SLICKROCK PARADISE

 

 

While Christy and I had taken several trips to Utah, Colorado, and Arizona previously, we were largely focused on visiting new places on this one.  There were a couple of exceptions though.  We were planning to hike the Virgin River Narrows in Zion National Park in Utah for the second time.  However, the follow up trip would be a two day backpacking trip, while our first visit had been a long dayhike.  That promised to be a very different experience.  I also planned to revisit Upper Calf Creek near Escalante.  On our last trip, Christy and I had hiked to Calf Creek Falls.  Afterwards, I did a separate hike to Upper Calf Creek solo.  That hike had just been a couple of hours, but I was blown away the beauty of the place.  This time, I planned to bring Christy with me, and we were going to spend the night down there.

 

We had breakfast and packed up the next morning.  We got a little lost on the drive out, which was exciting since we didn’t have a cell signal and Google Maps wasn’t working.  We eventually figured out our mistake and found the way out to the main road.  We then drove past Navajo Lake.  It sits down in a basin, which was full of smoke from a nearby wildfire.  We had planned to stop at the lake to do the short hike to Cascade Falls, which is a waterfall where The North Fork of the Virgin River emerges from a cave in the side of a cliff.  However, the smoke was thick and we didn’t want to hike in it.  Instead we drove on through Red Canyon and past the entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park.  We stopped at a roadside pulloff for lunch before continuing on to Escalante.  Just before town we stopped at a Ranger Station and picked up a backcountry camping permit.  Then we drove through town and down to Calf Creek.  From there we continued up the most exciting stretch of scenic highway 12.  This stretch of road follows a narrow spine of rock with dramatic drop offs on both sides.  At the top we saw some college aged kids getting ready to longboard down it.  I’ll bet that was awesome, but terrifying.  I hope their skills matched their ambition!

 

The directions in Kelsey’s guidebook are wrong, and we missed the turn for the trailhead.  I did the same thing on my previous visit, and I think we actually turned around in the same place.  We doubled-back, and found only a couple of other cars in the parking lot.  That was a bit of a relief.  It was a Saturday afternoon, and I was hopeful that it wouldn’t be crowded.  One group had just hiked out, and there were only two other cars in the parking lot.  That was encouraging.  We packed up and started down the trail.  At that point it was 92 degrees, which seemed almost reasonable for mid-afternoon.  Christy only carried a light daypack, which left me to carry everything else, including a small cooler with cold beer.  The first part of the hike was painful with my heavy load.  The route starts with a steep descent on slickrock.  In fact, the entire area is nothing but slickrock for as far as the eye can see.  The footing was a bit sketchy, thanks to the steep grade and lots of loose pebbles.  I took it slow, and eventually the grade eased.  The rest of the hike down to Calf Creek was more reasonable.  We eventually reached the rim of the inner canyon.  We passed a partial view of Upper Calf Creek Falls and continued to the pool at the brink of the falls.  It is fed by a pleasant little sliding cascade.  Immediately upstream is a thick stand of scrubby trees and shrubs.  Just upstream from that is another lovely pool fed by a 10’ waterfall.  That pool is an incredible swimming hole in a stone bowl.  Upstream from there is nothing but a jungle of scrubby trees and shrubs.

 

There were three people there when we arrived.  There was a friendly couple from Salt Lake City at the upper pool.  At the lower pool we met a college kid from Minnesota that had a summer internship with the National Forest Service.  All of them were dayhiking.  It looked like we might have the place to ourselves that evening!

 

It took a while to find a suitable campsite.  Christy had her hammock, while I was planning to cowboy camp.  I found a flat, sandy spot just upstream from the upper pool.  Finding good trees for the hammock was more challenging.  We eventually found a spot that worked.  It was conveniently close to where I planned to sleep.

 

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the sun, swimming, and drinking cold beer.  Later that evening I hiked down to the base of Lower Calf Creek Falls.  The route isn’t obvious, but there is a good path all the way to the base on River Left.  It is a scenic waterfall, but the area around the base is marshy and buggy.  I didn’t stay down there long.  I originally thought I might hike from there all the way downstream to the brink of Calf Creek Falls.  By that point I wasn’t feeling that ambitious.  Instead I returned to the top of the falls and went for another swim.

 

Christy and I enjoyed a wonderful, peaceful evening together.  We had quesadillas for dinner and got a little drunk before crashing under a sky full of brilliant stars.

 

It was cold the next morning.  In fact, it was in the low 40’s.  Neither of us had expected that, and we hadn’t prepared for it.  Christy was a bit frozen, having slept in her hammock with only a lightweight sheet for warmth.  It took the promise of hot coffee and breakfast burritos to get her up.  Fortunately it warmed up quickly.  We had just finished packing up and were getting ready to start the hike out when the first dayhikers arrived.  Our timing had been perfect!  The hike back up was uneventful, and we still had a full day ahead of us.



Continue reading about our trip as we dayhike to the Golden Cathedral in Neon Canyon.



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