Hello All. I wanted to thank this forum for helping me to plan a wonderful trip with my son recently. We started at The Gulch TH and ended at the Highway 12 bridge. Six days of glorious slickrock walking, planned to mostly avoid the canyons and begin and end at paved THs due to all the recent flooding.
I don't have a lot of pics to share, but I thought I'd give an overview of where we went and what we saw given all the recent water in the area.
We started on Oct 15 (I think) after delaying our start date by 24 hours to let flood waters settle. The night before the trip, we stayed in Torrey and awoke to cool temps and wind and snow in the hills to the north of town. We soldiered on (through some highway snow on Boulder Mt) to The Gulch TH where there was no snow whatsoever. Parking at the hairpin, we scrambled up the cliffy area to the slickrock above and west of the Gulch itself. It was great rambling up there with nice views in all directions. Cold and windy and overcast. Water water everywhere! That was special. We worked our way SW on Steve Allens route, camping in a protected area just before entering the main slickrock expanse. Next day we rambled over to Boulder Ck, climbing a couple slickrock peaks along the way. Just glorious. Found another nice protected site in the 'Tanks' drainage not too far from where it joins Boulder Ck. It was a windy night and shelter was key.
Next morning, we headed across the Bringham Tea Bench. Dropped into the Lower Gulch about a mile up from its confluence with the Escalante River. The Lower Gulch was a mess of flood debris and quicksand - and pretty slow going even for such a short distance. I had just been there in May and it was very interesting to see how different it was. The Escalante itself was extremely turbid and moving fast, but not terribly high and with a firm substrate. We crossed and re-crossed multiple times on our way to camp on the far side near the 'moqui ladder' exit. I had camped on a gorgeous sandbar there in early May and it was now completely obliterated by debris and scoured by flooding. Still, we found a workable campsite late in the day.
We had originally planned to exit out of Wolverine Cyn, but decided not to risk it in there with the weather. So we hit the sandy trail that leads to the end of the Spencer Flat Rd. Walked W on Spencer Flat Rd to the top of Phipps, dropped down Phipps, climbed the Arch and camped. Phipps had clearly been flooding over the recent weeks, but was easy going and no quicksand.
On our final day, we traveled up the Escalante River in a good drizzle and exited at the bridge - where the water was clear and barely calf deep! Within about 36 hours (Oct 22), it was almost as high as the bridge!
It was a very fun and relaxed trip. Made all the more special by sharing it with my son. And by the weather and the super-abundance of water. What a place! Again, my thanks this fabulous forum for your generosity and knowledge.
I don't have a lot of pics to share, but I thought I'd give an overview of where we went and what we saw given all the recent water in the area.
We started on Oct 15 (I think) after delaying our start date by 24 hours to let flood waters settle. The night before the trip, we stayed in Torrey and awoke to cool temps and wind and snow in the hills to the north of town. We soldiered on (through some highway snow on Boulder Mt) to The Gulch TH where there was no snow whatsoever. Parking at the hairpin, we scrambled up the cliffy area to the slickrock above and west of the Gulch itself. It was great rambling up there with nice views in all directions. Cold and windy and overcast. Water water everywhere! That was special. We worked our way SW on Steve Allens route, camping in a protected area just before entering the main slickrock expanse. Next day we rambled over to Boulder Ck, climbing a couple slickrock peaks along the way. Just glorious. Found another nice protected site in the 'Tanks' drainage not too far from where it joins Boulder Ck. It was a windy night and shelter was key.
Next morning, we headed across the Bringham Tea Bench. Dropped into the Lower Gulch about a mile up from its confluence with the Escalante River. The Lower Gulch was a mess of flood debris and quicksand - and pretty slow going even for such a short distance. I had just been there in May and it was very interesting to see how different it was. The Escalante itself was extremely turbid and moving fast, but not terribly high and with a firm substrate. We crossed and re-crossed multiple times on our way to camp on the far side near the 'moqui ladder' exit. I had camped on a gorgeous sandbar there in early May and it was now completely obliterated by debris and scoured by flooding. Still, we found a workable campsite late in the day.
We had originally planned to exit out of Wolverine Cyn, but decided not to risk it in there with the weather. So we hit the sandy trail that leads to the end of the Spencer Flat Rd. Walked W on Spencer Flat Rd to the top of Phipps, dropped down Phipps, climbed the Arch and camped. Phipps had clearly been flooding over the recent weeks, but was easy going and no quicksand.
On our final day, we traveled up the Escalante River in a good drizzle and exited at the bridge - where the water was clear and barely calf deep! Within about 36 hours (Oct 22), it was almost as high as the bridge!
It was a very fun and relaxed trip. Made all the more special by sharing it with my son. And by the weather and the super-abundance of water. What a place! Again, my thanks this fabulous forum for your generosity and knowledge.
