this section on your hands and knees. Bud’s artificial knees don’t allow that. After a few minutes of trying to find a route that didn’t involve being on your knees he gave up. He insisted I go ahead and hike the short trail, so I did.

I will admit, the beginning was a bit daunting as you went up a pretty steep little canyon wall. I took this photo on the way back down because I noticed that odd rock that looks like a giant black tongue, but you can also see how steep the area is.

In just a few minutes you are well above the road and trailhead parking lot.

And the trail is just a narrow track right along the edge.

But once past that it’s an easy walk up to these huge rocks.

The first panel of art starts here, it’s called the bighorn sheep for obvious reasons.

It looks like someone was trying to remove two of the images. Highly illegal, not to mention disrespectful, disturbing and disgusting. Thankfully they quit before they totally ruined the art. I think perhaps other petroglyphs were removed, and the sheep to the right of the one cut around was ruined.

Happily, much of the panel remains.

A bit further on, on a high and almost inaccessible ledge,

are the hundred hands pictographs. These are very much like those at the Cave of a Hundred Hands at Fremont Indian State Park. This area was also settled by the Fremont Indians.

Looking at the difficulty of getting up there I like to imagine this is a coming of age thing, like painting your name on the town water tower, but no doubt done more respectfully.

A bit more hiking, with some ups and downs…

and after crossing this multicolored rock shelf,

you come to the shaman and hunter panel. Since we know so little about the people who did this art, and nothing for sure about their beliefs, I like that these panels are given such obvious names.

and I definitely like seeing them.

Especially since they are usually in such beautiful settings.

That was the end of the trail, after just a half mile. I took time to look around at the Escalante River canyon.

As usual, words fall short in describing this country.

Beautiful is obvious but inadequate.

On the way back I noticed this rock with red and white stripes on a small scale. I used the tip of my walking stick to show how narrow the stripes were.

There is so much to see on a large scale I’m sure I miss many of the smaller things.

I also noticed these curved lines carved into a rock on a cliff. It looked to me like a partial petroglyph where the rest of the rock face had fallen away. Or maybe just more natural striping. Interesting, in any case.

Too soon I was back to the start of the trail and it was time to say goodbye to this fabulous landscape. I hope I’ll be back someday.

It maybe rained Saturday evening, but it looked to us like the rain wasn’t hitting the ground.

So Sunday we decided to take a chance and take the dirt roads up from the canyons…

to the forests.

There was running water…

and full sized trees.

Fortunately the road was dry, because there were sections that would be muddy if wet…

and there were many steep drop offs.

There is just so much dramatic country around here.

We use OnX off-road maps, I download the relevant section for our trip as we often have no cell service. GPS tracks our position, so I saw that we were coming to Hell’s Backbone. We pulled over and walked down to see it.

That section of the road was paved and had guardrails.

That’s because this was actually a one lane bridge built across the intersection of two canyons, and it’s 1500 feet to the bottom of the gorge.

It was scarier standing on the edge of the road…

taking pictures of the canyon…

than it was driving across.

Miles later the road ended in a green valley where we came back to Utah 12 and got to drive along the Hogback again.

This morning dawned cold and bright. Bud had an appointment in Escalante to have the truck serviced and I decided hike back up the Petrified Wood Trail and this time do the additional loop, the Trail of Sleeping Rainbows.

It was described as short, but steep and strenuous, and it was. It was also very lovely.

And it had a lot of petrified wood.

Hiking this little loop…

really made you realize this is a petrified forest.

I looked down and saw one of the steps on the trail was a piece of petrified wood.

The loop went down a cove to a cliff on the opposite side of the ridge…

and then back up.

The interesting rocks and…

many pieces of petrified wood kept me moving along,

but it was a climb.

At the top again I got a great view of the canyon and ridges.

When I got back to the west side of the ridge, now back on the main trail, I took another picture of the reservoir, just because the air was so clear.

In the afternoon we decided to take a short drive on Cedar Wash Road south of Escalante. We were headed along the Straight Cliffs.

This is the tall and very abrupt edge of the Kaiparowits Plateau.

We were on another dirt road.

We stopped where there was supposed to be the Covered Wagon Natural Bridge.

We found it. Had we taken a steep trail down we could have walked underneath it.

Further down the road…

we stopped to look for the Cedar Wash Arch. The white rock is lining Cedar Wash.

We walked down to the edge of the wash…

and there was the arch.

We walked a bit along the edge of the wash to get a better view. There was another hiker who was down by the arch, can you spot him in the blue shirt? That gives a perspective on the scale of these landscapes.

Every drive or hike here is an immersion in beauty.

