neiloro
Member
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2012
- Messages
- 104
My wife, seven friends, and I headed down to Escalante for Memorial Day weekend. We had some seasoned hikers, and some complete noobs, so we wanted an easy hike in to a basecamp, from where we could leisurely explore. Inspired by @Nick's report on Fiftymile from earlier in May, we decided to head there. We had the canyon entirely to ourselves on Memorial Day, and it was perfect.
We parked in the wash and hiked in. At the point where you have to scramble to get into the canyon, we decided to go back upstream and explore the part we had bypassed.
Some of the group stemming for the first time in their lives.
At the end there's a dryfall - the obstacle that forces you to bypass the canyon in the first place.
A little further down is a serious "yoni" on the left, looking down canyon.
After a few miles we got to the riparian area Nick described, where the cottonwoods were all growing in a perfect row.
And that was just before we got to the arch and alcove, where we'd camp.
I don't have the best lens for it, but I gave some night photography of the arch a shot.
There are some nice pictographs right there, under the arch.
At night the datura all flowered.
The next day we all slept in, and then headed down the canyon, towards Lake Powell. We knew the water was low (3597 ft or so), and hoped we'd be able to get all the way to the water. Nick had said the quicksand was bad towards the end, and so he had turned around. There was a nice slot coming in from the left LDC though, and we wanted to see if we could get to that.
An hour or two down the canyon those of us who had avoided water, could do so no longer:
The beaver dam.
There were a couple of these nice alcoves. This was the first one.
A couple more shots from within that same alcove.
Then we came to the Lake Powell Bathtub Rings.
Sweet details.
The second spectacular alcove has a great sitting-log in it.
This was where Nick had turned around, because of deep mud/quicksand. We found that if we stuck to the part of the streambed where the water was flowing the most, the silt kept it pretty hard. Following the canyon wall also helped, as the dirt was driest there.
We were eager to see if we could reach the slot coming in from the left a bit further. Turns out you can't get into it, as you are greeted with a high dryfall. Maybe in really high water?
For scale.
A couple bends later, and we were at the lake. We thought about going for a swim, but then remembered that people recommend pregnant women don't swim in Lake Powell, due to the pollution, and decided against it.
At that point, we turned around. Here are some artsy shots I took on the way out.
This is the mud we had to contend with.
My friend built this on our way out.
The light was better in these narrows on the way out.
This was the deep spot, where it got to your waist. Some people found it really slippery too.
We found some orchids in a hanging garden. I saw young ones without flower stalks yet along the streambed. They'll be out in a month or so.
We camped out a second night in the same spot, in the alcove under the arch, and then headed out the next day.
There's some more art just upstream of the bend where the arch is.
Grand views.
And wildlife - a baby king snake.
In sight of the cars.
We figured we'd hit Spooky and Peek-A-Boo that day (Sunday of Memorial Weekend). We'd had Fiftymile Creek all to ourselves, and figured that would be a great way to top it off. No such luck. They had a volunteer there with a radio. Apparently there were 64 cars at the trailhead, and we would have had to park a mile from the trailhead, and walk in. For Peek-A-Boo and Spooky? None of us wanted to crawl over other hikers in the slot, so we opted to hit Upper Calf Creek Falls instead, but that is another story for another day.
Featured image for home page:
We parked in the wash and hiked in. At the point where you have to scramble to get into the canyon, we decided to go back upstream and explore the part we had bypassed.
Some of the group stemming for the first time in their lives.
At the end there's a dryfall - the obstacle that forces you to bypass the canyon in the first place.
A little further down is a serious "yoni" on the left, looking down canyon.
After a few miles we got to the riparian area Nick described, where the cottonwoods were all growing in a perfect row.
And that was just before we got to the arch and alcove, where we'd camp.
I don't have the best lens for it, but I gave some night photography of the arch a shot.
There are some nice pictographs right there, under the arch.
At night the datura all flowered.
The next day we all slept in, and then headed down the canyon, towards Lake Powell. We knew the water was low (3597 ft or so), and hoped we'd be able to get all the way to the water. Nick had said the quicksand was bad towards the end, and so he had turned around. There was a nice slot coming in from the left LDC though, and we wanted to see if we could get to that.
An hour or two down the canyon those of us who had avoided water, could do so no longer:
The beaver dam.
There were a couple of these nice alcoves. This was the first one.
A couple more shots from within that same alcove.
Then we came to the Lake Powell Bathtub Rings.
Sweet details.
The second spectacular alcove has a great sitting-log in it.
This was where Nick had turned around, because of deep mud/quicksand. We found that if we stuck to the part of the streambed where the water was flowing the most, the silt kept it pretty hard. Following the canyon wall also helped, as the dirt was driest there.
We were eager to see if we could reach the slot coming in from the left a bit further. Turns out you can't get into it, as you are greeted with a high dryfall. Maybe in really high water?
For scale.
A couple bends later, and we were at the lake. We thought about going for a swim, but then remembered that people recommend pregnant women don't swim in Lake Powell, due to the pollution, and decided against it.
At that point, we turned around. Here are some artsy shots I took on the way out.
This is the mud we had to contend with.
My friend built this on our way out.
The light was better in these narrows on the way out.
This was the deep spot, where it got to your waist. Some people found it really slippery too.
We found some orchids in a hanging garden. I saw young ones without flower stalks yet along the streambed. They'll be out in a month or so.
We camped out a second night in the same spot, in the alcove under the arch, and then headed out the next day.
There's some more art just upstream of the bend where the arch is.
Grand views.
And wildlife - a baby king snake.
In sight of the cars.
We figured we'd hit Spooky and Peek-A-Boo that day (Sunday of Memorial Weekend). We'd had Fiftymile Creek all to ourselves, and figured that would be a great way to top it off. No such luck. They had a volunteer there with a radio. Apparently there were 64 cars at the trailhead, and we would have had to park a mile from the trailhead, and walk in. For Peek-A-Boo and Spooky? None of us wanted to crawl over other hikers in the slot, so we opted to hit Upper Calf Creek Falls instead, but that is another story for another day.
Featured image for home page:
Glad you got in in while the water was low though. 
