Day1:

The trip started out with my friend Jake and I leaving Springville on Friday in his Land Cruiser headed south towards Escalante.  We made great time and a few hours later we were at the trail head for Bull Valley Gorge ready for our first hike of the weekend.   We followed the rim up canyon for a half mile then dropped down into the slot. We navigated a few drops and encountered a bit of snow and mud before we were stopped by a 13′ overhanging drop. The canyon was too wide to chimney down at this point and climbing up would have been a real problem so we stopped there and turned around. They say this canyon changes drastically with every flood so hopefully this obstacle is soon removed.

Our turn around point.

Moments after I took the above photo I tipped over my tripod and my beloved tokina 11-16 took a face plant in the gravel floor of the canyon.   I cracked the plastic, filled the lens full of sand,  and destroyed the front element.  Awesome way to start off the trip! After slowly walking back to the car (complaining the entire way about my stupidity) we drove to the Willis Creek trail head and started our hike down canyon.   There was quite a bit of ice in Willis Creek and not much water.  Once we passed the first narrow section the stream had dried up and the only water was the occasional puddle.

Jake in Willis Creek

After a few hours in Willis Creek we drove east past Kodachrome Basin state park to a nice overlook and waited for the sunset, there wasn’t much  color but it was still a great view.   We made it to Kodachrome and checked in to the campsite I reserved a few weeks prior.  I took advantage of the campground showers and Jake cooked an amazing pork roast on the fire. That night I shot a few star trails and we made a short night hike along the palace loop trail before calling it quits.

Day2:

I was up bright and early for sunrise but didn’t take a single shot due to the lack of clouds. We packed up camp then drove out to Round Valley Draw to get our slot canyon fix for the day.

There are some great narrows in Round Valley Draw and  aside from the 12′ down climb at the entrance of the slot first  the 1/4 mile is pretty amazing and easy hiking.  As we made our way down canyon there was a lot of scrambling, down climbing, and squeezing between large rock falls within the slot. We hiked down for an hour and a half then headed back out the way we came.

Selfie in the best slot of Round Valley Draw.

We drove to Kanab where we stopped for lunch, gas, and some ice.  We made a few phone calls to see if anyone was going to step up and meet us at the Wave the next day…. everyone was out.  We met some people who struck out on the lottery and offered them the extra slots on our permits, they accepted and we arranged to meet at the trail head that next day at 10am.

We left Kanab and made the drive east to the house rock valley rock and worked our way towards white pocket.  For some unknown reason a few critical turns were missing from my GPS! I was stressing big time after a few dead ends but Jake kept his cool and we worked with what cords we had.  We ended up making it to white pocket by taking the less traveled route where we didn’t encounter much sand at all.  We parked in our campsite ventured out on to white pocket under clear and windy conditions.

With  endless composition possibilities it was easy to wander around White Pocket for nearly 4 hours before sunset but unfortunately there were no clouds.    As night set in the wind died down and we headed back to camp to cook some dinner before we headed back out to white pocket to shoot some long exposures and star trails.

Camp

Day3:

I was up bright and early and walking around White Pocket well before sunrise but yet again no clouds.  We packed up camp and made the drive back towards the Wire Pass Trail head.  The drive took a bit longer than expected and the wind was really blowing hard at the trail head. We took our time getting ready and waiting for the people we met in Kanab but they were nowhere to be found.  So the two of us hiked out to The Wave with two extra permits.

On our hike out to the the wave we passed 10 people  also on their way in.  So with only 20 permits per day and I held 6 permits and we saw10 people on the trail there should of been 4 others at the wave right? Wrong! There was many more than that, in fact there were some real idiots scrambling on the delicate fins taking “hey look at us photos”.  There were quite a few people at the wave who also followed the rules and were pretty upset about all the non-permit holders.  When confronted they said “we failed to draw in the lottery but the ranger told us the fine really wasn’t that bad if you even get caught so just go for it” …. hummm.. ok.

So the wave was a madhouse. I tired to get a few shots then gave up and moved on to the second wave and beyond.  The wind really picked up and the light was flat so we waited it out and made it back to the wave a few hours later and only 4 or so (new people) were there.

please move

Thanks for moving

Jake at The Wave

On our hike out from the wave we saw even more people on their way in (so were at like 33+ now). Too many for such a small area and now I know why the permit system exists and I have more respect for that system.  Now if they would only enforce it because in my 3 trips to the wave I’ve never seen a single ranger out there.

Next up was a really long drive home!

In typically fashion (at least for us) the weather forecast for the weekend was sketchy. Mid 60′s on Saturday turning to snow mid afternoon with lows in the 30′s and snow all day Sunday.  We picked the boys up from school a bit early then drove down to Escalante, we had planned on camping on the Hole in the Rock Road but due to the sketchy forecast we decided to stay at the nearly empty Calf Creek campground. This was our first trip of 2012 and Parker’s (5month old) first camping trip ever so we spent the last few hours of daylight setting up camp and watching an uneventful sunset from the hogsback along highway 12.

Camp view

Getting ready for his first night in the tent.

Sunset over calf creek

Star trails and highway12 from camp

Saturday morning I was up early for sunrise and took a few shots along calf creek. We packed up the kids, topped off the tank in Escalante, and then drove out on the hole in the rock road. We made it to the small trail head by 9:30 and started hiking down Half Way Hollow towards Harris Wash and Zebra Canyon.  The approach hike would be absolutely miserable in the summer with no shade and lots of sand.  The kids were great hikers and full of energy once we reached Zebra where we spent the next two hours running, climbing, and playing in the tight slot.

Parker loves to hike.

Normally there would be water here and the canyon tightens up really quick.

The trail out of Harris wash to Half Way Hollow

Once we hiked out and made it back to the trail head the wind started to pick up so we drove down the road to Devils Garden for some lunch and to keep an eye on the weather.   A storm was moving in so we canceled our plans of hiking the slots in the dry fork of coyote and headed back to Calf Creek.

Metate Arch

The forecasted afternoon storm rolling in.

Whitney and I made a fast hike up to the lower Calf Creek falls and made it back to camp just before dark.  The rain started to fall around 10:30 and by morning it had turned to snow.  We had a long sketchy snowy drive over boulder mountain but once we made it to Torrey the roads were dry.

It was a great first camping trip for baby Parker.