Escalante, UT Trails Recon Mission

[Number7 87]

We just returned from a trail finding mission in southern Utah. Can't wait to share the treasures we found and plan the first of what might be many awesome trips.

 

Here's a teaser shot for your viewing pleasure:

 

 

PEShaw48 might have some to post here too.

 

Trip report to follow!

 

GnD

[GRUNT 87]

Tease!!!

[theksmith 4,148]

welcome back kids, that's quite a teaser shot, let's see some more!

[Number7 87]

Patience, Grasshopper! George:cool:

[peshaw48 6]

Motorhome burning down at first campsight at Wahweap on lake powell

Campsight at Escalante, UT

 

McGath Lake

 

[dzJeepChic 2,565]

It seemed quite odd to leave for a trip on a Monday, but that’s exactly what we did on August 17, 2009, when we met our friends Sam and fellow OffroadPassport member PEShaw48 and took off for southern Utah. Nothing remarkable happened on the drive up; we stopped for gas in Flagstaff and then took a lunch break at The Cameron Trading Post.

 

 

Tanner’s Crossing Bridge, a suspension bridge that was built in 1911 by the Midland Bridge Co. for the Office of Indian Affairs for the purpose of herding sheep across the Little Colorado River is located at Cameron. It is also a National Historic Place.

 

 

After lunch we drove north on 89 toward Page, stopping along the way at a few scenic vistas. We also stopped at The Horseshoe Bend Overlook a little south of Page. It’s a very short drive on dirt to the parking area and then about a quarter to a half mile walk on a broad, easy trail to this often photographed spot. The overlook soars over a 1000’ above the bend in the river, and yet I found it impossible to get the entire span within my view-finder.

 

 

Then it was on to Page for fuel, food, ice, tire balancing, and all the usual last minute things for an Offroad Adventure. e! was a-hoppin’ at 55 mph, so we had the right front tire spin balanced while Sam got food for dinner. From Page we still had to make our way out to Wahweap where we had reservations at the campground. Naturally, we stopped for a few Dam pictures at Glen Canyon. Pardon my smudge!

 

 

The marina at Wahweap resembles a condominium complex; it is a massive grouping of boats! It’s been a long time since we’ve been to Lake Powell.

 

 

The campgrounds at Wahweap are okay, but not spectacular. They’re regularly $23 per night, 2 vehicles allowed, but the nice lady at the counter gave us a half-price refund because our friends have a Golden Age Pass from the National Parks Service. We chose this campground because of its implied proximity to the lake, plus it has flush toilets and showers.

 

The beach is a LONG way from the campgrounds; if you walk down there to get cooled off, you’ll be hot again by the time you get back. This is not to mention that this area of the lake – the most widely used for anchoring boats, swimming, playing, seeing and being seen, is very murky. No, make that muddy. I eschewed the swim since my hair would have been in worse shape if I had gone for it. The showers are at the Visitor Center, also a LONG way from the campground. Luckily for us, it was our first night out and we didn’t really need a shower, so we rinsed off under the water spigot in front of the bathrooms.

 

Campground entertainment was supplied by an unfortunate family whose motor home burned down right before our eyes! As we started off for the beach, I saw a lot of smoke for what I mistook as a campfire. Then George noticed that the smoke was coming from under the hood of an older RV on the road by the Visitors Center. As we passed, the smoke became flames licking the windshield, and the family frantically disconnected the boat they were towing and pushed it back away from the burning motor home. Within a matter of minutes the whole vehicle was engulfed and we could hear multiple explosions from inside. We heard what we thought was the LP tank explode and shoot out the side, and could see the fuel being burned in a mushroom shaped tongue that kept sticking itself out. When the Fire Department finally arrived it was too late, and they really didn’t do anything at first, but then they put water on it to cool it down. Later that night a dump truck and a front-loader came to clean up the mess, and we could hear them well into the night scraping and dumping the remains. Now, I know none of this is valid without pictures, but consider that I was in a bikini (no pockets) on my way for a swim, so I didn’t have my camera with me. But Phil got a picture of it and posted earlier in this thread.

 

Another member of our party met us the next morning and we started out for Lone Rock Beach, the alternate campground we had considered for our 1st night out. It would only have been $10.00. No showers, micro-flush toilets, drive right out to the clear clean water and camp. Oh well, there’s always next time! (Pardon my smudge again, I get in too much of a hurry to fix).

 

 

From there we went to Big Water City, and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Visitor Center for maps and information. Big Water is where you leave pavement, too; from the Visitor Center parking lot, go straight across the highway, stay on that street and make the 1st right. Now you’re on Smoky Mountain Road.

 

 

This is the part of the trail that crosses the area where the movie ‘Planet of the Apes’ was filmed. It’s beautiful in a stark, almost eerie way.

 

 

We stayed on Smoky Mountain Road to just past Tibbett Canyon and then made a hard right to the east toward the northern edge of Lake Powell. The terrain here gives you no indication whatsoever that you are anywhere near water

 

 

And yet very soon you come to this spectacular view

 

 

Continued

 

V

V

V

[dzJeepChic 2,565]

So we had lunch at Alstrom Point, took pictures and talked about what a great place this would be to camp out when we come back. The views go on forever and undoubtedly vary with the angle of the sun.

 

 

From Alstrom Point we went basically north on Grand Bench Road to Croton Road and then cut back over to the Smoky Mountain Road about 20 miles south of Escalante.

