We slept until 7:30 and ate breakfast at Boot’s Café. The décor was cowboy boots, moose antlers, saddles, and a huge stuffed bear. The cook sang along to country music tunes. We drove through Long Canyon and hiked the mini-slot canyon. Then we drove to the Escalante River and hiked along it to Escalante Natural Bridge (actually an arch, if you want to be picky.) The arch was very impressive, but hard to photograph. The trail crosses the river five times, so our boots got soaked. We’re still worried about our footwear selection for the upcoming REI Grand Canyon trip. Coincidentally, we met a group of hikers who turned out to be an REI trip doing day hikes in Capitol Reef and Escalante. The guide recommended a spot for dinner tonight.

After our hike, we stopped at the Kiva Koffeehouse, with wonderful views of the Escalante River and its canyon. Dinner was at the North Creek Grill, which grows their own lean beef on-site. Delicious!

We were up at 6:00, out at 7:15 (a new record), and soon into the dry wash. Even with 10 minutes of backtracking after a wrong turn (the wash kept forking), we finished at 10:15. Fortunately, a large cloud blocked the sun, so it wasn’t too hot.

Upon reaching the trailhead, we saw something red by the car. It was a stuffed duck, slightly the worse for wear. It reminded us of river guide Dean’s duck mascot, so Dan tied it to the grille of the car.

We packed up and drove off down the washboard road. Soon the car complained about a tire pressure sensor malfunction. Then we heard a peculiar rattle. Dan stopped the car, but we found nothing. We continued, and after a mile or so we heard a loud knock and the rattling stopped. I saw a strange rock fall to the road. I was worried that it was a piece of the car, since the roadside actually was littered with car parts. We stopped for lunch after an hour, and I couldn’t find my camera. I realized that the strange rock WAS my camera, left on top of the car. We turned around to try to find it. Thirty minutes later, we passed a red Jeep going in the opposite direction. They turned around to follow us. They had found the camera, looked at the images, and set off to find us. The crazy thing is that the camera still works, if a bit sandy. We’ve been trying to do good deeds ever since.

Once back in town (and swearing never to take the Audi on such a road again), we did some shopping and checked into our charming, comfortable motel: the Cowboy Country Inn. It took 2 hours to make ourselves presentable before heading out for dinner. We were in bed and asleep by 8:30.

The overhanging rocks did not fall, so we were unflattened and up at 6:00. The pit toilet was all we had hoped for, plus it was clean and sweet-smelling. We were on the trail at 7:20. The handholds were more obvious on the way up, so I climbed the sleep-disturbing cliff while wearing my backpack without any problems. After an hour or so, we passed two guys at their campsite near another waterfall. We wished them a cheery good morning, but felt pretty smug to be up early.

We were covering old ground today, so there is not much new to report, except that now we were hiking upstream rather than downstream. The water flow wasn’t a problem, but all the vegetation was pointing downstream, so we were constantly pushing against prickly plants, and they were scratching our scrapes from yesterday.

We made a list of all the wildlife we encountered in the Gulch:

Lots of toads and tadpoles

Lots of lizards

3 deer

2 snakes (no rattlers though)

Ravens

Bats

Ants

Mosquitoes

We hiked for 6.5 hours at a good pace before making camp, since I wanted to get as close to the trailhead as possible for the next day. After setting up the tent, we climbed into it and napped. If you look carefully, you can see the tent behind the trees and the sky in the top right corner of this photo. At 4:00 we went for a hike without our packs. We explored a nearby box canyon, which dead-ended in a pool surrounded by hanging plants. The cliff held evidence of a dry waterfall which fed the pool. We filtered water for the next day, had dinner, and went to bed.

Today we were packed up and out at 7:50, later than we had planned. The map shows a natural bridge (an arch which is carved by water), so we were looking out for it. We found a formation which appeared to be a fallen bridge. We had to hike up and around a huge monolith on a very sandy trail. Phew! Soon we came to the intact natural bridge, and it was very impressive.

We waded in the water a lot today, and there was more sun than yesterday. Navigation problems around a couple of waterfalls slowed us down. It was frustrating. At one point, we removed our packs, Dan climbed down a short steep cliff, I passed him the packs, and then I followed him down. It was the only way.

We arrived at a pit toilet (the only one in the Gulch) around 2:00 and decided to make camp. There was a swimming hole and a beautiful campsite under a precarious rock ledge; it was more like a cave. Dan was nervous about falling rocks, so he scouted for a better spot, but in vain.

