31 Incredible Day Hikes in Escalante, Utah

                         Take a Hike Video Escalante Utah 

Willis Creek

When planning a trip to Escalante Utah, it's best to see what are the hiking options. After all, Escalante National Monument has 4 amazing seasons. You can visualize and pick out, the best hike for your vacation by watching the above video, Take a Hike Escalante Utah.                                                         

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.

25 Mile Wash Escalante Utah

25 Mile Wash canyon can be a long day hike or 

multi-night journey. Drying mud patterns

are most attracting to the eyes as rock layers on 

canyon walls change down river.

The first three miles in 25 Mile Wash, from "Egypt" road,

 decisions were made to get muddy or plow-thru Willows.

See Lower 25 Mile Wash to Fox Canyon and our choices of steps. 

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.

Ricki Bagged Zebra Canyon

I have this fantasy of leading a trail running group to Zebra slot canyon and back. The problem was I couldn't remember how to get there. My initial approach to Zebra was different. Ricki, my husband, wasn't with me when I bagged (conquered) the twenty yards of Zebra-striped slot canyon years ago.
Ricki and I tried different routes. Once we went over the mounds of slickrock and discovered acres of Moqui marbles but not the treasured banded canyon. Another attempt we went deep down Harris Wash to other interesting side canyons worth more exploring. Others ventured with us but water pools stopped us.

When I entered the twisty tunnel the walls progressively became tighter and more streaked. At one point I had to squeeze through a close slit that opened into an obstacle to climb. The others wedged their agile bodies up and over. I was stymied. I couldn't get my butt up to scoot across the tall wall while bracing my feet against the opposite wall. Several scrapes and bruises later I rammed my backside along one wall as my feet supported me against the other wall.
I scooted horizontally across the walls until I reached the famed stripes of Zebra. The effort was worth it. Symmetrical bands wound through the wavy slot canyon. Another difficult climbing hurdle stopped me from going deeper. I went back through exotic Zebra-land and up and over my previous climbing challenge with confidence.
I'm now closer to fulfilling my trail running group fantasy.