This park is insanely huge - truly massive weighing in at 7,600 km2 and welcoming 1M visitors a year - it's quite a place.
The name comes from the Escalante river as well as having a scientific
meaning. Utah is all about natural history - the march of time, water and its relentless erosion of sandstone
Much of the state was once submerged under massive lakes (millions of years ago). As the lakes dried and the continental plates rose, ancient lake beds got exposed and began to weather. What remains is a massive "staircase", spanning a drop of 6000ft of altitude as
it descends from North (Torrey) to South (the
highest part of the Grand Canyon in Arizona).
Each
of the five “steps” in the staircase is being eroded, revealing cliffs of amazing colours. You can literally "see" ancient history, laid out, in plain sight, from viewpoints
all over the park.
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| Huge grades and big drop-offs - fun driving! |
There is only one highway that traverses the park in an arc - state
HWY 12 - a scenic route. The drive itself is a thrill - at some points riding a
mountain ridge with steep drop-offs on BOTH SIDES of the HWY with NO SHOULDER - very unusual, and very fun to drive (though hard to keep your eyes on
the road!).
We absolutely loved the drive and stopped at many of its turnouts to ogle the beautiful scenery.
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| Some interesting terrain... |
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| Massive Canyons... Utah... Canyons everywhere! |
Peek-a-boo Canyon
I've been very excited about this hike for well over a year - it's off the beaten track (literally, access is via a terrible, long dirt road) and hugely rewarding. You will not see throngs of people doing it - most are unwilling to do the drive and therefore the canyons are visited only by the heartier lot.
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| Off HWY 12... 1hr each way... don't bring your RV! |
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| Hole in the Rock Road - not for the faint of heart |
The access road ends in a makeshift parking lot for non 4x4 vehicles but the road continues to the actual trailhead for 4x4s. This was an unexpected extra 1.2 miles of hiking for our little ones (each way), so Cheryl decided we should bike it instead - very clever!
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| Biking to the trailhead - deserted wilderness |
The canyons are long and intricate. There are several "pinch points" that will raise the heart rates of claustrophobic hikers - our backpacks were on-and-off a handful of times. The canyon floor is a combination of rock and sand - the walls are a sublime salmon with a smattering of other colours.
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| Mid-descent into the gulch |
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| Starting Peekaboo - not an easy entry |
The canyon's deep-and-narrow configuration makes it a refuge from the sun at most times of day. WE LOVED THIS CANYON!
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| Narrow slots and passages |
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| Peekaboo Cheryl |
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| Manoeuvring |
The Peekaboo is actually quite long... over a mile... it spills out into the open desert... where a path marked only with infrequent cairns connects it to the Spooky slot canyon - we did them both.
The Spooky Slot Canyon
Of the handful of other hikers we encountered, 2 groups noted they started the Spooky canyon but bailed when it got too intense and circled back through the Peekaboo again - we finished both.
Spooky owes its name and intensity to sections of very narrow passage ways (some not as wide as your foot on the floor) as well as a couple of long drop (steep) descents. We were able to tackle all of these features. DO NOT attempt Spooky if there's even a slight chance of rain - it'll fill up fast and the passages are too narrow to float through - you'll get injured almost for sure.
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| Open desert between the canyons |
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| A Spooky obstacle |
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| Shelves to descend |
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| Mini arches |
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| Working the narrow passages |
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| Vertical drops |
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| Exiting the canyon |
We can't emphasize enough how much we enjoyed this relatively short hike and how "worth it" the drive was. Great for families who like to touch, see and explore without all the tourists and safety rope.
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