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| Soft-Serve Hoodoos |
The Drive from Zion to the town of Escalante is pretty
spectacular.
Our base camp here is the
Shooting Star V Resort/Drive-in/Airstream Motel. We read about this place during the
incubation period of our nomad lifestyle and now after almost four years the
stars have finally hit the bulls eye.
The original developer dreamed of an Airstream only RV Park with an Airstream
Motel renting vintage trailers decorated as luxury movie star on-set trailers
and a drive-in movie theatre screening classic films nightly with classic car
seating.
He built it but they didn’t
come.
In 2014 the park was sold to the
current owners.
Our host Troy is super friendly and has lots of information
about the area. With only word of mouth advertising, the Airstream Motel is
fully booked the ten days we’re here. In
fact they just purchased another vintage trailer and plan to add an Elvis
Airstream to the collection. Movie night
is now only Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
You can rent a classic car to sit in or just bring a lawn chair. Of course the snack bar is in a renovated
Airstream. The movie is free and snacks are really reasonable. The Airstream only RV Park didn’t work out,
so it is open to all classes of trailers, RVs and tent camping. We get a spot nestled between two movie star
Airstreams with stunning views. It’s a
great quiet location outside of town.
Just down the road toward the town of Escalante, is the
Escalante Interagency Visitor Center.
Here we get maps and check road conditions.
The BLM Ranger is pretty clear that when we
venture out onto the unpaved roads of the region, we are on our own, self-rescue
is expected, and we need to travel prepared and with plenty of water.
He won’t tell us where to go, but he’ll
gladly answer any questions and give us a map or handout if we ask for it… OK…
this is our first time here…. And… Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM)
spans nearly 2 million acres… and…
it
was the last place in the continental United States to be mapped… “Umm… How
about hiking trails?”
With a big smile
he hands us a map and list of eleven hikes and two scenic drives. A beginner’s
guide to the GSENM Perfect!
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Undaunted
The Descent! |
We also stop at the
Hole in The Rock Escalante HeritageCenter and learn about the Mormon pioneer project to forge a short cut through
Escalante to the isolated San Juan region in southeastern Utah. 236 folks dragged
all of their personal belongings in wagons across the mesa and camped in the
desert for six weeks. The men blasted a notch in the cliff a few miles away and
built a trail a mile long with a 25 to 45 percent grade, down to the Colorado
River.
One of the pioneers described the
area:
“It’s nothing in the world, but
rocks and holes and hills and hollows.”
The same description applies today.
The hole and the steep trail are still there, accessible from the top at
the end of Hole in the Rock Road, (55 miles of unpaved 2wd high clearance road
– last 5 miles 4wd) or from below by boat from Lake Powell.
There is so much to see and do along the 55 mile, unpaved
2wd high clearance (last 5 miles 4wd)
Holein the Rock Road that we have to make multiple trips to see only a fraction
of the attractions.
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| Dry Fork Gulch |
Our first foray takes us 26 miles out to a turnoff onto a narrow,
muddy, with deep ruts and high banks, dirt road that gets us to the
Dry Fork Narrows Trailhead.
A family in a Range
Rover and a group in a small Honda follow us in.
After we all park, the woman from the Rover
looks at us, then to the Honda, points to her car and says, “Why did I pay $90k
for this?”
We all laugh and head to the
trail.
It’s all down hill to the Dry
Fork Drainage.
It rained the day before
and the canyons are wet and muddy.
We
hike up Dry Fork Gulch until the mud threatens to pull our boots off.
We hear that Peek-a Boo Gulch has a
forty-foot mud pit, which doesn’t sound too appealing.
On the hike back up to the trailhead we
decide to see how far we can get out Hole in the Rock Road.
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| Dance Hall Rock |
The scenery is stunning and the going is slow.
(Lots of rocks, ruts, mud, washboard, and
washes and of course stops to take photos.)
At the
Dance Hall Rock, we get out and explore the area.
We get five miles from the end of the road,
this part is 4wd and the going is slow.
We estimate at least another 45min to an hour to get to the hole in the
rock, which will add 1.5-2 hrs. to this trip.
It’s getting late and the sun will definitely set before we get back to
camp.
We reluctantly turn around.
The sun is going down when we get back into town.
We stop at
The Escalante Outfitters for Pizza
and Brews.
A couple of Polygamy Porters each
(You can’t have just one,) a farmer’s Market Veggie Salad, (spinach, red onion,
goat cheese, and slow roasted tomatoes with house raspberry vinaigrette) and a tasty
King’s Mesa Pizza, (grilled chicken, ham, peperoni, smoked apple wood bacon
& local Italian sausage) finish off our long day of driving and hiking.
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| Arch |
Another day and its 13 miles out Hole in the Rock Road is
the Devil’s Garden. This is a great area
for hiking around hoodoos and under arches.
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| Dino-Hwy |
Just past The Devil’s Garden we turn off on Collet Top Road
and go 2.6 miles. Destination: the Twenty-mile Wash Dinosaur
Mega-trackway. We hike around the area
and check out the slick rock. There are
over 800 dino footprints, so many overlapping that the individual prints are
hard to distinguish.
However, Hole in the Rock Road is just one of many scenic
drives. Actually, just about every road,
paved and unpaved, in this area is a scenic byway.
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| View from Kiva Koffee |
The All American Highway 12 runs from Bryce Canyon to
Capitol Reef National Park. Some of the most spectacular views are between the
towns of Escalante and Boulder, especially over the narrow Hogback, where both
sides of the road have steep drop-offs.
A little gem along this road is the
Kiva Koffee House.
Away from everything this is a great place to
stop for breakfast or lunch, or an espresso or mocha chai and amazing views.
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| Lower Calf Creek Falls |
Trailheads off Hwy 12 lead to some amazing sites.
Best experience: Removing our boots and
soaking our feet at the base of
Lower Calf Creek Falls after a 1.5 mile uphill
trek in 95 degree weather is heaven. A picnic lunch and a nap on the beach and
then the downhill trek back to the parking lot.
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| Box-Death Hollow |
Hell’s Backbone Road is another unpaved byway.
It runs from Highway 12 in the town of
Escalante up Boulder Mountain (9,000 ft) and back to Hwy 12 in Boulder.
Mid-point is the turnoff to Posey Lake.
At 8,800 ft this is a great place to beat the
heat.
The road also passes through Box-Death
Hollow where the Hell’s Backbone Bridge spans 109 feet over a 1,500-foot drop
on both sides of the narrow one lane bridge.
The 38 mile road is narrow, winding and not
for the faint of heart or those with acrophobia.
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| One of many views from Burr Trail |
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Switchback to
Waterpocket Fold |
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| Lake Powell |
The Burr Trail connects the town of Boulder with the Capitol
Reef National Park. Along the way:
sandstone sand dunes, towering red cliffs, golden narrow canyons, a slot
canyon, arches, washes, and creek crossings.
The road is paved for the first
31 miles until we reach the national park where it becomes gravel, after about 4
miles we reach the top of the mile of switchbacks that descend into the
Waterpocket Fold. At the bottom of the switchback, the Road tees south toward the
town of Bullfrog on Lake Powell, north heads up to the Capitol Reef National
Park.
We venture in both directions over
a couple of days.
Lots of hiking trails
and stunning scenery point us to our next destination:
Capitol Reef National Park.
