Thursday, April 5, 2007: We slept in our little cabin after a delightful dinner of Velveeta Shells and Cheese mixed in with a can of chili. A David special. It was pretty nice as nights go... although I got calls from a biological imperative at 4am and again at 5am which brought me out into the night appreciating it. ha ha.
Once again I woke David up at the crack of dawn (literally, this time) to go hiking in Bryce. We scouted the route the night before, and decided on this great little loop which was about 7 miles down into the valley to get a look at the hoodoos from beside and below them. It was a great hike and I really enjoyed the silence, and the mountain alpine forest atmosphere. The hike was invigorating and great- and we were out of the park by about 10am. On the way out, we stopped at Ruby's- this place that's a lot like Wall Drug's little "town" in the middle of the wilderness in Wyoming. It's got everything- even a spot where we took my camera's memory stick and downloaded it onto a CD while we ate the breakfast buffet. Who doesn't love a breakfast buffet?
After breakfast, we checked out about 10 minutes late and I hurriedly packed the car while David showered and the campground hostess was driving around her golf cart cleaning up the other cabins, waiting for us. We got out, got a map of Escalante and drove into town. We threw the tent up at Escalante OUtfitters- a little shop front with a cafe (and great food and beer on tap) along with charming one room cabins and places to throw up a tent. We opted to throw up a tent. After a pretty quick unpack, we left the dog-friendly place with our pooch in tow, and drove north and east along highway 12 which is just a bizarre drive.
Along the way is the Calf Creek Falls- it's an easy 3 mile hike in along a little stream filled with brook trout that ends at a lovely little waterfall which, for the desert, is impressive. Along the way we saw Anasazi grain stores high in the sandstone hills as well as one pictograph of 3 men.
After the drive and the falls, we headed back to camp for dinner, which was heated chef- yum. A shower and bed time. Sleeping in a tent and a sleeping bag with a dog is colorful- especially around midnight when some animal came sniffing around in our site and he started barking and barking.
Friday, April 6, 2007: This was, next to the day Jonna took us climbing, my favorite day of the vacation. We went into Hole in the Rock Road into Escalante national monument in search of the slot canyons. We drove in about 30 miles, to where they were supposed to be and nothing was labeled. I was so sure it would be that I didn't think to ask at the HQ which trail head we should go to to find the canyons. There were few people there and few cars on the road, but we did see a few drive into Dry Creek trail head area, so on the way out (I"m quietly freaking out that I'm going to have to tell Jim that I didn't get to the canyons!) David takes us into the Dry Creek area and lo and behold, there are about 15 cars in the lot. We got out with a team of teenagers or twenty year olds with a cattle dog going into the canyons as well, so we followed them along the slick rock. I carefully ignored the sign warning that this area and hike may not be suitable for dogs. We walked a short distance into the park over the slickrock and quickly came into an open area where the wash was absolutely swarming with groups of kids and teens. We were so disappointed, but headed into the first slot canyon, which was nice but just kind of ended. it was just as warm up!
The tree branch is lodged into the walls of the canyon way at the top- which is about 20 feet high, letting you know that when there is a flash flood, the water is high, fast and fierce through the canyon. With some snow still melting and an overcast day in general, we were well aware that a flash flood could occur at anyt ime.
I was picking on David that the shot on the right is so great it's his "personal ad" shot. Too funny.
So you have to actually climb up into those large round openings in Peakaboo Canyon. There have been enough climbers, and the sandstone is so soft that over the years there are a few meager hand and footholds to do so. For those os us who are vertically challenged, however, Peakaboo is difficult. We had, fortunately, some mountaineering rope that David brought that we used to help hoist eachother. It worked! Then we belayed the dog up and down with his car seat harness on. It was actually a lot of climbing- scrambling and trying to just get up there. Although you really felt accomplishment when you did :)
We got out of Peakaboo with "ninja dog" as the teenage boys behind us were calling him, and found the third famous slot in the area after a long hike around the sweltering desert now in full sun and full heat. Spooky was aptly named: whereas canyon 1 was a nice walk in the park with high walls and cool texture and no scariness at all, Peakaboo was usually wide but required a lot of acrobatics and clever climbing to get through. Spooky, however, was just about so tight all the way through that we had to take our packs off since they wouldn't fit though the slots. In addition, there were a lot of scary, deep drop offs and you had to kind of chimney yourself down. Charm was exhausted he kept lying down at every little stop we had to sneak through, and then we finally got past (by David finally asking to go ahead) of this massive million-member mormon commune family complete with octogenarian grandmother and a two month old. We were absolutely disgusted that we were not alone, and a mother with a 2 month old infant could make it though Spooky like us. It cheapened my experience, as did the massive swells of wave after wave of children- at least until David pointed out that they are so small they can just slip through like nothing.
None the less, this was awesome as a trip. And I have one last picture to show, this is the loneliest road in America, highway 51 across Nevada- but boy it's beautiful: snow-capped mountains and we stopped at Great Basin National Park but missed the cave tour by a few minutes. Shame. We saw more prong horn antelope crossing the road, a couple golden eagles- a lot of birds of prey, cows everywhere, a few sheep, rabbits.
