Trail Pictures

Escalante

Coyote Gulch

Escalante River

Coyote Gulch

Stevens Arch

Coyote Gulch

Coyote Gulch

Tracy in Crack in the

Rock

Tracy in Crack in the

Rock

Stevens Arch

Stevens Arch

Escalante

Stevens Arch

Coyote Gulch

Cliff Arch

Cliff Arch

Coyote Natural Bridge

Coyote Natural Bridge

Tracy @ bridge

Tracy @ bridge

Camp

Coyote Gulch

Jacob Hamblin Arch

Jacob Hamblin Arch

Tracy climbing out

Coyote Gulch

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The weekend of 9 Apr 10, Tracy and I headed out to Coyote Gulch (Google Map) in the Grand

Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah.  We had once hiked down to the

confluence of Hurricane Wash and Coyote Gulch, but we didn't hike past the confluence.  This

time, however, I wanted to see the confluence of Coyote Gulch and the Escalante, as well as

the arches and natural bridges in Coyote Gulch.  So we drove to Escalante on Friday and

stayed in a hotel Friday night.  On Saturday we headed down the Hole in the Rock road to the

Fortymile Ridge Road.  I had read that the last couple of miles on the Fortymile Ridge Road

had some deep sand, but I didn't really think it was that bad.  I was in 4 wheel drive, but I never

really felt like the truck was having a hard time.  It might be too much for a 2 wheel drive car,

but it certainly wasn't bad for 4 wheel drive.  Once to the trailhead, we hiked across the desert

to the Crack in the Rock.  This was a slab of the cliff wall that had separated from the cliff which

provides access off the desert floor down into the canyon.  The view down into the canyon over

the Escalante was really nice.  The Crack was too narrow to carry the full packs through, so we

used some rope to lower them down.  I was expecting the Crack to be more of a problem than

it was, too.  But with 40 feet of light rope to lower packs, the Crack is really no issue at all.

After getting through the Crack, we just hiked up-canyon in Coyote Gulch.  The canyon was

really nice, with some arches, a natural bridge, and some high walls.  We didn't see very many

people, which was nice.  We set up camp just past the natural bridge, and had an uneventful

night.

On Sunday, we hiked on to Jacob Hamblin Arch, where there is an exit route from the canyon.

This was the third and final obstacle that I was worried about it, and this one was far more

difficult than the sand and Crack.  We arrived at the exit just as a large group of 11 people

arrived just in front of us.  Well, they were slow, and we had to wait on them.  After about 20

minutes, we were finally able to at least start, even though the group was only about 1/3 of the

way up.  I didn't have the confidence to try the steep climb while wearing my pack, so I free-

climbed about 30 feet up and then dropped rope down to Tracy.  Tracy then clipped the rope

to the packs, and I hauled the packs up, then I belayed Tracy as she climbed up.  We repeated

this process 4 or 5 times until we were able to free climb the rest of the way up.  Of course, we

still had to wait several times on the group, and it took over an hour for us to get up.  The climb

was rough, but it could be done by an experienced climber while still wearing a pack, but I just

didn't trust my balance on the steep slickrock wall with the pack pulling me back.  The only

drawback to the way we did it: we ripped a couple of holes in each of our packs.  We ended up

having to take them to REI to get repaired, so that was kind of bad.  The climb wasn't really all

that dangerous, but I would certainly think people with a fear of heights or really timid on

exposed rock would have a really tough time with this exit.  But I thought it was fun!  After

climbing out, we headed back to the Tanks trailhead, and I left my pack with Tracy and headed

the two miles back to the truck.

This was a really nice canyon, and I really liked it.  Tracy wasn't a big fan of the exit climb,

though, and it might be too much for people completely unfamiliar with climbing and slickrock.