Escalante 3.2012

admin — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 18:03:09 +0000

I had received word from a few flickr contacts and friends on facebook that Zebra canyon was once again dry. Typically there is a long cold pool between the mouth of the canyon and the slot and occasionally it fills up with sand and dries out between storms. Now if you follow my blog here you know I hate cold water and will walk miles out of my way to avoid it because I’m a big wussy so this was my chance to see the famous Zebra slot and stay dry.

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.

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Escalante 3.2012