Two Easy Ways to Escalante River Utah

Nov 15, 2015
Escalante River 1 mile down from Boulder Creek

We were searching for the "most photogenic" spot on the Escalante River by wading in the Escalante dozens of times, sliding down slippery chutes, and scampering slickrock ridges.  The numbing water and air temperature were 33F degrees and 36F degrees, respectively. I got to know this one mile of Escalante river intimately, hunting for that illusive "photogenic" canyon.

Our group of three parked the truck off Spencer Flats and backpacked through sand and sage brush a couple of miles toward Escalante River. We camped two nights just above the Escalante river on semi-flat slickrock. Dropping to the river was an easy climb down from our camp.

Across from our camp and the cold river, we found another way, a well traveled trail, to access Escalante river from the Burr Trail, Boulder, Utah.

We did discover some short and sweet canyons and pretty stained monolithic walls, worth all the senseless, numbing river crossings. But still need to find the "best" spot to photograph on the Escalante River. 

Flex Canyon
Near Escalante River

Dancing the chill away.
Our camp spot for two nights.

Scenic Byway 12 Escalante Utah

The drive on Scenic Byway 12 is worth the trip to Escalante, Utah alone. Experience 124 miles of diverse, remote, and wildly sculptured landscape you'll ever find in the world.

 
 See why Scenic Highway 12 was voted #2 as the most beautiful highway in the world:
                                                  Most Beautiful Highway

Better yet, explore the red rock country, hoodoos, high alpine forests and open sagebrush flats on your road bike. Whatever your transportation mode, Byway 12 will add to your spectacular Southern Utah journey.

Finding Boulder Creek Utah

Good map, relatively narrow canyon, & confidence was what we needed to find Boulder Creek via Escalante Canyon. Not really. Supportive water shoes are essential, especially when quicksand sucks your shoes off.

The first mile & half down from the confluence of Calf Creek & Escalante River ("The Bridge") the path was easy to follow until the turn-off to Phipps Canyon. We carved arrows in the sand to steer our way back. Then the trails became thready and vague. Chutes in the steep banks plunged us over and over into Escalante silty river as we tried to find the "camping" area at mile 5 from the Bridge.

We camped at who-knows-where and still were determined to find Boulder Creek the following day. After more bush-whacking and butt-sliding into the River, we noticed we were in clear, clean water. We wove our way into Boulder Creek! We tanked up with our water filters.

Steep stained walls curled tightly around Boulder Creek, forcing us to walk in the water between black spewed Volcanic rock. We were shocked to encounter two other hikers coming from Haymaker bench wading down Boulder Creek and hiking back up from further down Escalante River. Their 6 hour loop trek was a lot shorter than our 3 day tour to finding Boulder Creek.

We thought we could put-us-on-the-map on the way back to the Bridge but we never found those arrows in the sand. Instead, we found our next trek: a dry wash canyon where Bowington Arch resides. We'll find it.

Local Lunar Camping

"Extreme Supermoon" was last Saturday night, and I had to sleep under the influence of this March 19th lunar perigee.

We found a spacious, civilized camp spot at Deer Creek campground off Burr Trail, near Boulder, Utah, to watch the moon rise to its "closest point in orbit to Earth." It didn't appear any bigger or closer, especially if I compare it to a "harvest full moon" in September, which is HUGE.

Friday, we hiked five hours up The Gulch, exploring Water Canyon (the spring is flowing well and new green fauna is present), only meeting one family backpacking nine miles up to the arch.

The wicked winds came Saturday and we aborted our ridge hike across from our campground and found a few human tracks going down a canyon we dubbed "wind-break canyon," that is probably a tributary to Deer Creek. Five hours later, with help from the GPS and our nuclear reactor landmark, we were back in camp.

Due to high winds, we drove and ate at Hell's Backbone Grill in Boulder, for a sandless wonderful, albeit expensive meal, ten minutes away from our campsite. Desert camping in March is not madness but pleasurable.

Find Bob

I missed my poles while snowshoeing up & down Boulder Mountain Sunday, especially stomping up steep hillsides. I could have used the extra push from my arms during ascends. Ah, but the freedom of using my hands without cumbersome poles was worth the extra grunt uphill. I could grab my hankie from a pocket, blow, don my gloves and keep up with the others on top of several feet of snow. And I was able to be impulsive with camera shots.