2022 Spring Utah Adventure, 4.23.22 - 5.12.22, Part 5 of 12

Still buzzing from our hike through Peekaboo and Spooky, I decided to alter my original plan to allow for a day we could all do something together. That meant I nixed my idea of an eight mile hike to a place called The Golden Cathedral. This would have been really cool but it will have to wait for another trip. Instead, Mike went off hiking on his own and Bob, Dana, Bridgit and I combined a couple of destinations.

Our first spot was about eighteen miles back down the Hole In The Rock Road to an area called The Devil’s Garden. Rather than a trail, it is more of a picnic area where you can just roam around wherever you feel. It isn’t a huge area, but it is filled with very interesting geologic formations. We arrived before 8AM which is always a better option. There was only one other car there and the morning light was still fantastic.

We basically roamed through the Devil’s Garden in a clockwise loop, admiring the odd rocks, the incredible colors and just enjoying an easy stroll in a really cool place. They had picnic tables near the parking lot but we were too early for a picnic so after about an hour of roaming we were ready to move on to our next spot.

After wandering through the Devil’s garden we drove back up to the highway and headed further east towards the town of Boulder, Utah. Along the way we climbed onto a high plateau. Just before dropping down a steep grade we turned off on a side road to check out Mike’s dispersed campsite. He had found a tremendous spot right on the edge of a big cliff overlooking an extremely scenic part of the Escalante River. The whole area is mostly covered in yellowish slickrock but the Escalante River cut right through it and bright green cottonwoods lined the banks of the river. I wish I could have seen it in the late afternoon when the sun would have bathed the slickrock in golden hues. Mike had decided to climb down into the canyon to explore on his own so we continued. The stretch of road as we dropped down the hill for a couple of miles was absolutely beautiful. It was all rock. Wavy hills of yellow slickrock covered the landscape and I promised myself that the next time we go back to this area I will take the time to park and hike around a bit. I think it is between milepost 70 and 73 on UT-12.

Beyond the slickrock hills as I dubbed them, but before reaching the town of Boulder we turned off onto a thirty-eight mile loop road called Hell’s Backbone (don’t you just love all the descriptive names of all these fantastic places?). This scenic back road climbs to an altitude of 9,200’ so you get quite a variety of vegetation along the way. At the top of the road we came to the actual Hell’s Backbone which is an old wooden bridge spanning a deep gash in Death Hollow Canyon. One side had dark reddish rock and the other was jagged black rock that reminded me of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado.

As we continued we soon came to a trailhead for an eight mile one way hike called The Box. It is a fairly easy but very scenic canyon hike that follows Death Hollow Canyon. Looked like it would make a a fun overnight backpack trip to me!

The scenery stayed nice all along the Hell’s Backbone drive and it eventually plopped us right into the town of Escalante and back to our campground. Speaking of which, The Canyons of the Escalante RV Park had its very own restaurant, a Mexican place where you can either take your food back to your RV or eat at their outside seating. It was sort of a glorified food truck and the Sirloin Chimichanga was seriously grubbin’!

**Georgie’s at The Canyons of the Escalante RV Park**

On our third full day in Escalante, Dana and Bob went for a drive in their side by side. Mike, Bridgit and I drove past the beautiful slickrock hills to the bridge over the Escalante River and parked at the trailhead there. There were a lot of cars but they must have all hiked downstream because we were the only ones going upstream towards a feature called the Escalante Natural Bridge.

Here was another good test for our new Brooks Cascadia 16 trail running shoes. This would be about a 6.5 mile hike including five crossings of the Escalante River. Bridgit and I both thought the shoes were extremely comfortable covering that distance. Designed to allow water to drain from the shoe, we found that they dried fairly quickly and didn’t retain much water or mud as we constantly switched from sandy trail to water crossings. The only drawback was that because of the breathability, it was impossible to keep the deep sand out of the shoes. I think that a pair of ankle gaiters might really help with that but overall we loved how they performed in the desert environment.

The hike out to Escalante Natural Bridge was really relaxing and fun. We basically hiked right up the river with high rock walls on either side of the river wash. Because of the presence of water, many beautiful green cottonwoods grew along the banks. I loved the contrast of the red rock and the bright green foliage.

**Mike and Bridgit at the Escalante Natural Bridge trailhead**

**Bridgit fording the raging Escalante River**

**Brilliant cottonwoods against an azure sky**

**The view upstream along the Escalante River**

**It’s a darn good thing I brushed up on my swiftwater rescue techniques!**

After an easy hike up the river we spotted the Escalante Natural Bridge up against a high cliff. As we got closer it began to take shape. A final crossing of the river and we followed a path right up under the bridge. By the way, the only difference between a natural bridge and an arch is that arches are created by erosion whereas a natural bridge is created by water flow, either past or present.

Once we got to the bridge, a short steep social trail led to a great shelf behind the bridge which was the perfect spot to see the bridge framed against the sky. This turned out to be a really beautiful bridge and exceeded my expectations.

From the bridge it was only about another half mile to the Escalante Arch high on the top of the cliff wall. As we approached we spotted two Fremont Indian granaries tucked into an alcove up in the cliff. I’m not sure how they even got up there but surmised that fifteen hundred years ago perhaps the floor of the valley was higher?

Just beyond the granaries the Escalante Arch appeared right at the top of the cliff wall above a particularly smooth section of cliff streaked with what is known as desert varnish which in simple terms is atmospheric dust that streaks down the side of a cliff when it rains.

At this point we met up with a couple from Salt Lake City who had been here several times. They told us about some pictographs right near the trailhead so when we got back we hiked up to see the Hundred Hands pictograph and a couple of other great pictographs that someone had clearly tried to steal with a rock saw.

2022 Spring Utah Adventure, 4.23.22 - 5.12.22, Part 5 of 12

2022 Spring Utah Adventure, 4.23.22 - 5.12.22, Part 4 of 12

Spring 2022 Utah Adventure, 4.23.22 - 5.12.22, Part 6 of 12