Need some Death Hollow tips

Tyler

Tyler

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Jan 18, 2012
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I'm prepping to do it the last weekend in June, leaving early Friday morning (like 6am) and hoping to be on the trail no later than noon from the Boulder Air strip. We will have a vehicle shuttle. Does anyone see it being possible at being able to get into Death Hollow (via the Boulder Mail Trail) before sunset Friday night? It will be all adults in relatively good shape.

Our goal is to get out either late Saturday night, or a short jaunt out getting us back to either the sneak route (micro DH) or back to the bridge. Also, are fires allowed?
 
You can totally get to Death Hollow that first day. It's about 7 miles but not too difficult. The killer will be the heat. Pack tons of water since you're starting so late. It could seriously be a problem. Not a lot of shade out there and hot hot hot that time of year.

So do I understand correct that you're basically doing it as an overnighter? Not ideal, in my opinion. From the drop in to the Escalante is a good hike with plenty to see and explore. Probably 7 more miles that day just to get down to near the Escalante and it's not exactly fast hiking. Two nights in DH would be well worth it. Sure, you could get up early and slam it all out, but it kind of defeats the point of being in such a place, in my opinion. If you just have the two days, I'd look at other options.

Fires are not allowed below the rim of any Escalante canyons.
 
Yeah, it does look like we are trying to cram this into an over-nighter. We're faced with the fact that we have to get someone back to SLC airport Sunday afternoon (I think around 4-5pm) so if we did 2 nights we would have to be leaving back to our vehicles by 9-10am on Sunday morning which would put us camping just a few miles outside the canyon.

How many miles does the sneak route out of Micro DH take off the full route? Anyone ever done that?
 
It's about 7 miles from the Escalante-DH confluence to the Hwy 12 bridge. I'd guess it's maybe 2 miles from that same spot to the sneak route trailhead but I've never done it so I'm just kind of guessing. The sun is up pretty early this time of year so an early start and heading out to the bridge by 10am would probably be pretty easy. Definitely better to smash that out fast than the core of Death Hollow. There are decent trails to follow for most of that 7 miles.
 
Awesome. Thanks for the info Nick. I'm assuming there are many areas to find campsites in DH? What about filtering water? Any springs, or did you just pull right from the watercourse?
 
Campsites aren't abundant in the lower canyon because it narrows up pretty good. There's a big one right at the confluence with the Escalante and plenty on the Escalante on the hike out. I'll PM you some info on that.

There are probably some springs here in there. I think one up Mamie Creek. But plan on filtering out of the watercourse. The water is generally very clean and clear. Steripen-worthy, IMO.
 
3 days is barely enough to really take advantage, Nick is right. DH is magical. My favorite place to camp is just above the narrows on a bench. Big flat spot, and great swimming holes upstream and downstream. I have hiked to that spot from the Boulder airstrip in a day and camped, and hiked out the next but it felt way too rushed.
Other than the alcove site closer to the Escalante confluence, and the big one in the pines where the BMT hits the canyon bottom, there aren't a whole lot of places to camp that I recall, especially with a group. Never been in there that late, early June was good in DH with the cold water. Escalante was a hot slog but still awesome.
 
Start at the top of DH on the Hells Backbone road........do the entire death hollow to the escalante. Check out the big pool up Maime Crk
 
These guys are right about DH being magical. I wasn't expecting it to draw me in the way it has. I have made 3 trips to there in the past month. If you don't have a lot of time the Upper and Lower Box right outside of town are amazing! Should be pretty cool as well, its mostly shaded.
 
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