BLACK DRAPES

Some of the narrow spots in Spooky require a little crawling, a little limbo, and "holding your breath". This is a photo I took of Karen's husband, Bob, as he heads down Spooky slot canyon ahead of me.

Early Monday morning (4.19.2010), with a light day pack and cameras, we drove down the Hole In The Rock Road a little over 12 miles and turned into Escalante’s “Devil’s Garden”. I had driven the HITR road four times over the last few years for a hike at:
Zebra and Tunnel slot canyons
Davis Gulch (near the end of the road)
Hurricane Wash (where my wife and I backpacked down Coyote Gulch in 2009), and
Egypt Trailhead for a hike to the Golden Cathedral and Neon Canyon.

On each of those trips I had no idea that Devil’s Garden existed. Not until I saw a flickr friend’s photos of Metate Arch in Devil’s Garden, was I even aware of it. So I made sure we had plenty of time to visit it on this trip. It was our first stop Monday morning. We really enjoyed it and had the entire area all to ourselves.

After leaving Devil’s Garden we drove to the Dry Fork Coyote Gulch trailhead to hike down to the bottom of: Peekaboo; Spooky; and Brimstone Canyons. The plan was to make the loop hike, up Peekaboo and down Spooky. I wasn’t sure if my wife would be able to make it up and down this route, so we had discussed all the permutations of up and back hiking or her letting me make a quick run through it if needed.

On the way to the outlet to Peekaboo, we met a lady hiker, whom I will call Karen. Her husband and bunch of hiking club members had already left to do the up Peekaboo; down Spooky route, and then with ropes and equipment, hike some of Brimstone. Karen had opted out and so was content to hike up and down Dry Fork and just enjoy the scenery.

She hiked with us over to the short “climb” up into Peekaboo to give my wife a hand if needed, getting up into that canyon. I had brought leather gloves for us both and a short section of rope and nylon webbing to help my wife. To make this short, my wife got halfway up and we both decided it wasn’t a good idea for her to try to go farther. So, she and Karen worked up a plan to hike the wash together while I hiked the Peekaboo/Spooky route solo.

I enjoyed the hike up Peekaboo. Slickrock hiking, dry, very scenic. Quiet. I found the obvious trail leading across the canyon rim that would run from the upper portion of Peekaboo over to the entry into Spooky. At least when I arrived I hoped I had arrived at Spooky and not the top of Brimstone by mistake. I had grabbed my map, both cameras, and leather gloves, but left my pack with water, candy, GPS, and more maps, with my wife.

So I decided to continue down what I hoped was Spooky and pledged not to go over any pour overs that I couldn’t get back up. A short distance down Spooky I heard voices, which was a relief to me, unless they were coming UP Spooky as it is a narrow passage.
It was Karen’s husband (I will call him Bob) and the hiking club, most of the hikers of my age (old).

Bob and I got along well so we exchanged cameras and I followed his hiking club group on through Spooky back down to the Dry Fork of Coyote. There I thanked the hiking club for their company (at the time I had no idea there were so many of them since the narrow confines of Spooky allowed me to see and interact with only four of the members.

I found my wife and Karen waiting in a cool shade part of Dry Fork and the three of us hiked back up to the trailhead together. I was really pleased to have completed this hike that had been on my “to do” list and that I had such an accommodating, understanding and helpful wife.

My wife and I drove back to Escalante at a slow pace, and met up with our friends from Washington, (Jason and Lusha), that night for dinner.
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Road Trip - Utah April 17th - 24th, 2010: My wife and I headed for Southern Utah, just before midnight on Friday the 16th of April (after she got off work at her part time job). We drove straight through to Southern Utah, to take advantage of the good weather forecast early on in our trip. Storms were forecast for later in the trip and in fact we got a pretty good taste of same on Wednesday the 21st.

Here in outline form are the places we visited and hiked:

Saturday 4.17.2010
> Rochester Rock Art Panel near Emery, Utah
> The Moore cutoff road
> Sinbad’s head pictograph panel (we camped under a pinon pine near here)

Sunday 4.18.2010
> Black Dragon Canyon rock art panel (after first taking the wrong turn and doing some interesting four wheel drive travel way up the San Rafael River). Short hike.
> Pictograph Canyon pictographs. Short but interesting hike.
> Drive Hanksville, Torrey, Boulder, to Escalante (check into motel)

Monday 4.19.2010
> Drive out the Hole In The Rock Road. Visit Devil’s Garden and Metate Arch.
> Drive to Dry Fork of Coyote Gulch. Hike down to Peek-a-boo and Spooky slot canyons. I hiked t

Viewed from the top of the switchbacks that form the Moki Dugway portion of Utah highway 261, this is the dirt road we drove through a very scenic and enjoyable to experience, Valley of the gods.