 

 

 

The trail climbs some on some shelf-like roads, and this is where e! started to run hot. We finally had a wadded up rag wedged under the front of the hood to allow some air in, and the heater on to give her a little more radiator, and she managed to maintain in the half-to-three-quarters zone. But I didn’t get a lot of pictures of the rocky, shelfy parts, because Phil, being the gentleman that he is, insisted that I ride with him in the air-conditioning. This is what the road looked like about the time I got in with Phil.

 

 

But the desert soon gave way to mountains and trees outside of Escalante.

 

 

We set up camp for 3 nights at the Petrified Forest State Park just outside Escalante, UT. This is a very nice campground, with trees, ramadas, a washing station, flush toilets and showers for only $16 per night. Here’s our campsite:

 

 

Tuesday Sam took us sight-seeing up in the mountains by Boulder. We took Utah 12 up past The Escalante River and the Calf Creek Recreation Area, a beautiful campground with a river running through it, and the trailhead for Lower and Upper Calf Creek Falls. We stopped at several vista points along Utah 12:

 

 

George had hard-wired the secondary fan on e! while in camp the night before, but we were discovering that she still wanted to run on the warm side. This scenic overlook is where he discovered that he had wired the fan to turn the wrong way, so hot air was blowing into the radiator rather than away from it! He reversed the wires while the rest of us feasted our eyes on the Calf Creek canyon where the upper falls are.

 

 

Up Highway 12 a ways, we turned off on a gravel road overlooking the farming community of Boulder, and followed it until we came to a lesser road to McGath Lake.

 

 

 

Continued

 

V

V

V

[dzJeepChic 2,565]

The road up to Lake McGath was a good test for e! From the looks of her belly, she’d never been offroad, much less over any obstacles. We hit a couple rocky climbs and water crossings on this trail, so it was fun to see what our new baby can do. And she did just fine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lunch at the lake

 

 

From Lake McGath we took the Hell’s Backbone Road through the mountains back to Escalante. The Hell’s Backbone Road was the old mail route, which made it difficult to deliver the mail in not only the winter, but year round because it crosses a deep gorge. Back in the day logs were placed to span the gorge, and the pioneers had to ride horses over them to get across. Stopping to gawk:

 

 

Naturally, the pictures don’t show how deep the gorge is.

 

 

 

It sure was pretty up there!

 

 

Continued

V

V

V

[dzJeepChic 2,565]

Thursday morning we headed out early for the Hole-in-the-Rock Road; a 61 mile washboard trail that goes to an historic site at Lake Powell where Mormon settlers literally cut a hole through the otherwise vertical cliffs at Glen Canyon so they could get their wagons through.

 

1st Stop – The Devil’s Garden

 

 

 

 

The Hole-in-the-Rock Road basically follows the 50 Mile Cliffs

 

 

This picture makes me wonder what the I-Pod Shuffle was playing right at that moment. Suffice it to say we were having a grand old time booking down the road.

 

 

Next stop – Dance Hall Rock, where it’s said that the Mormon pioneers held dances to improve the morale of the people.

 

 

Looking back at the Jeeps and the Cliffs from the dance floor.

 

 

Then we came to Carcass Wash where we stopped to look at the Memorial placed for a Troup of Boy Scouts who died there. They were on an outing and while driving up the hill to the right of the sign, the truck they were in stalled, rolled backwards, slid sideways, and rolled off the hill into a wash. 14 people, both children and adults, lost their lives there.

 

 

The trail is marked periodically with these posts depicting it as an Historical Wagon Trail

 

 

First Glimpse of Hole-in-the-Rock

 

 

Continued

V

V

V

[dzJeepChic 2,565]

The other guys were having lunch when we arrived

 

 

And then we went to take a closer look. Sam, Lucy, George and I wanted to see if we could get to the lake.

 

 

 

From the bottom of Hole-in-the-Rock, looking back up, on the right side, you could see where they had cut the rock to make room for the wagons. It’s said to have taken them 6 weeks to cut through.

 

Further down we saw wagon wheel tracks in the rock

 

 

We didn’t make it all the way down to the water. We still had a long drop and no trail when we gave up and settled for a picture

 

 

Back on the road

 

 

We had a wonderful view of Navaho Mountain on the way out. While we were on the way in we had seen a plaque describing Hole-in-the-Rock Arch, and search as we may, we couldn’t find it anywhere! Turns out you can see it plain as day when you’re on your way out, see it?

 

 

On the way out we decided to take the 50 Mile Bench Road to break things up a bit. Here’s a view from the top.

 

 

e! heated up miserably as we climbed and climbed up to the shelf road that overlooks the valley. We took it easy on her and went slowly, and ended up falling behind from the rest of the group. When they got to the top they opted to take a left to what looked like a scenic overlook by their GPS units. We got up there and made the right and were on our way to find them when the call came that it was not an overlook; it was a dried up cattle tank. So we turned around and started slowly going back to the 50 Mile Bench Road to wait for the rest of the group. That’s when e! suddenly tried to throttle up and then just died. Holy crud, now what? In a few minutes we got her to start again by pressing down on the throttle while turning the key; and she ran rough for a little while and then figured it out. We have no idea what caused it, elevation? Heat? Running her with the Check-Engine light on for 2 days? One thing is for sure though: having your Jeep die while your in such a remote area is the definition of ‘heart sinking’.

 

Last stop before going back to camp was at Chimney Rock; a occurrence smack dab in the middle of nowhere that makes you say, ‘Hmmm’.

 

 

Continued

V

V

V