Less than two miles into our hike we left our heavy packs on the side of the trail and made a 1.5 mile hike up Sleepy Hollow to the dry fall at the end of the technical section of the canyon. The mouth of Sleepy Hollow was pretty scrubby but the middle portion of the canyon had some excellent alcoves and crystal clear pools so it was definitely worth it.

A cool little tunnel under a very large boulder.

The end.

After a quick rest we were hiking down Coyote Gulch on our way towards Hurricane Wash and Jacob Hamblin Arch.

Jacob Hamblin Arch

We set up camp under the huge alcove between the bends of Jacob Hamblin Arch. Before dinner I did a bit of wandering around the area taking photos of the Arch. I was able to scramble up into the arch from the west side and take a few photos before climbing back down the east side. After dinner and the canyon was dark I set up my camera for a series of star trails and did a bit of light painting.

Thursday morning I was up early and ready to see some waterfalls. I took a quick photo of our campsite then Shay and I were off hiking down the canyon towards the Swiss Cheese falls.

Camp under the large alcove near Jacob Hamblin.

The area around the Swiss Cheese falls and the choke point did not disappoint and I spent almost two hours shooting photos of the water flowing over the sandstone. I took a few portraits but with the long shutter speeds (1/3-1/2 sec.) that came out pretty blurry. This was by far my favorite area in Coyote Gulch.

After my nice long photo break we were back on the move. We hiked down canyon beyond the Choke Point and Coyote Bridge in search of a campsite for our second night in the canyon.

The Choke Point of Coyote Gulch

Coyote Bridge

We set up camp in a little alcove just over a mile down canyon from Coyote Bridge just beyond the first set of falls. I set up my camp and started making some food while everyone else prepared for a day hike down to the Escalante River two miles down canyon. I ate my late lunch and took a quick power nap before I loaded up my day bag with camera gear and worked my way down canyon shooting photos of all the waterfalls. I made it to within one mile of the Escalante before I ran into Charles who was returning back from the river.

Yet another power nap and more snacks at camp and I was hiking back up canyon to shoot photos of the falls we passed earlier that day.

After shooting waterfalls the entire afternoon I wandered my way back to camp just before dark. The last of our group had returned from their hike, they ended up hiking well beyond the Escalante and inside of Stevens Arch. I must admit I am still pretty jealous of their hike but shooting all the falls was still a pretty good time.

Camp in the dark

Day three I was up bright and early and the first one out of camp hiking up canyon towards Coyote Bridge. I took a few selfies before I headed back up canyon to the Swiss Cheese falls for more photos.

We spent the rest of the day wandering our way up canyon and eventually back to the car and into Escalante for some grubbin mexican food. We decided to make the long haul back to Utah county and made it home around 1:30.

Map of the trip

View CoyoteGulch 3.2010 in a larger map

The first night was fairly cool so we had a large fire and tried our best to stay warm. Our campsite would have been a perfect spot to shoot star trails had the moon not been full, so I had to settle on taking only a few long exposures of the Canyon below.

Saturday morning I woke up early and went on a short hike around our camp taking photos of Micro Death Hollow – Check out Dan Ransom’s TR for this canyon here.

By the time I made it back to camp April was making breakfast and the kids were up and ready to hike. We packed up the car and headed down the Hole in the Rock road towards the Dry Gulch trail head. When we arrived we were only the 4th car in the parking area, we put on our packs and headed down the trail. Soon we arrived at the the mouth of Peek-a-boo gulch and got stuck behind a large and slow group of hikers. They had just made it up the 15′ dry fall and were starting to negotiate the first of the 3 potholes in the canyons entrance. We were waiting on the group for a half hour when it became obvious they were not going to complete the obstacles anytime soon, so we bypassed peek-a-boo and headed down the wash to spooky gulch.

The kids LOVED Spooky Gulch so much and it was impossible to keep up with them in the narrow sandy slot.

I could not make it beyond this point. The canyon was just too narrow for my 6′2″ 245lb frame so I had to stay behind while April chased the kids further up the canyon.

We hiked back towards the trail head and took a short hike up the Dry Gulch Slot. I also scrambled up into peek-a-boo to get a shot of the Arch.

By the time we hiked out and made it back to the trail head the parking lot was completely packed. We made some lunch and drove back up the Hole in the Rock road to Devils Garden. The light, sky, and clouds were prefect in the garden. We spent over an hour wandering around with the kids taking photos and enjoying the cooler weather.

April at Metate Arch.

A few hours later we were back at camp making dinner just before sunset. We hung out around the fire and took a few more long exposures of the cloudy sky and full moon.

We packed up camp first thing in the morning and again ate breakfast on the road. I made a quick stop at the Phipps wash overlook along highway 12 to take a shot of the coolest and most scenic stretch of highway I have ever seen.

Our last hike of the trip was Lower Calf Creek Falls. Again we were one of the first cars at the trail head and only ran into a few people on the 3 mile hike up to the falls. The boys hiked really well but Bowen being only two was carried a fair amount of the way up by April. The mist from the falls was quite chilly and hard to keep off the camera lens but I ended up with some some decent shots.

For the hike down I placed Bowen on my shoulders and hiked ahead of April and Lanik. We saw dozens of European tourists hiking up to the falls on our way down and were glad to have the falls pretty much to ourselves while we were there. Once back at the car we made some lunch and made the long 4.5 hour drive home.