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| Backpack | 29.00 Miles |
860 AEG |
| | Backpack | 29.00 Miles | 3 Days | | |
| 860 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | I headed up to Coyote Gulch with Carrie Jane for my first hiking and backpacking experience in Utah and it was a good one! However, rather than backpack, a three day hike would be a more appropriate name for me, as I never carried more than a slack pack with some snacks and some light incidentals on this one due to the shoulder surgery on September 5. In fact, in hindsight the day two trek to the Escalante was probably a bit much for a surgically repaired shoulder on a 10-15 pound resistance limitation, but I pulled through thanks to Carrie, or Carry, as I was calling her for most of our Utah trip.
Day 1:
We car camped in Hog Canyon near Kanab on Friday and arrived at the trailhead around 11 a.m. and after some quick packing and loading down of Carrie we were off. Hurricane Wash is just like the description reads, a little bland at first, but progressively more scenic as one nears Coyote. After we hit Coyote things got special as the magic of the gulch slowly revealed itself and before we knew it we were staring at Hamblin Arch with dropped jaws. We made our camp at Hamblin somewhat hesitantly, as we could tell this was a popular area of the gulch and was sure to attract a crowd, Sure enough, after a short walk down canyon, we returned to a couple of backpackers camped nearly on top of us. Wanting a little privacy in this special place, we hastily picked up camp and relocated to a nice secluded spot down stream that we had spotted on our stroll.
Day 2:
Carrie carried everything on day two and I just brought a hiking pole for balance. It was a bit of a cold morning and I don't think we saw in real sun until somewhere around 11 a.m., but the bridges, arches, mammoth amphitheaters and quaint waterfalls warmed our souls enough to negate our cold toes (this is a chaco hike in my opinion and we both wore them). Stevens Arch and the confluence with the Escalante proved to be the highlight of the day. We did a photo shoot with the amazing arch and I spent a little over ten minutes soaking up to my neck in the Escalante to help calm down my shoulder. I did not wear a pack on day two, but there are definitely some challenging spots for those with only the use of one arm and despite favoring it, the shoulder was a little on fire from the sometimes jarring nature of the hike to the Escalante. Our return to camp was much quicker and uneventful until we stumbled across some ruins sites with some stellar artifacts. After a quick dinner, we spent the next four to five hours eating sand from a pretty intense little wind/dust storm.
Day 3:
Uneventful quick hike out. Started with headlamps, hit the trailhead after only 2 hours and 48 minutes of hiking. We wanted an early finish to move on to our next hike of the day, the Golden Cathedral.
Notes
I only posted the route to Coyote Gulch via Hurricane Wash, as the route did some major jumping around once we hit the gulch and I want to do my part to keep this canyon wild (you can't get lost in there anyways) and the prehistoric sites less visited. |
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Autumn Foliage Observation Isolated
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