Today was laundry day, so we didn’t have time for an all day activity. Bud suggested we drive up Utah 12 towards Boulder. He’d gone to the store there yesterday, and although we’d driven this road five years ago with Adler, Bud said it was more dramatic than he remembered and he’d like to stop at some of the overlooks this time. This is a photo coming back into Escalante. Those are the aptly named Straight Cliffs, just south of where we drove.

The first overlook we came to is named, it’s called Head of the Rocks. And that is what you see, a landscape made entirely of rock.

We then continued on to the far side of the Hogback where Bud turned around. We decided to make the rest of our stops as we returned.

This is called the Hogback because Calf Creek Canyon…

is on one side of the road…

and this is on the other.

They warn you that there are steep grades and sharp curves,

they don’t mention that there are no shoulders and no guardrails.

When we came to a pullover we stopped and I got this shot of Calf Creek Canyon.

At the end of the Hogback you descend…

into Calf Creek Canyon on a 14% grade (by comparison, a steep hill on an interstate highway is 6%).

Now you’re in red cliffs.

We stopped at the Calf Creek Recreation Area and took a bit of a walk. As you can see, Matey was better today and he came along.

This is a sweet little creek to have carved such a canyon.

I managed to get a photo of a rock squirrel. They are bigger than tree squirrels and have a smaller tail which they seem to hold straight behind them. And, they live in the rocks.

We continued out the other side of the canyon,

when we got up a ways,

we stopped at our last overlook. This is a view back down to the confluence of Calf Creek and the Escalante River.

This is looking back down the hill we’d just come up.

Those cliffs are on the other side of the Escalante River.

I got some pretty good shots climbing back up the hill towards Head of the Rocks.

The hill and the rocks go on and on.

You can see why this route…

Is an All American Road and Scenic Byway.

Yesterday afternoon Bud and I decided to hike the trail in the park that takes you to see the petrified wood for which the park is named. It starts up the side of the cove near the entrance.

It leads past this balanced rock.

It was a nice day for a hike, it was in the upper 70’s, but with enough puffy clouds so we were shielded from the intense desert sun most of the time.

The beginning of the hike is a fairly steep uphill climb.

We were hiking up under a rock formation at the top of the ridge.

Our climb was rewarded with some nice views. This is the little town of Escalante from the far side of the ridge.

We were on a flat ridge top with more rocky ridges in the distance.

Prickly pears are still in bloom here, we are farther north and higher up than where we saw them blooming earlier in our travels.

And as promised, there is petrified wood here.

This looked like most of a tree, still embedded in the dirt.

Further on there is more.

This section of the trail has the highest density of the petrified wood. I love the colors in the mineral deposits that have created these rocks.

This is the last specimen on the trail. It is about two feet in diameter and if you look closely you can see the growth rings preserved as rock.

From the side this rock also has mineralized bark.

From up here we had a nice view of the reservoir.

On the way back we got a good view of the whole campground. Our trailer is just about in the center of this picture.

When we got back to the trailer poor Matey was still asleep where we left him, curled up behind my chair. I don’t think he will live much longer, which makes exploring more difficult now.

This is the Wide Hollow Reservoir, and on the far side is the Wide Hollow Campground, where we are. The campground is part of Escalante Petrified Forest State Park, which as far as I can tell, includes the campground and the ridge behind it. There was a path out to the dam where I stood to take this picture, but I think where I was was not in the park.

We haven’t walked the trail to the pieces of petrified trees, but there are quite a few along a sidewalk at the entrance. That’s nice because I can take Matey in the stroller to see those (not that he’s interested).

They also have this 50 foot petrified tree that was found nearby on federal land and brought to the state park.

Matey and I found a bit of a path this morning.

With its nice setting, reasonable privacy and decent places to walk and stroll Matey, we’re pretty happy with this campground.

We did our first exploring in the area today. We stopped at the open Visitors Center for the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument and picked up a brochure for day trips in the Escalante area of the National Monument. Following that guide we drove east of town to the Hole-in-the-Rock Road which we followed for 13 miles.

That brought us to Devil’s Garden, an area of wind and water eroded boulders and hoodoos.

We enjoyed walking around…

and on these sculpted rocks.

There were no canyons or other hoodoos around them.

But this area was filled with fantastic rocks.

Arches massive…

and almost delicate.

Holes…

and chutes.

Some figures stood firmly on their bases,

and some looked like they were ready to separate from their bases.

To me, some looked like partially melted chess pieces.

I thought these looked like molars.

It was fun to wander through them.

These rocks did not feel evil,

I would call this a garden of earthly delights!

We continue to enjoy this beautiful part of Utah.

