davidfinger
Member
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2023
- Messages
- 8
This trip started almost a year before we actually set out for the Maze. In April 2022, I joined my parents on a road trip through the national parks of southern Utah. On our drive from Capitol Reef to Moab, we decided to swing by Island in the Sky. Something about the view captured me, and as soon as we got out of the car at Grandview Point, I was making plans for a trip to the Maze. Soon enough, I was digging into the amazing Maze trip reports on this very website and trying to convince some friends that it would be fun to carry 10 lbs of water around the desert for a few days.
I’m from New York and barely drive, so I didn’t feel great about trying to get a 4x4 in and out of the Maze. So, in February of this year we grabbed permits and emailed Tex’s to set up a shuttle. We knew April would be prime time for us, and we planned the trip around the new moon to maximize star gazing potential.
As our departure date approached, we were balancing our excitement with trepidation about the challenge of desert travel – apart from a 4 day trip in the Grand Canyon I took a few years ago, none of the three of us had much experience backpacking in the desert. Little did we know that just getting to Salt Lake City would be among our toughest trials! But, after 9 hours of flight delays, a canceled flight and a lost pack we finally made it to Tex’s at 7 am Monday morning. Two (extremely cold!) hours later, we were at Spanish Bottom – exhausted, windblown, but excited.
Put in at Potash
Drop off at Spanish Bottom
Our pickup from Spanish Bottom was set for Thursday at 10am. Before that, we would cover about 40 miles: first, up from Spanish Bottom to the Dollhouse, then across main flat to Sandtank Canyon where we would camp the first night amongst the fins. The next day, we’d backtrack to Sweet Alice Canyon, ascend the canyon up to the Land of Standing Rocks, descend into the Maze proper via the Plug route, and camp somewhere in Pictograph Fork. The third day, we’d take in the Harvest Panel, drop our packs and head up to the Maze Overlook, then camp along Jasper Ridge – as close as we could get to the road on our at large permit. Thursday morning, we’d break camp early and bolt back down to Spanish Bottom for our pickup. Easy peasy.
Almost as soon as we started climbing up from Spanish Bottom, we were as hot as we had been cold on the boat. Quickly gaining 1000 ft over the course of a mile, the trail up from the Dollhouse made it immediately clear that hiking the Maze is not a joke.
View attachment 121075
Clambering into the Dollhouse is an immediate reward: being dwarfed by the weird, carved spires feels like being on another planet.
We made our way down the road to Dollhouse 3 and turned left to start our trek across Main Flat towards Ernie’s Country.
We made a quick stop at the Bear Panel and grabbed some lunch.
Working across Main Flat is a bonafide slog – the scenery is stark and the wind was howling. None of us had really accounted for how much harder it is to walk in deep sand than on slickrock or dirt. Given all the travel hiccups, we were also running on not much sleep, and morale had dipped significantly by the time we made it to Sandtank. We dropped our packs close to the mouth of the canyon and set out to look for a drinkable pothole. We didn’t need to go far before we found water. The muddiness offended our east coast sensibilities, but it sure beat not drinking! We lugged our water back to our packs and set up camp for the night.
We woke up excited for day 2. After a leisurely morning, we broke camp and backtracked toward Sweet Alice. Making our way into the canyon was lovely in the morning – the sand was firm, the wind was mellow, and the weather was still cool.
The route up and out of the canyon was better cairned than expected, and had some fun scrambling.
As we reached the top, we got our first full view of the Land of Standing Rocks.
We worked our way towards the road, making our way toward the Plug.
The wind was intense, so we immediately started our descent down the Plug route.
. 
Half an hour later, we were on the floor of Pictograph Fork, and took a break for lunch. All of the work for the day was behind us at this point – just needed to make a few miles, fill up on water, and find a place to sleep. Finding a campsite was easier said than done – the wind was strong enough in the first two spots we tried to pull stakes out of the sand and send our tents flying down the canyon. Eventually we found a sheltered side canyon that got us out of the wind and settled in for the night.
The third morning was cloudy – perfect for our first activity: a stop at the Harvest Scene. The Harvest Scene was one of the things I was most excited to see, and surpassed my expectations. It's a tremendous experience -- hard to find the words to adequately describe it.
After we’d spent our time with the pictographs, we made our way to the mouth of Picto Fork. We dropped our packs and set out for a side trip up to the Maze Overlook. We’d been warned by a couple we passed on our way to the overlook trail that the route was “crazy.”Without packs, we found it pretty doable, but with full packs I think it would be much less fun.
The sky was in constant motion on our climb up – it even snowed for a few minutes.
The views from the Overlook are outstanding – well worth the scramble.
We made our way back down and loaded up on water. This was the last water we’d see until we hit the river the next morning, so we all ended up with a ton of water weight on our backs. We made quick work of the route up to Jasper Ridge and took in some views.
Ran into a couple of bighorns up on the ridge!
The views from Jasper Ridge are amazing, and we managed to find a campsite that was sheltered from the wind.
We headed to bed early, knowing we’d be trying to get out of camp early in order to finish the last seven miles back to Spanish Bottom by 10 am. The next morning, we left well before sunrise, hiking under a blazing Milky Way.
