On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
TKH
As I mentioned in my Grand Canyon submission for On The Road, I have hiked across Southern Utah twice now, once following a route of my own devising from the CO/UT border to Zion National Park. The second time along the Hayduke route starting at Arches NP near Moab (UT) to and through part of the Grand Canyon. On both hikes I passed through the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument (GSENM) located between Bryce National Park and Capitol Reef NP, about a four hour drive from Sin City or eight hours from Denver. While the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument (GSENM) is a popular tourist destination, during my long hikes I reach areas that not many people get to see because they are day hikers and not backpackers.
This submission will include pictures from areas relatively easy to access in order to wet your appetite so to speak. In a separate submission I will be showing you places you would have to work for to get to.
Enjoy!
Thomas
This place is reachable in a (long) day hike after a teeth-rattling drive along Hole-in-the-Rock road followed by an elaborate descent into Fence canyon at the bottom of which you step into the Escalante river, slosh upstream crossing back and forth as the vegetation on there banks allows or demands. You enter Neon canyon and 45 min later you reach the en at Golden Cathedral. For the cannoneers among you, you can also get there from on top by making your way through two slot canyons (canyoneering gear required, some skills would help) and lower yourself on a rope through the holes that you see there. Not my cup of tea.
This is the view from the ground to the ceiling of the cathedral. The intricate carving of the sandstone is a result of water coming down from slick rock plains and slot canyons above that drain into there cathedral.
If you walk up to the cathedral via Neon canyon this is how you first see it. I was fortunate to have it to myself for about 45 min to enjoy the silence and the changes in color and light over time as clouds obscured the sun and passed on.
Farther along the Hole-in-the-Rock Rd are two trailheads that allow you to reach Coyote Gulch, Hurricane wash TH and 45 Mile Ridge TH. I prefer to use the latter in order to hike Coyote Gulch in a Northerly direction. You descend a 900 ft altitude dune made of the most exquisite Utah fine sand (I would not want to have to climb up this dune in late afternoon in the sun) that gets into everything even into… ah I don’t want to make you blush. You then hike along a the creek on a use trail. There is the occasional scramble to get around waterfalls, but nothing too arduous. At the Northern end you pass through Coyote Bridge.
The entire hike is very scenic, but has become popular. Never do it on a weekend. The last two times I was down there I met not more than a handful people on a 5 hour hike. Not bad.
North of Coyote Bridge is the true gem in Coyote Gulch. It is located in a gooseneck of the creek which has carved out a giant undercut into the bedrock. Without special lenses I find it impossible to to do this place justice, photographically speaking. Since I am solo hiker I also lack a companion that I could place into the picture in order to give the reader an idea of the scale of this place.
From here you can either walk North and then west to the Hurricane Wash TH or you can retreat a bit and climb out over slick rock ramp, aided by some installed ropes, to get back to 45 Mile Ridge TH. I usually choose the latter, but it would be hard to do with kids or people who are afraid of exposure.
If you choose to exit coyote Gulch via the slick rock ramp you get this view of Jakob Hamblin Arch from above. Once you have overcome the ramp the rest of the way to your car is across slick rock and sand along a cairned path. pretty straightforward.
When I first wanted to get into Egg canyon in 2018 I could not find the entry in its upper end, It is an area of mud hills and drainages running every which way. Being off by 50 feet may preclude you from seeing where you should be going.
The second time I came from the bottom from Th along the Burr Trail Rd. I made it a one-nighter loop hike, but conceivably you could come from the bottom and return that way in a (long) day. Egg canyon is beautiful canyon with lots of color, but the real attraction is the petrified wood in its upper reaches.
here I show you picture of the most massive pieces that I have ever seen. I am told that you can see these logs on Google Earth if you know what you are doing (I don’t).
Lower down in Egg canyon I was climbing in a side wash and came of what I thought for a while to be the motherland of petrified wood before I saw the trunks in the picture above.
I put my foot into the picture for scale. It is fortunate that there is no road in the area and that petrified wood is heavy. It would have all been carted off for fun and profit, especially the latter, a long time ago. Every American has a right to cart off 1.5 lb of petrified wood from BLM land every year. That amounts to one or two rather small pieces. What I showed you here is going to be there for a long time to come.
To finish off today’s submission, some pictures of one particular slot canyon. The famous Buckskin Gulch near (40 mi) Kanab. In order to hike the whole thing you need a permit and there are only 20 people/day that get such a permit via a lottery. I have only done a day hike so far going down a few miles and then returning, but a thought hike remains on the list.
I have been down by the deeply entrenched part, but even in the upper part you are in this slot with the walls going pop 200 ft. early morning is best from both a traffic and light perspective. It’s a tough hike, scrambling , wading, quite cold.
The gulch varies in width as you go along. Sometimes you can touch both walls and other times met is as wide as a road running between buildings. This is one of the wider parts.
