Options for Mid May

AustinCronnelly

AustinCronnelly

Butte Rat
Joined
Jan 18, 2012
Messages
132
I'm planning on taking my brother from MT on a backpacking trip after his spring semester and before he takes off on an internship. I have plenty of places I'd like to go but we are and will be extremely busy at work and I don't anticipate taking any time off. Fortunately, I work 4 10s and have Mondays off. So we're looking at driving to/near the trailhead on Friday night and come home Monday evening. It will only be one vehicle so no point to point unless its an easy hitch or someone else is interested in joining.

I'd really, really like to do Salt Creek but I feel id cheat myself by not doing the full hike. I'd like to see Angel Arch and th All American Man but don't think I could cram that into such a small window.

I'm unsure, but can we see a decent amount in Coyote Gulch with this time?

Possibly something in Grand Gulch, Kane Bullet loop?

Any recommendations would be great!
 
Coyote Gulch is very doable overthis time. Camp near the TH Friday night. Hike in Sat morning and set up camp. Explore around a bit and sleep sat night. Hike down canyon Sunday and back to camp, hike out Monday and head home.
 
Yeah man. Coyote would be great in 3 days and that is a great time to do it. I spent 4 days and it meant we just lounged around for almost an entire day. We could have done it in 2-3 without even thinking about it.

Salt Creek is probably a bit much for 3 days but if you could be at the trailhead in the boring of the first day, you could make it work. The only problem is you still really need a shuttle to do Salt Creek right. Here is how I would do it in three days.

Day 1 - Cathedral Butte TH to SC3. Probably 12 miles but if you start early, totally doable. Give yourself enough time to detour over to Big Ruin. Most everything else is just off the main trail, including All American Man.​
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Day 2 - SC3 to Lower Salt Creek with detour to Angel Arch. We actually did SC3 all the way to Peekaboo camp on one day it was cake. The first bit from SC3 to the confluence with Angel has a little up and down but the rest is SO easy. It won't feel like the 13-14 miles it really is. 3 out of 4 of us didn't go up to Angel Arch, instead we spent the day umm 'admiring pools of water' in lower Salt. ;) Anyway, you could spend the day hiking between SC3 and Angel Arch and even spend the night at Angel Arch Camp and still have an easy 8-11 mile hike out on day 3 (depends on gate access, don't plan on it being open).​
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Day 3 - At large zone in lower Salt to Peekaboo TH.​

Another great one would be the Boulder Mail Trail, down Death Hollow and out to Highway 12. It requires a shuttle so not a great plan unless you want to pay a shuttle in Escalante $80 or get someone to join. Day 1, BMT Airstrip TH to Death Hollow, Day 2 down to lower Death, Day 3 out to the Hwy 12 bridge. It's around 24 miles total and one of my favorite trips of all time. Great in early May.

The Fortymile & Willow Gulch loop would be great that time of year too but it's a little short on mileage for a 2-night trip, even though that's how many nights I spent there last year in May. If you want a very relaxed trip, that would hit the spot.

There are a ton of great loops you could put together in The Needles. You can do Chesler, The Joint Trail, Druid and Elephant and I believe it's about 18 miles but I haven't added it up in a while so not sure.
 
Thanks for the input guys. I've looked over quite a few coyote gulch TRs and that looks like a good fit for the amount of time. I will probably mirror the trip similar to your, Tyler. Is the Hurricane Wash entrance difficult to find? Also in what proximity it Swiss cheese falls to JHA? Looks like there are some good campsites around the area. Does the scenery get better the closer you get to the river or is great all through out?

I'll save salt creek when I have a little more time. But one day!!
 
AustinCronnelly said:
Thanks for the input guys. I've looked over quite a few coyote gulch TRs and that looks like a good fit for the amount of time. I will probably mirror the trip similar to your, Tyler. Is the Hurricane Wash entrance difficult to find? Also in what proximity it Swiss cheese falls to JHA? Looks like there are some good campsites around the area. Does the scenery get better the closer you get to the river or is great all through out?

I'll save salt creek when I have a little more time. But one day!!
Click to expand...

The Hurricane Wash route is relatively easy to get into. Parking at the Chimney Rock TH, then set a GPS coordinate (don't have it with me at the moment) to work your way toward the wash. You'll be walking over a mixture of slick rock and sand going in. The second you're in Coyote Gulch everything is amazing as far as views go.

I would go and try to find a campsite somewhere near Jacob Hamblin arch. We camped about 1/2 mile beyond the arch kind of up off the river. We would have liked to get one of those campsites under an alcove, but they were all taken. Swiss Cheese Falls is about 1.5-2 miles beyond JH Arch if I recall correctly. The hike all the way down to the Escalante River is awesome. The falls are further down closer to the river. We seriously planned a whole day for the hike down and back and were a little bit worn out after, but it was worth it. There were many other campsites further down as you get closer to the falls (see where Nick took a stalker photo of us on my TR :)), so you don't necessarily have to camp near JH Arch, but if you can, it makes for awesome campsites and it makes your exit a little easier so that if you leave in the morning, it won't be so hot coming up out of Hurricane wash.

Search around on the internet for a GPS coordinate for the Hurricane Wash entry point (assuming you're using GPS). If not, you'll basically head South East, then East into the entry point (it's a specific area that is relatively wide, but if you don't hit it right, you'll be along a cliff edge looking down and having to work your way along it until you find it.

I'll post a map of what we did. Hopefully it helps.

 
I'll went in Escalante during June and I would like visit Coyote Gulch through fortymile trail (loop trail). I want do it in 1 day, is it possible? I'm looking for GPS trail to download, but I can find it. Can anyone help me?