Sunrise over Chimney Rock
Amazing morning light in the Dollhouse
We made it back down to the river by 9am (whoops) and had time to make a cup of tea and relax in the shade while we waited for the jetboat. This was an amazing first trip to the Maze – it made me so excited to come back for more. On the jetboat back we immediately started scheming about a packraft/backpack trip next year. Big thanks to all the members of Backcountry Post for the amazing trip reports that made this one possible!
I’m from New York and barely drive, so I didn’t feel great about trying to get a 4x4 in and out of the Maze. So, in February of this year we grabbed permits and emailed Tex’s to set up a shuttle. We knew April would be prime time for us, and we planned the trip around the new moon to maximize star gazing potential.
As our departure date approached, we were balancing our excitement with trepidation about the challenge of desert travel – apart from a 4 day trip in the Grand Canyon I took a few years ago, none of the three of us had much experience backpacking in the desert. Little did we know that just getting to Salt Lake City would be among our toughest trials! But, after 9 hours of flight delays, a canceled flight and a lost pack we finally made it to Tex’s at 7 am Monday morning. Two (extremely cold!) hours later, we were at Spanish Bottom – exhausted, windblown, but excited.
Put in at Potash
Drop off at Spanish Bottom
Our pickup from Spanish Bottom was set for Thursday at 10am. Before that, we would cover about 40 miles: first, up from Spanish Bottom to the Dollhouse, then across main flat to Sandtank Canyon where we would camp the first night amongst the fins. The next day, we’d backtrack to Sweet Alice Canyon, ascend the canyon up to the Land of Standing Rocks, descend into the Maze proper via the Plug route, and camp somewhere in Pictograph Fork. The third day, we’d take in the Harvest Panel, drop our packs and head up to the Maze Overlook, then camp along Jasper Ridge – as close as we could get to the road on our at large permit. Thursday morning, we’d break camp early and bolt back down to Spanish Bottom for our pickup. Easy peasy.
Almost as soon as we started climbing up from Spanish Bottom, we were as hot as we had been cold on the boat. Quickly gaining 1000 ft over the course of a mile, the trail up from the Dollhouse made it immediately clear that hiking the Maze is not a joke.
View attachment 121075
Clambering into the Dollhouse is an immediate reward: being dwarfed by the weird, carved spires feels like being on another planet.
We made our way down the road to Dollhouse 3 and turned left to start our trek across Main Flat towards Ernie’s Country.
We made a quick stop at the Bear Panel and grabbed some lunch.
Working across Main Flat is a bonafide slog – the scenery is stark and the wind was howling. None of us had really accounted for how much harder it is to walk in deep sand than on slickrock or dirt. Given all the travel hiccups, we were also running on not much sleep, and morale had dipped significantly by the time we made it to Sandtank. We dropped our packs close to the mouth of the canyon and set out to look for a drinkable pothole. We didn’t need to go far before we found water. The muddiness offended our east coast sensibilities, but it sure beat not drinking! We lugged our water back to our packs and set up camp for the night.
We woke up excited for day 2. After a leisurely morning, we broke camp and backtracked toward Sweet Alice. Making our way into the canyon was lovely in the morning – the sand was firm, the wind was mellow, and the weather was still cool.
The route up and out of the canyon was better cairned than expected, and had some fun scrambling.
As we reached the top, we got our first full view of the Land of Standing Rocks.
We worked our way towards the road, making our way toward the Plug.
The wind was intense, so we immediately started our descent down the Plug route.
. Half an hour later, we were on the floor of Pictograph Fork, and took a break for lunch. All of the work for the day was behind us at this point – just needed to make a few miles, fill up on water, and find a place to sleep. Finding a campsite was easier said than done – the wind was strong enough in the first two spots we tried to pull stakes out of the sand and send our tents flying down the canyon. Eventually we found a sheltered side canyon that got us out of the wind and settled in for the night.
The third morning was cloudy – perfect for our first activity: a stop at the Harvest Scene. The Harvest Scene was one of the things I was most excited to see, and surpassed my expectations. It's a tremendous experience -- hard to find the words to adequately describe it.
After we’d spent our time with the pictographs, we made our way to the mouth of Picto Fork. We dropped our packs and set out for a side trip up to the Maze Overlook. We’d been warned by a couple we passed on our way to the overlook trail that the route was “crazy.”Without packs, we found it pretty doable, but with full packs I think it would be much less fun.
The sky was in constant motion on our climb up – it even snowed for a few minutes.
The views from the Overlook are outstanding – well worth the scramble.
We made our way back down and loaded up on water. This was the last water we’d see until we hit the river the next morning, so we all ended up with a ton of water weight on our backs. We made quick work of the route up to Jasper Ridge and took in some views.
Ran into a couple of bighorns up on the ridge!
The views from Jasper Ridge are amazing, and we managed to find a campsite that was sheltered from the wind.
We headed to bed early, knowing we’d be trying to get out of camp early in order to finish the last seven miles back to Spanish Bottom by 10 am. The next morning, we left well before sunrise, hiking under a blazing Milky Way.
Sunrise over Chimney Rock
Amazing morning light in the Dollhouse
We made it back down to the river by 9am (whoops) and had time to make a cup of tea and relax in the shade while we waited for the jetboat. This was an amazing first trip to the Maze – it made me so excited to come back for more. On the jetboat back we immediately started scheming about a packraft/backpack trip next year. Big thanks to all the members of Backcountry Post for the amazing trip reports that made this one possible!