This is the parking lot for the Mossy Cave trailhead. It’s just a half mile trail in to a falls and a cave on the edge of Bryce Canyon National Park. Even the parking lots here are beautiful.

We moved on today, but only 34 miles so we decided we had time to take this hike up Water Canyon.

This is called Water Canyon and not Water Creek because on its own there would only be water after rains or snow melt. But Mormon settlers in the valley below dug a ditch across half of the Paunsaugunt Plateau to bring water from the East Branch of the Sevier through this canyon and down to the Paria River and their crops. It took them from 1889 to 1892 to do it. Now water runs from about April through October.

The canyon, like all the others here, is lovely; with arches…

and rows of hoodoos.

After crossing a second footbridge and climbing a hill (there’s always a hill)…

we came to an overlook of the falls. That’s the other side of the arch across the way.

We walked around a bit upstream from the falls. There were hoodoos with a layer of white up here. The trail didn’t go far, this area is fragile and eroding because of the extra water brought through it.

We went back down to the bridge and walked up the canyon to the base of the falls and I took this little video, just to capture the sound of falling water in the desert.

Then we took another short branch of the trail to Mossy Cave. It was mossy, and had groundwater dripping from the top of ceiling of the overhang that formed the cave. I noticed what I thought were little stalactites forming. You can see the water drips in the video.

This sign had a picture of the cave in winter, when all the drips freeze into giant icicles.

Even with our wandering we only walked 1.3 miles, but as usual the walk was packed with beauty.

After lunch we packed up and headed out to our next destination, Escalante Petrified Forest State Park just outside the town of Escalante. This was 34 miles further northeast on Utah 12, the Scenic Byway.

And it was scenic! That’s Powell Point with the sun on it. It was clouding over creating some dramatic lighting.

The road was fairly dramatic in any light.

And now we are here, not in a parking lot anymore,

with some privacy and a great view out the dinette window. More on this place to come.

Across the Paunsaugant Plateau from Bryce Canyon is the Red Canyon in the Dixie National Forest.

We drove there today on Utah 18, which is a National Scenic Byway.

It is certainly scenic here as we went through two tunnels in a few hundred yards…

on our way to the Red Canyon Visitor Center for a hike.

The Visitor Center is closed. (That’s the second closed federal Visitor Center we’ve encountered this week, guess we are seeing the effects of the “efficiency” cuts.) Anyway, the trails were open so we headed out on the Hoodoo Loop which I had read was a short trail.

We couldn’t get a map, but when we came to the intersection of the Pink Ledges Trail, Bud wanted to go that way. If he was up for it, so was I.

This turned out to be a short, but very pretty trail.

It went up along the base of the cliff…

with views of both some hoodoos and Long Valley to the west.

This country is gorgeous everywhere you go.

I was pretty happy that Bud was still hiking with me after yesterday.

This short hike was a perfect “day after” outing.

There was a lot of beauty for not a whole lot of effort.

Of course it’s hard to go wrong…

in this part of Utah.

Ever since Bud, Adler and I came to Bryce Canyon National Park for a day trip the summer of 2021 and I saw trails down through the canyon I’ve wanted to hike there.

Today I got the chance. Bud and I arrived at the trailhead at just about 9 AM. I had found a trail that seemed perfect. We would descend the Queen’s Garden Trail at Sunrise Point, which is the easiest descent in the park, then link up with the Navajo Loop and ascend the Wall Street side of that loop, which our neighbors at the RV park said was not to be missed. We would come up at Sunset Point. From the park brochure I thought we would be hiking through the canyon for just under 2 miles. I planned to walk back the mile along the rim to get the truck. If Bud didn’t want to hike that extra mile I could drive back to get him.

The hike started down the spine of a descending ridge.

The views down…

and out were beautiful.

But what I really loved was getting down among the hoodoos.

We even got to walk right through a hoodoo,

more than once!

We were well below the canyon rim and it was beautiful.

I liked the ones with white in them.

We took the short side trail to see the hoodoo that resembles…

a statue of Queen Victoria (hence Queen’s Garden).

From there we headed towards Sunset Point.

We continued a gradual descent until we were on the floor of the canyon with the hoodoos high above.

We neared another huge group of hoodoos. This was beautiful, but I was getting concerned, we were well past a mile and a half and still had a ways to go.

When we finally came to the bottom of the Navajo Loop we had already walked over two miles. Still, I persuaded Bud to choose the Wall Street side even though it was a tenth of a mile longer.

But, oh my, we were walking up through giant hoodoos.

This was what I came for.

I did notice that we were getting close to the edge of the canyon and we were still pretty far down.

