Woke up at a decent time, we ate breakfast & started hiking in the river once again. We will soon reach the spot where the Old Boulder Mail Trail Route intersects Death Hollow so we have to keep our eyes open for the cairns. The canyon got really neat it this area: the canyon floor was quite wide but the cliffs rose straight up in gray & white hues that looked like granite. It felt like a mini Yosemite. While the canyon became more beautiful, the river became more difficult due to all the beaver activity. Beaver dams would fill up the river 5-10 feet deep for hundreds of yards, making it difficult to cut across meanders. Additionally, the river was often the path of least resistance as any land was completely overgrown. In addition to that, all the overgrown horse tail and shrubs were pointed in our direction due to past flood activity that pushed all growth facing downstream, the direction we were coming from. So not only were we bushwhacking, but bushwhacking against sharp horsetail or shrubs or, better yet, beaver gnawed sharp ends pointed straight at us. It definitely would have been easier to bushwhack going downstream than it was trying to go upstream.
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| Canyon walls of Death Hallow |
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| Lots of beaver activity in this area |
We eventually reached a nice bend around noon and notice the cairned route heading straight up over the rock to the west. This was our junction! We stopped to have lunch, fill our water supply, and wash up one last time as the only water on the overland route was from small potholes in rocks. Up, up, up we went. But the climb wasn’t that bad thanks to the amazing views: a mini Yosemite of sheer white rock walls; sandstone instead of granite, shaped by wind and water instead of glaciers. The route was easy to spot allowing us time to admire the new perspective of our recent terrain.
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| Climbing out of the canyon |
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| Death Hallow from above |
At the edge of the canyon rim, we came across a wire traversing the land, remnants of the telegraph wire that used to connect the towns of Escalante and Boulder, UT. Around this point, the slick rock gave way to soil with an apparent trail. We could see further up where Death Hollow originates and it definitely looked rugged. We snapped a few pictures before cresting the last ledge and turned forward to a beautiful, flat landscape of old, large juniper bushes and other shrubs. However, before long we broke out onto slick rock again, on the edge of the Mamie Creek drainage. Although not as narrow or steep as Escalante or Death Hollow, the drainage displays an array of desert canyon beauty. We stopped for a lunch break, pulling out our gear to dry on the old telegraph wire we’re still following.
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| Remnants of the old morse code wire |
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| Lunch view |
After lunch, we descended into the drainage and arrived at the bottom before long. Although the trail is slightly confusing at the bottom, we spent only 15 minutes before we determining the way forward. There are a few pools of rather stagnant orange water at the bottom of the first ravine but the water was clear so we tanked up since we want to spend one more night under the stars before getting into town. We continued across the drainage, up and over little hills, and admired the different types of plants and rock formations. We traversed a certain type of slick rock that looks like brains!
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| Walking cross country |
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| Brains! |
As we slowly climbed out of the drainage, the trail traversed across a beautiful flat sagebrush meadow before climbing up the western rim. We started looking for a campsite because the unobstructed view east was amazing! We finally found an acceptable spot beneath a pine tree next to a horn-like protrusion of sandstone. We set up our sleeping bags, changed into warm clothes, grabbed some snacks, the camera, and the map and scrambled to the top of the sandstone structure. We sat and snacked, aligning what we saw with what the map told us, trying to determine where exactly we came from and where we’d been, while watching the desert landscape turn orange, then pink, then lavender. Back at camp we ate dinner and watched the millions of stars come out.
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| Sagelands |
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| Sunset in Escalante country |
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