Silver Falls, Choprock Canyon, Neon Canyon, Escalante River Loop

Joey

walking somewhere
Joined
Apr 1, 2014
Messages
878
This is a 4 day backpacking trip I did a few days ago with @Bob . We started at the Silver Falls trailhead, hiked down to the Escalante River, then up Choprock Canyon and around to the truck. Here is a trip video:


Here is our route: Click here to view on CalTopo
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We drove down Thursday night, and camped at the Silver Falls trailhead. We set out down Silver Falls Creek early the next morning.
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Lots of petrified wood. Bob tried to put this piece in his pack:
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After the north fork junction, the canyon starts to narrow up a little.
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The Hobbs inscription, which is near a beautiful undercut:
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We found a neat mudroglyph dating back to approximately 2014AD. Bob says its a skin walker.
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We continued on down the canyon.
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We reached the Escalante River in the early afternoon. We followed it down to where Harris Wash dumps in.
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We set up camp near the river, took a short nap, and then hiked up Harris Wash a short ways.
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Back at camp, we went to bed before dark.
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Day 2 we headed down the Escalante River. We got a late start, maybe around 11am.
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At the mouth of Choprock Canyon, we took a short break. Then we dropped our packs, and headed down to Neon Canyon.
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We headed up Neon.
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We reached the Golden Cathedral. I was surprised that nobody was there on a Saturday evening. Maybe because of the lighting? Anyways, it was cool to be there alone.
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After a while, we headed back down the canyon.
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We surprised a turkey when we reached the river.
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We checked out the petroglyph panel near the mouth of Neon Canyon.
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The sun was going down, and the river drainage was beautiful.
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It was dark by the time we made it back to our packs. We set up camp in the moonlight. Camped in a Cottonwood forest that was blooming, my allergies kicked in bad. I struggled with them the rest of the trip.

Day 3, 2 people with pack rafts came down from Choprock Canyon, and put in the river. These were the only people we saw on our trip.
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A good shot of Bob at camp.
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Me crossing the river.
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Heading up Choprock Canyon.
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We dropped our packs and headed up the South Fork of Choprock. You can walk it a short distance before reaching a dryfall. Its a beautiful canyon, and above is a popular technical route.
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We went back to get our packs, and headed up the main fork of Choprock. There is a really nice section of narrows here.
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Soon the canyon opens a little bit, but its still beautiful. There are a few good campsites in here.
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We reached the junction with the North Fork (poison ivy fork). We hiked up a short distance, where we reached a very large and beautiful alcove.
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We briefly attempted to continue up canyon, but it was pretty thick with vegetation so we decided to stop. We took a break for a few hours, to let the sun go down a bit. The rest of Choprock is pretty open, dry, and hot. We started hiking again around 5pm.
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Bob:
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Our camp night 3:
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Day 4 we started a little earlier, trying to beat the heat. That only lasted a short while.
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Looking back at the beginning of Choprock:
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From here we followed the old mining road around the Silver Falls Bench, back to the truck.
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The end.

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Last edited:

Bob

Trailmaster
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Mar 3, 2013
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Nice pics Joey....... you make me look like I am always ahead of you hiking........but you were pushing me along.... :sneaky:
 

steve

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Dec 11, 2013
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did it look like the packrafters had enough water to enjoy the escalante? Or is it still too low?
 

Bob

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Low, two put in at Choprock and promptly hit bottom not to far away from us.
 

steve

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Dec 11, 2013
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Thanks. Packrafting the escalante is on my list this year, and i was surprised to hear it was deep enough (which is isn't apparently).
 

Bob

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Thanks. Packrafting the escalante is on my list this year, and i was surprised to hear it was deep enough (which is isn't apparently).
There are a lot deeper spots, most of what we crossed was half way to the knee, a lot of riffles. I wouldn't go this year but others are... most in the stretch I saw I would drag in my plastic kayak...
 

Joey

walking somewhere
Joined
Apr 1, 2014
Messages
878
Thanks. Packrafting the escalante is on my list this year, and i was surprised to hear it was deep enough (which is isn't apparently).
That's a low spot where they put in. One guy seemed to know the area, and what he was doing. He was helping out the second guy. My guess is you can do it, but may have a few spots where you scrape the bottom.

I'm also not a pack rafter (yet), so I don't really know how deep you need the water to be. But if I had my inner tube with me, I would have used it to float down stream.
 

Ben

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Sep 12, 2014
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I've read about it being done before, but it's my understanding that it's very dependent on hitting it the right time in the year. Sounds like this might not be a good year for it at all.
 

Bob

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I am a star ...... :geek:
Don't believe it for a minute.....I needed to stop early for my dinner and sleep :moses: but Joey kept going and going.......... :frantic:
 

Nick

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Joined
Aug 9, 2007
Messages
12,940
Nice work on the video. That @Bob guy sure does talk a lot.

Those Choprock narrows look so nice. How far past the narrows did the water run dry? Did you run into any at all past there? Did you have to dry camp that last night? And last question, what dates did you guys do this? Mid or late March?
 

Vegan.Hiker

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Jul 5, 2014
Messages
2,099
Nice vid Joey. This is probably a really stupid question, but that's never stopped me before. The sign for the Hobbs inscription says it was "chopped into the rock". Is that why they call it Choprock canyon?
 

Artemus

I walk
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Jun 25, 2012
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4,427
Great tour gentlemen. Thanks for taking us along. Did you have a dry camp that third night?
 

Joey

walking somewhere
Joined
Apr 1, 2014
Messages
878
Nice vid Joey. This is probably a really stupid question, but that's never stopped me before. The sign for the Hobbs inscription says it was "chopped into the rock". Is that why they call it Choprock canyon?
The Hobbs inscription is in Silver Falls Canyon, not in Choprock. I believe he used his axe to chop the inscription. I feel like I've read somewhere that Choprock gets its name from a large rock above the canyon that looks like its chopped. But I can't remember.
 

Joey

walking somewhere
Joined
Apr 1, 2014
Messages
878
Nice work on the video. That @Bob guy sure does talk a lot.

Those Choprock narrows look so nice. How far past the narrows did the water run dry? Did you run into any at all past there? Did you have to dry camp that last night? And last question, what dates did you guys do this? Mid or late March?
:) Bob actually does talk a lot, and he's pretty funny. His personality (along with his knowledge and experience) make these trips very enjoyable. I'd hike with him anytime. :)

We did this trip at the end of March. There is water for at least a mile above the narrows, up until the Poison Ivey Fork (also called the North Fork). We also found running water in the Poison Ivey Fork. Above that, things get pretty dry. We ran across a few scarce pools hiking around the Silver Falls Bench. But nothing I would depend on. I remember finding some pools in May of 2014 when I went up that way as well. But its really dry.
 

Nick

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Aug 9, 2007
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I wasn't actually suggesting that he doesn't talk a lot in person, or anything else. I was just trying to be funny because we don't hear him much in your video. I've never met him so I was looking forward to some Bob-isms. :)

Thanks for the intel on the water. I've had this one on my list for a long time.
 
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