Escalante

As promised, here is the trip report in Bogely format. Better late than never.

Introduction

This is a brief trip report album to describe our trip on May 28-31 2010 to the Escalante River Region in Southeast Utah. The region is by far and away one of the most beautiful regions on earth. The idea is to let the photos tell the story.

May 28-29: Fortymile and Willow Creeks

The original idea was to do a loop featuring Scorpion Gulch in the Escalante region, but we found that the road there was rougher than it used to be. Since we didn

After continuing through the wading and swimming sections, we eventually found ourselves at the Willow Creek. Kimberly and the kids waited at the junction while my dad and I explored down canyon. We explored down canyon for an hour or so, but it was getting late so we returned back up to the junction.

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We all swam and waded up lower Willow Creek to where we found a small but adequate sandy bench to sleep on for the night. It was a nice place, but it was noisy with all the croaking frogs whose noise was echoed off the canyon walls.

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May 29

After waking up, we had a leisurely breakfast before hiking up Willow Creek. It was a great canyon in the lower end until we got to the huge Broken Bow Arch. We went and hiked up and around the arch before eating lunch at the pools and waterslides near the base of the arch.

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May 30: Peek-a-boo and Spooky Canyons

My dad had to get to Green River in the afternoon in order to catch the Greyhound Bus, so we had to do a relatively short hike today. We chose Peekaboo and Spooky Canyons, two interesting canyons in the Escalante region.

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We left very early in the morning and headed for Peekaboo Canyon. Kessler and Shaylee loved the climb into the canyon and had a blast exploring it and climbing over the obstacles. When the slot widened to a wash, we hiked across the desert to the head of Spooky Canyon.

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The kids really liked climbing through the canyon and due to the narrowness of the passage beat the adults through. Because we were trying to keep up with the children, I didn't get any photos of Spooky Canyon! After Spooky Canyon we headed to the slot in Upper Dry Fork. Kessler, my dad and I explored Dry Fork while Shaylee and Kim played in the sand in the shade. After exploring Dry Fork we headed back to the trailhead and drove to Green River where we did some church activities.


May 31: Mill Creek

It was a hot day, so we drove from Green River to Moab in order to hike Mill Creek. Mill Creek is a good one in hot weather since there are many swimming holes along the route.

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We hiked up canyon and into the North Fork, visiting many petroglyphs panels along the way. It was a challenge to avoid the poison ivy, but we did so carefully. After reaching the biggest pool and waterfall, we ate lunch and hung around. The kids like to swim in the pool above the big one and Kim and I slid down the falls and into the pool.

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After getting completely soaked, we headed back to the trailhead in hot weather. We were glad that we were wet.

Great trip report Scott! That really looks like a great loop. I've done Willow Gulch as a day hike but it looks like I missed out on all the good stuff in 40 mile! It really gets the juices flowing for my Escalante trip next weekend. And I must say, you've got some tough kids, I'm especially impressed you were going to take them down to Scorpion. I've yet to make it there but I've heard it's a pretty hot and dry slog before you get to water, I wouldn't think most young kids would put up with that very well but what do I know? My kids are all of the K-9 persuasion. :haha:

Great TR! Nothing better than an adventure like that shared with the whole family! Hmmm...time to start thinking about next year's spring break...

great stuff Scott! :2thumbs:

Excellent report, Scott - thanks for sharing!