I was worried for Bud, I knew this was more than he had expected, but I hoped if we took our time he’d be okay. And I hoped the experience of this would make it worth it.

The first set of steps had been interesting.

And walking through these monsters was awesome.

But when Bud saw this never ending ramp in front of us he was not happy.

He was not even impressed with the view of Inspiration Point far above us.

I think it was the “far above us” part that put him off.

Looking back you could see we’d come a long way,

but we still had a long way to go, all of it up.

The end was finally in sight; I’m not sure Bud took the energy to look up.

What a climb!

But what an experience! We’d come up through that opening in all those hoodoos.

As it turned out, the hike in the canyon was three miles and it was another mile back to the truck.

I walked that, and honestly, after that climb it felt great to be walking on a level sidewalk.

It was fun to look back down and know we’d walked there.

I even climbed up the little hill to Sunrise Point to get a photo of the beginning of our trail.

When I picked up Bud he thanked me for doing the extra walking and said he was glad he’d done it, even if it was a mile longer and a lot harder than he’d agreed to.

Our RV park is on the Paria River and has some nice cliffs just on the other side of the river. I met some folks coming back from a hike, they said a horse/hiking trail goes up to the base of the cliffs. They said it was mostly flat, marked with rock cairns and about two miles long.

That seemed like a reasonable hike for an afternoon, so when we returned from our ride I had a late lunch and set out. I found the cairns marking the trail up out of the river.

There was more land under the cliffs than it looks like from the RV park.

Here it was an easy trail as it wound through the scrub towards the base of the cliffs.

As I got closer I could see the colored layers. I wonder if the black stripes are coal, or coal-like.

These cliffs are a lot prettier close up.

Water has made the rock layers into ladders here.

I love the striped rocks.

These are almost…

hoodoos, just give them a few thousands more years.

I love the way…

these layers…

are eroding.

As beautiful as this was…

it was not mostly flat. I crossed many washes with very steep sides.

It was a great hike,

but I was relieved to come to the fence, which meant we were looping back.

I’ve been seeing these here and there; the sego lily. It’s the state flower of Utah. I saw a couple on the hike. I like that this one seems to bloom right out of the bare soil. The plant is very unassuming compared to the flower.

The hike was a bit longer and more difficult than I expected,

but like always, I’m glad I went.

The sheet we got on scenic side trips included the Tropic Reservoir. I thought this might be an easy little trip for Matey, he’s been having a hard time the past few days. But when I put him in the truck he didn’t curl up on the seat like he usually does, he just stood there looking forlorn, so we left him home.

This map, published in 1951 in a geographical and geological survey of the area done by the Department of the Interior, is the best one I found of the plateau. Bryce Canyon National Park lies along the eastern edge of the plateau. The Pink Cliffs are the southern edge and the Sunset Cliffs the western edge. The Tropic Reservoir is an impoundment of the East Fork of the Sevier River, which is in a valley on the Paunsaugunt Plateau. It’s not on this map because it wasn’t built yet.

Our original plan was to drive around the reservoir, you can see the road on the other side.

Instead, we continued west on the road we turned onto south of the reservoir. My Apple Map program called it Forest Road 91, which sounded promising; the signs by the road had it as Paunsaugunt ATV Trail 03, somewhat less promising. The sign did say “Hatch 16 miles” and we knew Hatch was off the other side of the plateau on US 89. Anyway, it was an OK dirt road and we were seeing some cliffs and hoodoos, so on we went.

We came to a trailhead at a spot where we could see some cliffs and decided to hike up, at least as far as Chimney Rock.

We hiked about a half mile…

and came in view of the base of some hoodoos.

The trail split there, but there was no mention of Chimney Rock. And since we had hiked just a half mile, why was Keyhole Arch now just a half mile further, when it was supposed to be a mile and a half from the trailhead?

We took the trail towards the arch, which first headed crosswise up the slope away from the cliff base,

then headed back, still going up.

Then it headed away again and around the shoulder of that hill.

With all this back and forth we were gaining some height.

We came to another group of hoodoos.

Looking up I spotted an arch.

We hiked a bit higher until we had a better view and then we headed back.

I thought we might turn back on FR 91, we’d only come a couple of miles down that road, but Bud wanted to go on. We crossed the mostly flat plateau, although we could see cliffs off through the burned trees. A good deal of what we drove through had burned.

Eventually we came to the other side of the plateau.

And we started to head down.

We were on another dirt road with no guardrails and steep drop offs.

We were winding down…

the Sunset Cliffs.

I liked it better when we got down far enough to look back up at them.

We still had miles of descent.

The road finally exited through Proctor Canyon,

to Long Valley and US 89.

We took the highways back, the cliffs off in the distance.