Weekend Report - Escalante

We took off Friday after school and headed down to Escalante. A BIG highlight of the drive down was coming up over a hill between Torrey and Boulder to see a Mountain Lion in the road. He trotted into the woods where we stopped to watch him for a few minutes. Amazing!

Saturday we got up and went to the visitors center, which we found out is closed on Saturdays. What!?

Here is Isaac out front.

We then took the long drive to the Peekaboo, Spooky and Brimstone trailhead.

The plan was to go up Peekaboo (because I did not want to go down the first part) then down Spooky and over to Brimstone.

Here are the boys at the beginning (this is what I didn't want to go down, it was scary enough going up)

Once we scrambled into the slot canyon it was beautiful!  The boys loved it. Throughout the slot there is some scrambling up, over and around rocks, not to mention a couple of tight squeezes. I think they had no idea what they were getting into and you could tell how excited they were to explore.

Aptly named, Peekaboo.

 At the top, we missed the cairns leading us over to Spooky and ended up doing the upper part of Peekaboo, which turned out to be pretty cool. Luckily, I have a husband with a great sense of direction and we didn't have to do any backtracking to get to the top of Spooky.

Rick and I did the top part of Spooky, but we came to an area where it looks like it stops. Then we realized we could see about 20 feet below us through holes between the boulders at our feet. This is where Rick and I bowed out. The boys were up for the adventure and found a place to lower themselves into the heart of Spooky.

Rick and I found that we could walk along the top of the slot. After we met the boys at the bottom, I went back in with them and Rick took a couple of pictures from the top. There were only a couple of places we could actually see all the way to the bottom.

 From the top... and then zoomed in

 We ate lunch in the shade of Spooky. Rick and I went as far as we dared. We both have bit of claustrophobia, so we felt pretty brave doing what we did. There was a slightly overweight guy who hung out with us. He couldn't fit through the first tight squeeze and was waiting while his wife went up and back.

Isaac at the entrance (bottom) of Spooky

 

 Dead rattle snake. We are glad this is the only snake we saw the whole day.

Parts of Spooky are so tight you have to take off your camel back and go sideways.

 

 Then came the loooooooong walk to Brimstone. It only took about 45 minutes, but was through deep, soft sand. It was hot and exhausting. Along the way, we met a family from Germany who were lost. We gave them directions and our map. Other than that, we didn't see anyone the whole trip out to Brimstone and back.

Zane was always leading the group.

 

 Rick and Isaac coming up the rear. While Rick and I were talking with the German family, Zane and Isaac played on a big sand hill.  Isaac had to stop to pour about 2 cups of sand out of his shoes.

Brimstone was amazing. It is the deepest of the three slots and also a bit humid, so it felt air conditioned. After being hot and sweaty, it was almost cold in Brimstone.

Brimstone gets darker and thinner the farther back you go. There was a lot of water the first time I went (about 8 years ago), and we didn't get very far into the slot before having to turn around. I was glad it was dryer this time. It made the long walk worth it.

Rick and I stopped about right here. The boys were a little freaked out by a dead crow. You can see how dark it was in this deep slot. There were places the sun would break through and it was beautiful to look up and see the sun coming through the waves of sandstone over our heads.

They went a little farther, but it was pretty tight and started to get muddy, so we headed back.

Zane led the way. BTW, don't let the teenagers lead! We stopped at Spooky on the way back just to rest in the shade a few minutes. After we headed out, we missed a turn on the trail and ended up on top of the cliff instead of in the wash. We'd been hiking for about 6 hours at this point. It was hot and our water was running low. I found some shade of tree and sat down for a few minutes. I seriously thought I would puke or cry.

The boys scouted around to get our bearings. Zane finally recognized the TOP of Spooky. We opted to hike over to the top of Peekaboo and take that back down to the trailhead. So, that scary part I wanted to avoid going down, I had to go down anyway. The boys helped me through it. We were all very happy to get back to the car.

Me near the bottom of Peekaboo.

To get back to Escalante, we had to travel 26 miles on a washboard dirt road. It didn't matter. In under 5 minutes this is what the back seat looked like.

Nothing like working your teenagers to exhaution.

Sunday we went to church in Escalante. Such a nice ward. We stopped at Anasazi State Park to see the ruins on our way back home. 

It was such a fun weekend. I'm glad I got to share one of my favorite hikes with my family. I realized I'm not in the same shape I was in last time I did this hike. I was feeling my age, but happy my feet are finally healed enough to spend the day hiking.