canyons – Ulen Adventures

6 Sept-1 Oct 2020. Canyons and Waves, Part 5.

Part 5 shows the last few days of our Canyons and Waves adventure near the Utah/Arizona border.

26-29 StateLine campground. This campground straddles the border of Utah and Arizona. It drove us crazy for a while, because we could never figure out what time it was – the phones and the truck just wouldn’t match! So we forced the phones to Denver time and just calculated the right time zones in our heads… Stateline campground is about a mile south of the entrance to Wire Pass and also the Wave hikes. Our plan was to get to this free campground early, snag one of the eight sites for four nights. We would hike the Wire Pass trail into Buckskin Gulch as a warm up, take a day off to rest our bodies, then hike the Wave on the 29th.

We found a very nice site at the Stateline Campground, covered picnic tables and bbq pits!

The Wire Pass day hike also requires a permit, but you can pay for it right at the trailhead, so that’s what we did. The Wire Pass trail is about 1.7 miles and dead ends onto the Buckskin Gulch trail. (Buckskin Gulch is part of the multi-day Paria Canyon Trail hike that we mentioned in Part 2).

We actually went north in Buckskin Gulch about a mile, turned around and went back to the intersection, then went south in Buckskin Gulch about 1.5 miles. (Then turned around and went back across Wire Pass). The next time we come here (and it was cool enough that we will come back), I think we will spend all our time going south. It was just a more interesting hike in that direction…

This is the beginning (and end) of the Wire Pass Trail. It is pretty open and gets VERY hot in the afternoon! (Bring water if you come).

Wire Pass trail has some skinny parts (also a dry waterfall that we bypassed).

At the intersection, we headed north on the Buckskin Gulch trail.

I think maybe hikers must have filled these holes with pebbles?

I think that spire at the top looks like a saber tooth tiger head!

When the trail opened up, we turned around and headed south.

Going south, Buckskin Gulch got narrower, and there were occasional puddles of mud – which were easy to step in – don’t ask me how I know!

The rock formations were grand and beautiful!

Here you can see where a flash flood left debris high overhead. Rain is dangerous here! (Chuck is carrying my hat so I can concentrate on getting mud off my boot!)

Occasionally, you can see where the walls have collapsed over time, leaving rubble on the ground.

We ran into this little critter, probably a Marten (type of weasel).

This is as far south as we went, turned around and headed back. Probably 8.5 mile day.

The Wave. We had tried for five years to get a permit to hike The Wave. The BLM office only issues permits for 20 people a day to hike this area. Ten people via a internet lottery four months in advance, and ten people via a lottery of those that show up the night before. There are hundreds of people who are disappointed not to get a spot every day! I’m very glad we persevered, it was a GREAT experience. Chuck says sometimes I put in too many photos, but I think this time you’ll enjoy them!

The hike (definitely NOT a stroll) to The Wave is 2.7 miles of climbs and descents over rocks and sand.(You get a brightly colored permit that you must wear on your backpack to verify you are allowed to be there – ours was pink).

The BLM office gives you a map, of sort, with pictures to help you identify landmarks along the way.

If it hasn’t rained in a while, you can see footprints from previous hikers in the sandy areas to help lead you the right way. (Unless the wind has blown them away).

There are three main “waves” at The Wave.

We left on the hike pretty close to sunrise, so we had some amazing colors.

This is one of the side waves. It almost glowed in the morning light!

Us standing here gives a better perspective of how large everything is!

I just couldn’t get over how beautiful it was!

I thought this looked a bit like bleachers.

Here is a colorful canyon near The Wave.

Everywhere you turned, there were more colorful formations!

Can you imagine how the earth swirled and settled millions of years ago?

So many layers of ground showing, so very colorful!

You can see one of the few trailposts here.

The Wave hike was the highlight of our Canyons and Waves trip. I’m so very glad we got our permit and finally made it here!

6 Sept – 1 Oct 2020. Canyons and Waves Part 2.

We are continuing our adventure near the Utah/Arizona border.

9 September. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. We started off the day with a hike up the Calf Creek Canyon. After three miles, you are rewarded with a beautiful waterfall! Then we loaded up the trucks and headed to Hell’s Backbone Road. We found some very interesting geology formations – wouldn’t want to drive my covered wagon across them – but other than washboard on the road, and the narrow bridge with great scary views, it wasn’t that bad… We were the only ones at the tiny (six site) Blue Spruce campground near the top of Hells Backbone – nice and quiet. It was cold enough to that the rangers came by to turn the water off to keep pipes from freezing, but they came by in the morning and turned it back on! Our friends Kurt and Anna departed for some different adventures, but we hope to camp with them again soon!