Thursday April 22nd, 2010 was the last "activity" day of this fun filled road trip for us. We left our cabin at Hanksville that morning and drove, in caravan, with our friends from Washington, to the South Mule Canyon trailhead. The four of us took that pleasant canyon hike together up canyon past "house on fire" ruins.

After the South Mule hike, our friends headed north for Washington. We drove to the head of Sheiks Canyon and took a quiet, scenic and most enjoyable hike down that canyon to Yellow House ruins.

After the Sheiks canyon hike, we drove #251 back to highway 261 so we could scout the Bullet Canyon trailhead for future reference.

Then we dropped down off Cedar Mesa via Moki Dugway, to take the Valley of the gods dirt loop route (for the first time). We had driven highway 261 many times over the 39 years we have been married (the first time by accident when my wife took a "wrong" turn while I was sleeping the back of our truck canopy. Seeing the Moki Dugway for the first time, after being awakened by my wife, was quite the surprise.

We really enjoyed the scenery and slow pace of driving the Valley of the gods road. After that, we hit the highway for home ourselves. We drove up to Monticello and stayed in a motel there, after yet another cold wind storm caught up with us.

Friday morning, we drove it straight for our home in Eastern Washington, arriving home Saturday morning around 5:30 am.

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Road Trip - Utah April 17th - 24th, 2010: My wife and I headed for Southern Utah, just before midnight on Friday the 16th of April (after she got off work at her part time job). We drove straight through to Southern Utah, to take advantage of the good weather forecast early on in our trip. Storms were forecast for later in the trip and in fact we got a pretty good taste of same on Wednesday the 21st.

Here in outline form are the places we visited and hiked:

Saturday 4.17.2010
> Rochester Rock Art Panel near Emery, Utah
> The Moore cutoff road
> Sinbad’s head pictograph panel (we camped under a pinon pine near here)

Sunday 4.18.2010
> Black Dragon Canyon rock art panel (after first taking the wrong turn and doing some interesting four wheel drive travel way up the San Rafael River). Short hike.
> Pictograph Canyon pictographs. Short but interesting hike.
> Drive Hanksville, Torrey, Boulder, to Escalante (check into motel)

Monday 4.19.2010
> Drive out the Hole In The Rock Road. Visit Devil’s Garden and Metate Arch.
> Drive to Dry Fork of Coyote Gulch. Hike down to Peek-a-boo and Spooky slot canyons. I hiked the loop up Peek-a-boo and down Spooky while my wife hiked with another lady hiker up Dry Fork and then down to the bottom of Spooky.

Tuesday 4.20.2010
> Hike Lower Calf Creek Falls (my third hike here and my wife’s second) and scramble up to two sets of pictograph panels.

Wednesday 4.21.2010
> Drive the Burr Trail road from Boulder to Notom (my fourth time on this scenic route and my wife’s second). Photograph in Long Canyon and along Waterpocket Fold. Race a rain storm north on the dirt (rapidly turning to mud) portion of this route.
> Hike to the Wild Horse twin caves across the slickrock. Hit with hailstorm as we arrived and watched a “mud storm” (thunderstorm falling through a dust storm), travel across to the east of us. The wind caught up with us at Goblin Valley State Park.
> Revisit the pictographs on Temple Mountain.
> Visit Goblin Valley State Park (my second visit and my wife’s first). Howling winds.

Thursday 4.22.2010
> Drive from Hanksville (we had a motel room there) to South Mule Canyon.
> Hike two miles up South Mule Canyon photographing “house on fire” ruins along the way.
> Check with Kane Ranger Station. Decide to skip a hike down Kane Gulch (too much water and mud on route).
> Take short, but beautiful hike to Yellow House ruins.
> Drive Valley of the gods loop from west to east.
> Drive up through Bluff to Monticello, Utah (cold winds). Stay in motel there.

Friday 4.23.2010
> Drive Monticello, Price, Salt Lake City, Wendover, Wells, Jackpot (where my wife got to spend a couple of hours at the penny slot investment center at Cactus Pete casino - while I slept in the truck canopy bed and read). Drive through the night through Boise, Baker City, Pendleton, and on to our home in Eastern Washington.

Saturday 2.14. 2010
> Arrived home at 5:30 am.

Note:
As long planned (discussions started back in November of 2009): we met a couple, also from Eastern Washington in Escalante on Monday night. These nice friends, whom we met through flickr, joined us on all the hikes and drives we took on Tuesday and Wednesday, as well as the South Mule Canyon hike on Thursday morni