The two previous pictures illustrated the play of early morning light on the canyon walls. This picture illustrates the fine structure of the sandstone in the walls. I could go on and on and on.
Nelle
Thank you. Magnificent.
Leslie
Great pictures. Thanks!
J R in WV
WOW !! Thanks for sharing these photos. I’m old and increasingly frail with arthritis in so many joints I hesitate to hike around our rural WV farm, much less the aggressive and remote hiking you obviously love. So photos like these are the only way I will ever get to see these remote and amazingly beautiful places.
Thanks so much for sharing these with our community, and to Watergirl and Cole for supporting the community structure we all benefit so much from. You guys do so much for us!
p.a.
Another WOW!
Benw
Astonishing! I’ve never heard of GNESM but I’m sold!
raven
@J R in WV: I was gonna say that!
Great shots!
DarbysMom
Amazing places you take us to. I love your descriptions almost as much as the fantastic pics. Thanks!
JPL
The colors are amazing.
OzarkHillbilly
Nice pics, I’m only sorry I’ll never get there.
Elma
I’m sort of embarrassed that the second installment of my Canada/New England trip will be trailing along tomorrow in the wake of THK’s wonderful pictures. Mine was definitely an easier trip. I went to Zion with my family when I was a kid and still remember how impressive it was.
cope
Wonderful pictures of spectacular places. I feel even more energized about moving from our Florida home of 32 years and back to western Colorado where all my family is. I am ready to give up so much green for the lovely tans, reds, oranges and pinks of bare rock. Even the house we have on contract is xeriscaped.
Thank you.
HinTN
@J R in WV:
They do, indeed!
I have a friend who has told me of hiking in GSENM but these pictures transport me to another world from my southern climes. Thanks, TKH.
HinTN
@Elma: @cope: The west is amazing, especially so to this southern boy.
Elizabelle
Just beautiful. Thank you, Thomas. And I like the giraffe-patterned … what? over your hiking boots. Tres chic.
You’ve made me think … that there are some hikes and experiences one must attempt while still able to do so. I feel mid 40s but … the joints have a few more years on them, no? Don’t know that I could ever do one of your long hikes, but the intermediate look spectacular.
Elizabelle
@cope: I think you are going to exhale, and then exhale again, once you are out of Florida. It is always there to visit. But we don’t, as yet, have “Colorado Man.”
I am thinking Colorado too, in a few years. To see. It’s sheerly beautiful out there. And turning bluer by the minute.
cope
@Elizabelle: We can’t wait. We moved from Colorado to Florida in 1989. All my family is there, we got married there and our kids were born there so we’re going back home.
ETA: About the Colorado air. When my wife and the kids were getting on the plane to fly to Florida (I drove a big box truck and pulled the family truckster behind on a tow dolly), she told them to take a deep breath and remember the smell.
Gin & Tonic
These are wonderful pictures, thanks. I’ve been to the Boulder/Escalante area a couple of times, but have only done day hikes, to places like Calf Creek Falls. I think at this point of my life a multi-day backpacking trip is out of the question, so I will have to rely on your photos.
pieceofpeace
What a good compositional eye you have for these splendid photographs.
Which I’d call works of art.
Is photography hobby of serious amateurism or more as a profession?
Wag
Thanks for sharing your photos. You really captured the spirit of a magical area. Thank goodness for the protection offered by national monument status, especially thank goodness for President Biden, restoring the borders that Trump so recklessly destroyed.
Thanks for sharing your photos. You really captured the spirit of a magical area. Thank goodness for the protection offered by national monument status, especially thank goodness for President Biden, restoring the borders that Trump so recklessly destroyed.
I’ve spent only a small amount of time in the Escalante area. Absolutely spectacular. We did a backpacking trip in 1986 down Coyote Gulch. It was March, snowy, and cold, but beautiful. Looking forward to retirement and the ability to head out for extended trips again. Also, looking forward to having time to explore a Grand Gulch.
to anyone who is interested in this area of the country, I cannot highly enough recommend books by the author, David Roberts. Roberts was a professor of creative writing and also one of America’s Premier mountaineers and his youth. As he aged, he began spending more and more time in the southwest, where he wrote extensively about the ancestral pueblo Indians, and their relationship with the land. One of my favorite titles of his is The Lost World of the Old Ones. One of the joys in this book is his detailing, how he was able to use his rock climbing skills to help archaeologists reach, previously inaccessible ruins, high on cliffs in the Utah canyons. Fascinating reading.
pika
Thank you for these photos and the narrative!
Yutsano
There are more things in Heaven and earth indeed. Wonderful photos!
JanieM
Thanks for reporting back from these amazing adventures . The places are beautiful, and the pictures are both beautiful and informative. However much you “could go on and on and on,” feel free!