Found some parking at the Calf Creek trailhead (this isn’t always that easy, it is a very popular hike).

Did I mention that Kurt and Anna brought their camping cat? She decided to go on an explore of her own… here is Kurt convincing her to return.

Starting up the Calf Creek Trail, scenery is magnificent.

This waterfall is spring-fed, so it usually has the same flow all year long.

Lunch stop view from our window along Highway 12. You can just see interesting geology for miles and miles.

Sharing a bit of shade along Hells Backbone Road.

View looking out from the bridge at Hells Backbone. Quite Rugged.

The new (1965), improved one lane Hells Backbone bridge

Our camping spot at Blue Spruce was lush and quiet!

And the view out of our back window was a trickling stream!

10-12 September. Hole in the Rock Road. Near the town of Escalante there is a dirt road that has a grand history. A group of Mormons built the road to get to the water (Glen Canyon/Colorado River/ now Lake Powell). But the only break in the rock cliff mountains was a tiny “hole” 50 miles down the mountain range with a steep descent to the river. Along the road are several interesting natural and historical sites. We hiked Zebra Slot Canyon, but found it a bit “icky” – the water was about mid-thigh high and was pretty stagnant and murky. And at our age, we really didn’t have the agility to “catwalk” the narrow passage. So we didn’t go deep into that canyon. After driving around on the wash-boardy roads, we found a camping spot along the way to Harris Wash. Beautiful spot, and it even had Internet! We spent two nights there, relaxing and reading, our friends who were tracking us with our in-reach GPS device worried that things had gone wrong because we were out in the middle of nowhere and we weren’t moving! We have great friends!

Meandered a bit at Devils Kitchen along Hole in the Rock Road.

Loved this pic of an arch at Devils Kitchen.

Not too deep into Zebra slot canyon. Yes, the water was that color! And the slot was that narrow!

We found this nice camping spot along Harris Wash Road.

This canyon was right next to our camping spot. Great little hike!

Our peaceful spot along Harris Wash Road.

13 September. Escalante. We spent a day doing laundry and gathering groceries in Escalante. Would you believe the grocery store there was not open on Sunday? Next stop, Kodachrome State Park.

6 Sept-1 Oct 2020. Canyons and Waves – Part 1

6 September – 1 October. Canyons and Waves – Utah/Arizona Adventure.

First one of our friends suggested a May trip that got us thinking about how beautiful the Utah/Arizona border area was. Because of Covid, that trip got cancelled. Then, because of Covid, our long trip to Canada got cancelled. Then, low and behold, after five years of playing the “Wave” permit lottery, we finally got selected for a permit for that hike. So, we created a month long adventure to enjoy the Utah/Arizona area and end up with our hike on the “Wave”.

6 September – James M Robb State Park. We frequently pass this Colorado State Park on what used to be an island in the middle of the Colorado River as we travel down highway 70 near DeBeque Canyon. We thought we’d give it a try for our first night of this trip. It was very hot, but really nice. Seemed to have good river swimming, too.

James Robb campground in the DeBeque Canyon (along the Colorado River)

7-8 September. Capitol Reef National Park. Then we headed on down to Capitol Reef. Those of you who have known me for a while know that this is where I broke my arm (hiking) ten years ago. I was much more careful this time! Unluckily, the smoke from the California fires seemed to be catching up to us, but here are a few pics. We enjoy driving along the Capitol Reef Scenic Drive (canyon), even got out and did a little hike. We were lucky enough to meet up with some fellow XP Campers, Kurt and Anna, and spend some good times with them.

Fruita Campground at Capitol Reef. Room for two XP’s here!

Driving down the scenic drive – the lack of blue skies just dulls all the colors!

See those little stairs? That’s the beginning of the hike.

View of the Scenic Drive from the hike – you can see how smokey it is!

The next day we all headed off to Notom Bullfrog Basin road and hiked The Headquarters slot canyon. The road is along a “fold” in the earth and there are several slot canyons in the area. Kurt and Anna are geo-cachers, so we were able to track down a treasure out in the middle of nowhere. Then we headed up the Burr Trail Switchbacks, did a little off-roading and hiking at the Upper Muley Twist trail, and then on to some beautiful view areas along Burr Trail.