Escalante

One 2017 family goal is to hike either Little Wild Horse Canyon or Peekaboo Canyon and Spooky Gulch. One family member in particular may have been most adamant about this being on the goal list, but let's not get into that. We checked Little Wild Horse off the list in March, and I figured that would be it. But my dad's company is working on repaving Highway 12 near Escalante, and he wanted us to come down and explore the area with us, so who were we to say no?

We picked a beautiful time of year to visit the arid deserts of southern Utah: late June. (Hint: This is false. The weather was brutally hot and it was foolish for me to pick summertime for the trip. In fact, a man died of dehydration/heat stroke near Spooky, two days after we were there.)

We made the 5-hour trip down to Escalante on Friday morning. I found the area around Fish Lake and the little towns like Bicknell and Loa to be really pretty, but we were all ready to be there long before we actually got there. Our trip was also delayed a little by a road race traveling from Capitol Reef to Zion.

We met Grandpa at the Prospector Inn in Escalante, geared up, and drove back to the Lower Calf Creek Falls trailhead. Starting at the ideal time of 3:00 pm (this is also false), we made it the three miles there and three miles back. The kids were hot and each took a turn feeling out of sorts, but the payoff at the end of the canyon made it worth it, and we all felt a sense of accomplishment by the end.

Mom showed the kids a neat trick of soaking your hat in water to cool off.

Indian granary high on the canyon wall.

Fremont Indian rock art. We didn't take the one below but I'm including it to show how cool it is.

There's a great trail guide that corresponds to 13 or 14 wooden posts along the trail. It was a great motivation for the kids to find the next number when the going got tough.

Approaching an oasis in the desert.

The water was extremely cold. Addison and Michelle dared each other to go in right when we got there, but they didn't last long.

Bryn, on the other hand, just swam and swam.

The kids and Michelle built sand castles.

This is the best of Addison's faces in the four or five shots Dad took of us.

Stunning!

That night we had the patio all to ourselves at the Circle D Eatery, and the kids loved it. We had hiked a long way and it made the food extra good.

The next morning, we headed thirty miles down Hole in the Rock Road to the Dry Forks slots, Peekaboo and Spooky. We were lucky to have Dad's Explorer because the minivan would have never made it, especially up the ledges right before the trailhead.

The trail goes down a hillside and then follows a drainage to the canyon floor. Downcanyon from there, you soon come to a 10-foot-high wall that's the entrance to Peekaboo.

Blessed shade.

A running theme of slot canyons is that underestimate the difficulties. This one was no exception. We were lucky to have three adults, so one could stand at the bottom, one on a ledge in the middle, and one at the top to haul kids up by their arms. This spot and a rock fall in Spooky would have been really difficult without three adults or some homemade harnesses.

Also at this spot, a troop of boy scouts caught up to us. They were very courteous (see what I did there?) and helped the kids, but it added to the pressure of getting up quickly!

Cool arches in Peekaboo.

At the top of Peekaboo we took a break in the only shade around, then set out across the desert to find Spooky.

When we got to Spooky we huddled in the shade there and had some lunch. It was hot!

Here's the tricky downclimb - again, we were glad there were three adults. Michelle was ready to strangle me by the end of this section, for telling her this was a "family friendly" canyon.

We hit Spooky at just the right time of day for light.

Then it was the long slog out at the hottest time of day. We sang songs and told stories to try to keep everyone from despairing.

After that we went into town and spent a few minutes at the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument visitor center before it closed. It was really well done with kid-friendly exhibits. They had microscopes and a binder full of dried flowers and plants.

Then we went and got shaved ice, and that lifted everyone's spirits.

Then we drove back to the Escalante River and played in the water. It was a reminder that our kids are just as happy splashing around in a ditch as going to some world-class resort. And I like that.

We were right by where Calf Creek flows into the Escalante, and the temperature difference between the two was dramatic. The Escalante was practically bathwater, while Calf Creek was still bitter cold. Addison, Asa, and Grandpa saw two snakes.

By popular demand, we ended up back at the Circle D, and the kids had mac 'n' cheese for the second night in a row. Then we went back to the motel and the kids relaxed in front of a movie.

We woke up the next morning to a surprise: someone had picked our minivan, of all the cars in the parking lot, to write ominous messages on with car paint: "SLASHER" and "YOU GOT SLASHED!" Gotta make up your own fun when you live in a small town, I guess...

Grandpa showed us the gravel pit his company had in a creek bed, and then we drove back down Hole in the Rock Road to some hoodoos and other rock formations at Devil's Garden. I wasn't expecting much, but the area was huge, and everyone had a blast.