We started our trip by parking my car at the Crystal Lake trail head then we drove up that road to the Bald Mountain pass. The was plan was to backpack around Notch Mountain, spend then night at Ibantik Lake, then hike down to my car at the Crystal Lake TH. The first few miles of trail were slightly downhill so we made great time and had excellent views.

Notch Mountain as seen from Clegg Lake.

Notch Lake

Is only took a few hours to reach Ibantik lake so we set up camp then walked down the lake to fish and hang out. Lanik is 7yo, he had been fishing once before and loved it so Nick packed in an extra rod just for him. The fish were small but he was pulling them in left and right and that kept him very happy.

We made a short hike around the lake and followed an inlet stream to the south east where I found a 3′ mylar buzz lightyear balloon. We did a bit more fishing and watched an amazing sunset blow up the entire sky.

That night was pretty warm, the clouds were socked in and there was a bit of rain so no star trails. In the morning we woke up to thousands of mosquitoes attacking us so we packed up camp and scrambled across the lake to eat breakfast and do a bit more fishing before hiking up to the notch pass.

Nick looking north from the Notch

We made great time as we hiked down from the notch to the crystal lake TH. There was an insane amount of people around Wall lake, lucky for us that we never had to deal with the masses up at Ibantik. Short trip but a very fun trip none the less.

Day1:

We left Orem at 7:30 and made it into the town of Escalante around 12:30. The only place open was a gas station so we ate a nutritious meal of microwave burritos and doughnuts then drove down the hole in the rock road. I had spent quite a bit of time mapping out all the routes in and out of Coyote Gulch and went with the easiest route from Chimney rock to make backpacking with the kids (4 and 7) as easy as possible. The route from Chimney to Hurricane has no established trail but the route was easy to follow. The last 1/4 mile is all slick rock and required a bit of trial and error route finding to get into Hurricane Wash.

April, Whitney, and Boys about 1/4 of the down to Hurricane Wash.

Descending the steep slickrock section

In Hurricane Wash

A little over an hour after we started (hiking at a 4 year olds pace) we were all standing in Hurricane Wash. The small stream in Hurricane began about 200 feet down canyon from where we entered. We stopped to put on our water shoes and started hiking down canyon towards Coyote Gulch. April and Whitney hiked ahead while I walked with the kids and took a few photos. We met up at the Hurricane and Coyote confluence and took a long break then Whitney and I hiked ahead to find a campsite near Jacob Hamblin Arch.

Bo in Hurricane Wash

Whitney in Coyote Gulch

Jacob Hamblin Arch

Whitney and I settled on the campsite under the huge undercut between the openings of Jacob Hamblin arch. I tossed down my pack and hiked back up the creek a little ways to help April and the boys.

Happy backpackers near camp

We spent the rest of our first day in the canyon hanging out around camp. The kids played in the water and sand while we filtered water from the nearby spring and made dinner. Once it was dark I setup to do some star trails from under our alcove.

Day2:

It was pretty cold in the morning so we packed up our day packs and headed down canyon to find some sunshine. We made our first stop at the swiss cheese falls where the kids played in the creek and I shot photos of my favorite spot in the canyon. By 11:00 the temperature felt great so we splashed our way further down the gulch to Coyote Bridge. April and Whitney went further down canyon while the kids and I played at the bridge then started hiking slowly back towards camp.

Around 3pm we saw the first people within the canyon on the trip. They were two day hikers that descended the crack and were hiking up looking for the exit rib. Not long after that April and Whitney returned from their hike to the waterfalls down canyon and we all walked into camp together.

As we walked into the camp we saw our second group of people in Coyote Gulch and they had set up camp in our camp site. There was litterally dozens of campsite within a 1/4 mile and these people set up right next to us. I am all for being hospitable but this was just ridiculous in a empty back country canyon in the middle of the week. I verbally expressed my displeasure of their choice of campsite and we packed up our gear and moved up canyon.

We hiked upstream and saw two more groups settling down in campsites. We found a nice site not far from the Hurricane Wash confluence and while we were all still pretty upset about getting camped on top of it was nice to be a bit closer to the exit for the next days hike.

Rock carving

Bowen (4yo) is an amazing little hiker for his age but he was pretty much done for the day at this point.

Day2 Camp

Chill out time before dinner.

After dinner Lanik (7yo) and I went for a little scramble up the slope behind our camp to check out a small little alcove on the base of the cliff. We hung out up there until sunset then scrambled back down to camp. This alcove would have been an excellent spot for star trails but unfortunately the cloud cover was too thick that night so I settled for a few long exposes closer to the canyon floor.

Shooting star

Day3:

I ‘m not sure if it was just colder or it was because we were camping within the dense vegetation but I froze that night in my 40° bag. After I thawed out in the morning it was all business, we packed up camp and hit the trail. An hour and a half later we were trading our cold water shoes for dry hikers and were headed up the slick rock. The accent out of of Hurricane was a bit steep but was not too bad and the kids did great. We all celebrated by drinking cold coke and gatorade out of the cooler before driving into Escalante.

After a quick stop at subway in Escalate we drove to the state park to check in to the campsite we reserved online the week prior. There’s not really much to say about Escalante State park aside from the fact that the shower felt extra amazing after backpacking for a few days. Whitney and I did the short petrified forest loop hike but mostly we just lounged around for the entire day.

Star trails taken from our camp site.

Day4:

The weather was pretty nice when we woke up but the forecast looked grim with 28° lows and high winds. We packed our camp and drove west to Canonville then out on the Skutumpah road to Bull Valley Gorge. When we arrived at the gorge it was a bit windy out and we could hear water running in the canyon. In fact it sounded like a pretty fair amount of water running down the dark slot so we opted to back track to Willis where at least we would find a bit of sunshine between the sections of slot.

Bull Valley Gorge

Me in Willis Creek

Willis creek was a bit cold but the slots were some of the best I had ever seen. By the time we made it back to the car the wind was really blowing hard as forecasted. After lots of talking we decided to abandon the plan to spend 1 more day in the Willis Creek area and avoid freezing in the forth coming storm. So to wrap up the weekend we took a quick little tour of Bryce Canyon before making the drive back home.

Coyote Gulch was really fun with the kids and I can’t wait to take them backpacking again. A bit disapointed about the weather that cut our trip short but we will be visiting the Willis Creek area again soon to hit up a few more slots in the area.