Coyote Gulch/ Hole-In-The-Rock Rock May 2001

Escalante River 2001? Andrea had just taken off for a trip back to Columbus, so I left for the Grand Staircase-Escalante area. The first night was by myself and Cinnamon. We camped not too far off the road going from Boulder over to Capitol Reef, in the Boulder Mountains. Up on top of that plateau you could get some great views looking down over to the Grand Staircase and the Capitol Reef and Canyonlands area. The next morning I met Dave at the ending trailhead at the bridge on Rt.12 that went over the Escalante River, just west of Calf Creek. We left his car there, and took my car to where we’d begin the hike 12 miles up the road. This trailhead was just outside of the town of Escalante, right next to the small little river flowing through this part of town.

This was a pretty easy backpack trip, following the river downstream to where Dave’s car awaited us, about 12 miles down the trail. As you left the town, you immediately got into the canyon of the river, which remain the same look the rest of the way – nice straight red cliffs on either side of the river. It was much more scenic than I anticipated, it reminded me of the Zion area. Within a mile, a creek coming in from the left flowed into the river. This was Pine Creek.

About a year earlier I had explored the upper regions of this creek. That trip has started with a grueling 20 mile hike in Harris Wash, just Cinnamon and I. I was wearing new hiking sandals that day because it was mostly in the water of the creek in Harris Wash. When I was done that day, my feet were so sore that I could hardly walk. That afternoon I drove up north of the town Escalante on the Hells Backbone dirt road and ended up high in the Boulder Mountains at the trailhead of the Upper Box. This was the upper portion of the Pine Creek. You can take a nice trail from Upper Box to Lower Box, about 10 miles below. This trail followed the Pine Creek. I camped that night off the dirt road and near the trailhead, but my feet were still so soar the next morning that I could hardly walk. But I gave it a try, and made it about 2 miles down creek till the terrain got more difficult and I turned back, limping all the way.

Pine Creek empties about 2/3rds of the water in the river, so from here on the river was a much bigger flowing stream. Nothing else out of the ordinary appeared until we came upon the half way mark. This is where the side canyon came in from the north – Death Hollow. At the confluence we agreed to find a campsite, and we pitched our tents. We noticed some type of large animal in the trees across the creek, but couldn’t figure out what it could be, so we went to investigate. We came upon a llama tied up to a tree, so apparently some other backpackers were out here in the canyon but nowhere to be seen.

We were ready to explore the Death Hollow canyon wilderness. This was the highlight of the trip, going up the canyon. It was very narrow and nice little falls and cascades along the way. About half way on our journey up this wilderness, all of the sudden a stomping sound could be heard and it was heading towards us. We saw this beautiful large deer with antlers running swiftly right towards us and we had no where to go to get out of its way. Luckily it bounded right past us and continued on down the creek towards the river. We never saw it again. After about two miles we turned back to our campsite.

The next day we passed one more stream coming from the north – from the high country. We also saw 2 arches high up on the canyon walls; as well as a ruin up above us. It was a real easy, laid back 6 miles of hiking, and we arrived back at Dave’s car at the Bridge on the highway.