Part 2. BMT - Death Hollow - Escalante River

[BJett]

Day 3. Down Death Hollow to the Escalante River.

Typical Death Hollow as you near the narrows

Closing in on the narrows...

Max is pooped

Narrows

The crux. Low water is your friend here.

Monkeyflower and Max

Death Hollow on the right, Escalante "River" on the left.

Escalante River

Escalante Arch

Granary along the Escalante

Western Wallflower

Claret Cup

Primrose camp

Globemallow

Cheers!

Featured image for home page:

 

[Nick]

Awesome reports, Brandon. One of my favorite places. Where I really fell in love with backpacking and the desert. I'm overdue for a return.

 

[BJett]

Top down next year!

 

[Tres Westbrook]

Beautiful photos and great report. It's like an oasis tucked tucked into a gorgeous canyon. Looks like Max and friends had a fun time.

 

[BJett]

Max slept for 2 days when he finally got home. His favorite parts were the cabins and the lodge.

 

[WasatchWill]

Awesome awesome photos and TR. I've wanted to check out the Escalante from the town itself down to Highway 12, but Death Hollow looks like a must as well. Can't believe how low the Escalante is looking there in your photos.

 

[BretX]

Beautiful pics and great report. A hike I wish to complete sometime soon. Thanks!

 

[Ben]

very nice picture

 

[Bob]

What ......... no poision ivy in your pictures !!!!

How long did you take to get to the Escalante River.

 

[BJett]

Ashley got it the worst, the rest of us escaped with only a few itchy bumps. It was still early, wasn't too bad. I've seen it much worse.
We took 3 days, 2 nights to get to our camp on the Escalante. Worked out great for the first timers, glad we slowed it down.

 

[Bob]

Yeah, Not many leaves on the ivy. But it was starting to bud out, that's a potent time for it with all the new sap. Later it kinda goes dormant on the sap production. I got a stripe about 1 -2 inches long, looks like a cut so musta hit a bud on the stem. The gray stems looked like all the weed stems..kinda made spotting it hard.

DH is interesting, top half is different from the bottom....probably my favorite canyon trip in SUtah.
Three days down Death Hollow itself or from your start on the BMT...

 

[BJett]

3 full days from the BMT to the Escalante. Side trip to Mamie on day 2.
Next year I'm doing the top half down. I need to see the entire canyon, I've been through the lower 5 times now.
How much rope is necessary?

 

[Bob]

Can probably do no rope. I think we lowered packs once just because, 20ft ample..... Joey was the only one with flotation. I just filled empty Platypus bottles with air and semi inflated my Neoair....left pack on back and swam, pack floated up off back making a lighter load..... thought that was easy. About 8 swims, but I talked with a buddy about when we did it 10 year ago and we only remember the one swim.....so, canyons change... All the swimming is below the Right Fork confluence.

 

[Joey]

About 8 swims, but I talked with a buddy about when we did it 10 year ago and we only remember the one swim.....so, canyons change... All the swimming is below the Right Fork confluence.

LOL, yeah that all depends. I did it a second time 3 weeks later and all the narrows were swimmers. One section was about 30 minutes of swimming with only a few places to get out of the water and no escape from the actual narrows. And the water temperature was much colder.

There are basically 3 areas of narrows that could result in swimming.

The first narrows start about 1 mile before the junction with the right fork of death hollow. You can skip this entirely by climbing up to the rim on the north side. There is a good trail there, and it takes you along the ridge between the main canyon and right fork. You want to drop into the right fork instead of the main fork, since there is a large choke stone in Death Hollow right before the junction.

The second set of narrows start right below the junction with the right fork. There is no getting around this that I'm aware of. We walked most of this stretch the first week of May, and I swam/floated this entire stretch a few days ago. Its fun in warm, sunny weather. I had to climb out and start an emergency fire last week.

At the end of the 2nd set of narrows, you can bypass a pour off by climbing to your left. Next up is a large pool, and then several swims that bob is referring to in his post. I had to swim/float these sections on both trips. The swims last until about 1/2 mile below sulpher spring. After that there could be a few small swims, but they are avoidable by climbing up through poison ivy.

 

[Artemus]

Its fun in warm, sunny weather. I had to climb out and start an emergency fire last week.

Since I know Joey and was hypothermic on his May trip I know it was really, really cold if he had to stop and light a fire to warm.