After dropping our packs and setting up the tent, we had plenty of time, so we went for a hike! We continued down the canyon, and the going got tougher. We waded in knee-deep water. The vegetation scratched our arms and legs. Soon we arrived at the impassable rock fall. A side path led along a steep slickrock slope. Other hikers had warned us not to do this nasty stretch, and I was uncomfortable attempting it in my water shoes, so we turned back. Dan is still upset that we didn’t reach the Escalante River on the other side of it.

Back at camp, we swam in our pool in solitude and ate dinner. We could hardly see any stars from the tent between the overhanging “cave” and the opposite canyon wall. For all his whining about the 60 million tons of rock overhead, Dan slept well, while I stressed about climbing back up the aforementioned cliff.

After a pleasantly cool night with no rain or critters, we woke up in the dark at 6:00, made breakfast, and packed up. Part of the packing included taking care of solid human waste. (Liquid waste could be left on the ground off-trail.) I had purchased 2 types of bags for us to try: Restop 2 and Biffy Bags. You deposit the solid waste directly onto an inner bag, which contains a kitty litter-like powder to hopefully neutralize odor. Then you pick up the bag by the edges and seal it inside a ziplock mylar bag. It was easier than using a doggy poo bag, but a bit more expensive. The only problem is that you must carry the bag and contents for the rest of the trip. We were on the trail at 7:30 to avoid the worst heat of the day. We continued down the wash, a dry bed where the rain water runs during flash floods. Soon the rock walls became taller, forming a slot canyon. Fortunately, we made surprisingly good time. After a couple of hours, we changed into our water shoes, since we had to cross the stream which appeared out of nowhere. Sometimes the stream was the trail. With the water came an abundance of vegetation, most of which was tough and sharp. This riparian zone was a bit of a surprise to us, as we were expecting desert. Even though the temperature was 95F, we were quite comfortable. We were in the shade most of the day, and our feet were wet.

Soon after lunch, we came upon the amazing Jacob Hamelin Arch; it’s very large and surrounded by an even larger canyon wall carved into a bowl by the creek. We would have camped there except for the two other groups eyeing the site, so we moved on to the next shady bend. We had met some interesting people: 4 women from NC who were traveling for 4 weeks trying to avoid paying for campsites (with great success), a couple of young day hikers who climbed down the scary steep cliffs to see the arch, and a foreign dude who warned us of a “broken clock.(!?!)” After 3 hours of seeing no one, we stripped to our undies and bathed in the stream. Suddenly, a young couple appeared around the corner. Oh well, I’ll never see them again. The bugs chased us into the tent at dusk, so we had an early night.

One of my (Dan’s) childhood memories is of a family road trip from Illinois (where Mom and Dad were in grad school) to Pennsylvania (where Dad’s parents lived). I looked forward to stopping at Sinclair gas stations because of Dino (a.k.a. Bronty), their green Brontosaurus mascot.

I even got a small plastic Dino once, which looked something like this:

We’ve never seen a Sinclair gas stations on the East Coast, but now, here in Wyoming and Utah, 50 years later, they are all over the place! Who knew?

The deal with Dino is that thousands of years ago, as we know from “The Flintstones” (who coincidentally had a pet named Dino), dinosaurs and people happily coexisted. For some reason the dinosaurs died out, their bodies piled up and turned to oil, we pump the oil out of the ground, and turn it into gasoline to fuel our SUVs. All just as God intended.

Upon visiting Dinosaur National Monument (days 16-18) we learned that this whole Sinclair/Flintstones story is a total fabrication. Sinclair’s motivation in this fiction was clearly to sell gasoline. I don’t know what the creators of the Flintstones were thinking. Here’s what really happened:

• 4,500,000,000 years ago: Earth formed.
• 3,000,000,000 years ago: Dead bacteria and plankton start piling up on the bottom of the ocean floor, and eventually turn into oil. (The whole dinosaur/oil thing was a Sinclair marketing fabrication.)
• 66,000,000 years ago: The dinosaur extinction.
• 300,000 years ago: Humans first showed up on Earth. Missed seeing the dinosaurs by quite a bit.
• “Brontosaurus” wasn’t even a kind of dinosaur at the time of the Sinclair marketing campaign. But people liked the name and Fred liked his brontosaurus burgers, so it kind of stuck as a synonym for Apatosaurus.
• Brontosaurus had a long snout. The Sinclair version of the Brontosaurus has the wrong kind of head.

As if all this wasn’t enough to burst my bubble, Sinclair gas stations now sell cute fluffy stuffed dinosaurs, rather than the iconic plastic Dinos.