Thanks.
 
Hi thordyy, welcome to backcountrypost!

You can do it in a day but you'll need to start early and hike fast. Most people do the loop as a 2-3 day trip. One of our members, cirrus2000, did it as an accidental day hike when he went. He packed for an overnighter but just kept going and ended up doing it in one long day hike.

Here is my map with all of the approximate locations listed.

There is also a middle entrance at Lobo Arch (aka Jacob Hamblin Arch). It is quite exposed class 4+ if you're comfortable with that.

 
ibenick said:
Hi thordyy, welcome to backcountrypost!

You can do it in a day but you'll need to start early and hike fast. Most people do the loop as a 2-3 day trip. One of our members, cirrus2000, did it as an accidental day hike when he went. He packed for an overnighter but just kept going and ended up doing it in one long day hike.

Here is my map with all of the approximate locations listed.

There is also a middle entrance at Lobo Arch (aka Jacob Hamblin Arch). It is quite exposed class 4+ if you're comfortable with that.

Click to expand...

I am looking at doing this as a day hike the last week of this month.... We will have 2 trucks so we will cut out a bit of the road time too. So far the plan is this loop, in reverse like I did last September as an overnighter. We will drop in at Hamblin Arch though.
 
ibenick said:
Hi thordyy, welcome to backcountrypost!

You can do it in a day but you'll need to start early and hike fast. Most people do the loop as a 2-3 day trip. One of our members, cirrus2000, did it as an accidental day hike when he went. He packed for an overnighter but just kept going and ended up doing it in one long day hike.

Here is my map with all of the approximate locations listed.

There is also a middle entrance at Lobo Arch (aka Jacob Hamblin Arch). It is quite exposed class 4+ if you're comfortable with that.

Click to expand...

Lot of thanks ibenick,

I'm thinking do a loop between Hamblin Arch and Crack-in-the-Wall. Do you know about how many hours I'll need? What do you think it's better, entry in the canyon in Hamblin Arch or exit the canyon in this point? I need a rope?

I'll rent a Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo or a Ford Escape, but the rental company can't guarantee it will be 4WD, maybe is a 2WD or AWD. Can I arrive to Fortymile Ridge Trailhead Parking with one of these cars with 2WD or AWD?
 
thordyy said:
Lot of thanks ibenick,

I'm thinking do a loop between Hamblin Arch and Crack-in-the-Wall. Do you know about how many hours I'll need? What do you think it's better, entry in the canyon in Hamblin Arch or exit the canyon in this point? I need a rope?

I'll rent a Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo or a Ford Escape, but the rental company can't guarantee it will be 4WD, maybe is a 2WD or AWD. Can I arrive to Fortymile Ridge Trailhead Parking with one of these cars with 2WD or AWD?
Click to expand...

I haven't done the Hamblin exit so I'm not sure. Check out the video and pics that wes242 made in his trip report through that route.

First time to Coyote Gulch by wes242
 
Summit said:
I hope your at least hiking the mile or so above Hamblin Arch because that's one of the best parts of the Coyote.
Click to expand...
Yeah I need to go explore that section, we didn't last time and I wanted too. Seeing some of you pictures in that alcove at night by Hamblin Arch are pretty sweet. I will have to map out what I want to do. We are taking my sister and brother in law that haven't been hiking in a while. Time to show them what they been missing!
 
thordyy said:
Lot of thanks ibenick,

I'm thinking do a loop between Hamblin Arch and Crack-in-the-Wall. Do you know about how many hours I'll need? What do you think it's better, entry in the canyon in Hamblin Arch or exit the canyon in this point? I need a rope?
Click to expand...

You will need a rope to lower your pack down the crack. I took a long skinny rope and it sucked pulling up the packs. I will take something thicker this time. And as for Hamblin, it is a little a bit scary. After my wife and I went down it we changed out plans on what we were going to do cause we didn't want to climb back up it. We tied our packs on the rope and rolled them down the hill. Again having a thicker rope will be nice for something to hold however I didn't see anywhere to anchor it. I will let you know what I do, the plan is to hike it the 27th or 28th of this month. Hope all plans go well!
 
wes242 said:
You will need a rope to lower your pack down the crack. I took a long skinny rope and it sucked pulling up the packs. I will take something thicker this time. And as for Hamblin, it is a little a bit scary. After my wife and I went down it we changed out plans on what we were going to do cause we didn't want to climb back up it. We tied our packs on the rope and rolled them down the hill. Again having a thicker rope will be nice for something to hold however I didn't see anywhere to anchor it. I will let you know what I do, the plan is to hike it the 27th or 28th of this month. Hope all plans go well!
Click to expand...
I'll start in Crack-in-the-Wall and exit in Hamblin Arch. I think that climb up the Hamblin Arch must be easier than go down. What do you think about?
 
thordyy said:
I'll start in Crack-in-the-Wall and exit in Hamblin Arch. I think that climb up the Hamblin Arch must be easier than go down. What do you think about?
Click to expand...

Up is usually easier than down, but I don't know about that exit so I can't really say. Don't forget to come back and post some pictures from your trip! :)
 
When we were heading down it we passed a group of guys that just came up it.... and they said "sorry for the mess we left on the trail cause we crapped our pants coming up that" of course it was just a "mental mess" but had us a bit concerned. I would really hate to climb up that with a big pack on though.
Here you can see a little of what it was like going down.

 
So... its and EASY 4 miles from chimney rock to Jacob Hamblin and 3 of the 4 are really pretty.
How far it it from the rib exit at Jacob Hamblin to the car park?
 
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