8 May 2014, we spent a night down in the belly of Lower Coyote Gulch. We drove down to Escalante on the 7th and picked up our free permit from Escalante’s visitor center, then drove to the “Crack (in the wall)” parking area and spent the night there. Waking up we got our gear loaded onto our backs and made the trek down into Coyote Gulch.
Having been to the overlook area on a day hike with family years ago, I’ve always wanted to go down to the bottom to check it out. I was excited! Our first stop was a short detour down Coyote Gulch to where it ends, meeting up with the Escalante River. Immediately we knew this was going to be an awesome environment to spend a few nights. A gentile stream flowing ankle deep on top of a flat sandy bottom located deep in a canyon of steep insurmountable walls. This was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been, the lush green riparian meeting the harsh indomitable desert. Wow!
The hiking was very easy so we stopped many times just to look around and absorb our surroundings. Our goal was to camp near the Jacob Hamblin Arch so we weren’t in a hurry. Along the way we found an abundance of life, trees, frogs, snakes, fish, birds, cat (tracks) and insects. This place was a total paradise and literal oasis. We enjoyed all the side trips including some Indian ruins, and a desert pond known as the Black Pool. Along the way we found multiple waterfalls on the main “trail” which created fun obstacles and from springs pouring down the walls.
We made our way to Jacob Hamblin Arch in a matter of 7 hours or so, including all stops and a long lunch break. We camped here for a night and in the morning hiked up to the confluence of Hurricane Wash and hung out in the sun for the rest of the day. After returning to camp we decided that we’d seen everything that we wanted to and decided to hike out late in the afternoon.
The hike out was hot and brutal but a short 2 hours to get to the truck. The exit up the ramp next to Jacob Hamblin arch has a challenging class 5 scramble through 3-4 individual sections, the crux being 100ft high total. We brought a 36ft rope, which I hip belayed my wife over the worst. There would be serious consequences for a person who fell down this steep incline. On the hike back along open desert I found the use of my GPS helpful. One word of caution, I tried to hop a stupid fence just in sight of our vehicle and ended up slicing my hand open pretty good, got a tetanus shot J. Next time I’d just go under.
Lastly I want to mention that this wasn’t a place of solitude. We went on a weekday and found tons of hikers/backpackers. There were plenty of obnoxious members of society, yelling, kicking down sandbars, throwing sandstone boulders around which brought the experience down a notch. If I went back I would opt to camp far away from Jacob Hamblin Arch. Also, I’d like to mention the lack of sanitation in the canyon. There are three pit toilets in the canyon, two of which were TOPPED OFF. I tried to dig a hole for my water bucket and dug up someone else’s poop and toilet paper, yuck! Who poops next to their water source let alone buries it 4 inches deep? Animals!? We all brought WAG/ Restop sanitation bags and carried out our waste, please be prepared to do the same. Make sure you hide your bag from the crows too they like the shiny bags and will rip them open. I like to zip-tie mine to the outside of my pack on the hike out and deposit it into a waiting bucket in our vehicle. If you plan on doing this hike, please, please do the responsible thing with your waste, carry it out.
Enjoy the map and photos.