We had a very stressful morning of planning and re-planning. Rosalind was concerned about the 95F temperatures forecasted for Coyote Gulch, our backpacking destination. After consulting with the ranger again, we decided to head out this afternoon and set up camp near the trailhead, avoiding a second night in the Airstream. This way we could get an early start in the morning, but it means 4 nights in the backcountry-a new record for us. Our plan is to finish hiking each day by 2pm and find a shady campsite near a water source. We also decided on an out-and-back to avoid the additional complication of hiring a shuttle. With our new plan, we reserved a room at the Cowboy Country Inn on our return, shopped for food and gas, and did our meal preparation and packing. My pack was 35.5 lbs. and Dan’s was 44 lbs, including 4 liters of water each. Yow!

We gratefully left the Airstream at 4:20 PM and headed for the trailhead at Hurricane Wash. It was 33 miles along Hole-in-the-Rock Road, a dirt/sand/gravel road with lots of washboard surfaces. It took about 2 hours to reach the trailhead, and the car kept complaining about its tire pressure sensor. We set off on the trail at 6:55. The temperature was very pleasant. The wash is rocky, but a footpath runs alongside it. After 30 minutes, we wandered off the main path and found a large flattish desert slickrock for our camp. It was quiet and secluded, and the stars were incredible. It was our favorite campsite so far.

Dan went for an early run on the scenic road south of the campground. He then turned up a dirt road through Great Wash, a narrow canyon. It was beautiful at dawn. After a breakfast of French toast, we packed up the car and picked 3 lbs. of apples. We had a few stops before leaving CRNP: a mixed berry pie at the bakery, petroglyphs, and a quick drive through Great Wash, so Rosalind could see it.

Then we headed west out of the park and south on Scenic Route 12 to Escalante. It was a pleasant, leisurely drive, and we made several stops: coffee in Torrey, lots of scenic overlooks, and an historic ranger station which is now used as a visitor center. Rosalind drove on the scary winding road called “Hog’s Back,” which had steep drop offs on both sides.

Upon our arrival in Escalante, we stopped first at the visitor center where a helpful ranger advised us on our backcountry options. Next we checked into the RV Park. We moved into the previously mentioned “North by Northwest” themed vintage Airstream for 2 nights. It sounded fun when we booked it, but the RV was cramped, tired, and a bit smelly. The park was mostly empty, and we both got creepy “Bates Motel” vibes from the whole place. We found a nearby laundromat and spent our laundry time trying unsuccessfully to update the blog. We were not happy campers. Rosalind was so unhappy that she woke in the night and decided that leaving was our best option.

After breakfast, we stopped at a bakery next to the campground and bought a “personal “ strawberry/rhubarb pie, which we ate immediately. It was good to have extra energy for our hike. We planned to hike to the Rim Overlook, but once we arrived, Dan wanted to continue on to Navaho Knobs, a 9 mile round trip with a net 1600 ft elevation gain. We saw lots of lizards, lava rocks, and the usual spectacular views. Can you spot the arch in photo 4? The temperature was okay on the hike up, but it got very hot after lunch. Later , we called this hike the “death march.” At the end, we removed our boots and dunked ourselves in the Fremont River. Dan felt sufficiently clean, but I wanted a real shower, so we drove 11 miles to Torrey. I showered and used the wi-fi in the visitor information center to book a place in Escalante for the following night. It was an Airstream (with a “North by Northwest” theme) in an RV park. We wanted to try out an RV after all the tenting, and the motels I contacted were full.

We packed up and left the campground by 9:00. We drove a short way to the Dead Horse Point Overlook to see the Colorado River from above – we had seen the overlook from the river below during our raft trip. The Point is on a peninsula of mesa with a narrow neck. According to legend, it was used as a corral for wild mustangs, with a rough fence at the neck. Cowboys chose the horses they wanted and left the others to die for some reason we can’t imagine. We hiked the 5 mi. East/West Rim Trail, with lovely views of the Colorado River and the canyon walls. We also saw the cliff used in the final scene on “Thelma and Louise.” Our river guides had pointed it out during the rafting trip.

After lunch we started driving to Capitol Reef. It was hot, sunny, and windy. The landscape seemed to change at every turn of the road. We saw lots of dirt devils and strange rock formations sprouting out of the flat desert sand. We were starting to dread our next stop after all these hot, dry experiences, but the Fruita campground in CRNP was actually wonderful. It is located in an oasis with lots of shade trees and an apple and pear orchard open for picking. This site was originally settled by Mormons, and they planted the fruit trees. The park service runs wonderful ranger talks; we learned about frogs, lizards, and snakes, fossils, and geology. It was lovely and cool at night, and we slept well. The only issue was the bathroom light again; this one was on a motion sensor, so it kept flashing on and off.