I had no idea every American had the right to a certain quantity of petrified wood. !!
TKH
@Elizabelle: Those are gaiters that help prevent sand and rocks from getting into my shoes, somewhat imperfectly. Without them I’d have to clean out my shoes every 30 min. They are also good to prevent seeds from attaching to your socks.
TKH
@pieceofpeace: Thank you! I am just an amateur without any formal training whatsoever. I would say that the places that I go to do most of the work in the images and anything that you call composition is an accident. I am rarely if ever spending time to optimize my perspective or location for taking a shot.
TheOtherHank
Your slot canyon shots reminded me of when I rafted the Grand Canyon and we were doing a side hike up a slot canyon with a trickle of water running in the bottom. At several points you could touch the both walls at the same time and they went straight up for 30 or 40 feet. I asked one of the more experienced guides what we should do if the creek flash-flooded. He looked at the walls, looked up, looked at me and said “We die.”
Xavier
@cope: Smell? I used to travel to Florida for work, and I could tell where I’d been when I got home just by opening my luggage.
way2blue
TKH. Your photos of the slot canyons and sculptural sandstone walls. Stunning! But I can’t help thinking—looking at the narrow slot canyons—about flash floods. It there some system for making sure people don’t get caught unawares? Hope so…
TKH
@way2blue: the system is called Darwin.
A young woman was killed in a flash flood in Zion NP, inside the NP, this summer. And let me tell you, the NP rangers do not mince words in their warnings.
JustRuss
Added to my bucket list, planning to do an extended visit to the southwest after I retire.
StringOnAStick
@TKH: Great photos and reminders. I grew up where Cope is moving back to and as a geology student we spent every school break backpacking in UT. It should be better understood what the risks are, especially once monsoon season starts in that area; I’ve seen the results of a fairly recent flash flood by the amount of debris spewed out of the slot canyon, and it is not survivable, period.
It’s good to see someone else recognizes the need for gaiters in the summer! It must be my gait because without them I constantly flick rocks into my boots from the back. Too bad it is so hard to find adequate ones with a breathable fabric. Now that I’m hiking over sharp volcanic rocks, I need something with a heavy strap underfoot but not waterproof fabric on top; so far no luck finding that.
Albatrossity
These are gorgeous. I’ve never hiked/backpacked in red rock country (although Elizabeth has), but I’ve been there plenty of times and am always in awe of that landscape! Thanks for sending these to us jackals.
I also have it on good authority (from WG) that the cupboard of On The Road submissions is getting pretty bare. So if you are a regular reader of this BJ feature, and have some time to gather up some photos from a part of the world that we all might be interested in, please consider doing that. A photo essay here is a great way to start the day, and as they say: It Takes A Village!
Schmendrick
Since our current home is in Sin City, these pictures are practically in our backyard. We have been to Kanab several times and used it as a base to explore many of the areas you mentioned. I look forward to finding these places on a future visit. We did get a taste of Buckskin Gulch on one trip. We also managed to score a permit to go to the Wave (a bit further south from Buckskin Gulch in the Coyote Buttes NM.).
Thanks for posting.
TKH
@StringOnAStick: In such terrain I use wire instead of cloth to increase useful life time. That way you focus on the upper when you purchase and then modify the attachment for your purposes/environment.
The gaiters seen in the picture are from a website called Dirty Girls. The gaiters have a very robust hook to latch on to the laces in front and a Velcro strip in the back. I just glue a piece of Velcro onto the outside of the heel of my shoe and that works ok. Some shoes come with a Velcro strip from the mfr, say Altra and Brroks.
Dmbeaster
Been to these places many times. Love the slot canyons. Was there for a week last May, and did Spooky and Peek-a-Boo. Wanted to do Zebra, but it was packed so no way. Hole in the Rock Road sucks. Did Upper Calf Creek Falls after having done the lower falls several times. Camped there also. Finally did Upper Muley Twist, a bucket list item for me.
Love the area. Ask if you want details on ideas.
pieceofpeace
@TKH: “Just” an amateur? haha, damn good one. If I were to guess, I’d say you recognize the awe of your feeling when in a place like this, for starters. Me? Without camera, I’d cry for the joy of experiencing this place.
TKH
@pieceofpeace: Many (younger) people on long hikes listen to music, audio books, podcasts while walking. For me one of the biggest attractions of these hikes is the quiet. I mean Utah is really, really quiet ( if we disregard the air traffic high above which is something to behold). I also am a solo hiker, so there is no conversation to pay attention to and participate in. The lack of these distractions allows me to focus on what I am seeing, and really see it. Lastly, I am thinking of Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim, one particular expression specifically: “ color and light” and almost all photos I have posted here are really that, the interplay of color and light. If your mind is open to that and you can concentrate, I will have to do much less than George Seurat.