Woke up early, like 5am, packed up quickly, hit the gas station for fuel & yogurt, and hit the road again. Ice frosted the sage & grasslands around us, the sun not quite peeking over the mountains. We spotted elk in the valley. It was Sunday morning and, once we got far enough away from the town, we went a whole 1.5 hours before seeing another car on the highway. We even stopped on the highway in the middle of one valley while Mat pulled out his Jet Boil stove and brewed himself a cup of coffee right there on the pavement.
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| We can see for 10 miles in both directions |
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| Just brewing coffee in the middle of the highway |
The road took us around the mountain range containing Great Basin National Park before branching off of Hwy 50 onto Hwy 21 and crossing into Utah. At first, Utah didn’t look much different than Eastern Oregon. Snow was everywhere as the area had received six inches the night before. Brunch in Beaver before taking Hwy 15 to Hwy 20, then Hwy 89 to the start of scenic Hwy 12. We were only a few hours away from our destination but finally saw our first red rock at the appropriately named Red Rock Canyon. We had to stop at the scenic pull off and hike the little trail extending up into the red walls of the canyon.
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| Appropriately name Red Rock Canyon |
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| Stretching our legs in Red Rock Canyon |
Another 15 minutes in the car we arrived at Bryce Canyon National Park. Amazingly, it would cost us $25 to enter the park but we figured we'd regret not going in since we were right here. We drove to Bryce point to enjoy the view. Not too much snow in Bryce Canyon and the sun was out, but it was cold and the wind made it even colder! We snapped a few shots before checking out Paria point and snapping a few more. There seemed to be quite a number of fun looking trails but we were anxious to get to our designated playground of Escalante so we retreated to the car and continued east.
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| Quick stop in Bryce Canyon NP |
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| Bryce Canyon National Park |
Stopping for a quick nap, we arrived in Escalante around 4pm. The Escalante - Grand Staircase National Monument visitor center was VERY cool, with casts of large dinosaur bones found in the area and a giant relief map. The rangers were very cool as well, only encouraging us on our ideas instead of the “oh no that’s too dangerous” we’ve heard all too often from park rangers. Excited for our hikes, we figured it was early enough to start our first backpacking trip. We organized our packs and filled our water bladders in the visitor center parking lot. We drove through town, stopping at the gas station for last minute provisions since the town’s grocery store is closed on Mondays, and started for the Escalante River trailhead. We found the trailhead without a problem, the GTI handling off road just fine!
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| Start of the Escalante River trail |
We started down the Escalante River trail hoping to find the Old Boulder Mail trail to take up over the plateau, drop down into Death Hollow, follow Death hollow to its confluence with the Escalante River, and follow the river upstream back to the car in a nice triangle hike. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find the start of the Old Boulder Mail trail despite spending two hours searching for it. We eventually accepted the fact that we’d be doing our triangle hike counter-clockwise and started down the Escalante River. The river was gorgeous! White and yellow cliffs rose 200ft above us as we crossed back and forth across the ankle-deep Escalante River.
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| Beautiful cliffs of the Escalante |
A couple hours later we decided we needed to camp. Fortunately, we came across a huge overhang stretching 100 ft high and approximately 300 ft long! The floor was large, flat, and sandy. On the back wall of the overhang were pictographs, a series of painted triangular body shapes, only one still had some shape of a head, although it looked more like a bear or coyote head to me. We knew this was our campsite for the night, especially since Mat slipped and fell his whole body into the river just prior to reaching the overhang. No one else was around, it was pure magic. We cowboy camped beneath the overhang, watching the billions of stars come out and the pictographs watching us. Truly an amazing start to our vacation!
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| Mat's sleeping bag in the overhang |
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| Sleepover with pictographs |
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