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Today was all new territory for both Sam and I, seeing as he has never been to Escalante. Along highway 12 the pink rock disappeared into the rear view mirror and was replaced by huge grey rock covered in coniferous trees as far as the eye could see. After visiting two brand new extremely well staffed visitor centres we soon realized Escalante National Monument is a really big place. Bigger than Bryce and Zion put together and yet wonderfully less populated by international tourists, more of an outdoorsy granola loving traveller vibe! Since we only have one day here we focused on a 4 mile hike to a natural bridge and a slot canyon adventure for the following day.
We settled into our campsite that 'snowed' with Cottonwood trees, something I soon realized I'm allergic to. Our neighbour 'GhostLoon' according to his license plate, was a grey haired hippie originally from New York now living in the Adirondack Mountains. Interesting folk are attracted to Escalante!
Our evening involved our monkey feet and five river crossings to a stunning natural bridge. Unfortunately, mosquitoes greeted us as soon as we reached the bridge so it made our journey back a faster pace! As hiked back we heard a take-off of a hawk a thing of beauty I have never seen or heard before.
May 12- Today brought some intense driving for Sam, memories of Costa Rica for sure. Ridged dirt road full of gravel the size of softballs, called 'Hole in the Wall' road. About an hour each way I was truly hoping it was worth it. This road is completely impassable in rainy weather luckily like with the rest of trip it was perfect weather. A hike down some red rock led us two very cool and uniquely different slot canyons: peekaboo and spooky. Honestly the most unique hiking ever, and lends itself to National Geographic- like photos. Peekaboo has a scramble up and our monkey feet were very useful, other folks had to ditch their shoes and go barefoot for traction. After peekaboo we went on to Spooky which was a bit spooky, definitely more narrow, one has to carefully navigate through some tight spots! My toe was very sore after getting stuck and tragically a non venomous snake had an untimely death. Sad. But all in all definitely worth the crazy bumpy road to get there. Slot canyons are definitely as neat as I had hoped!
Sam had quite a lot of driving ahead of him after 1400 miles in two days as it turned out. The lonely highway 50 proved to be even more desolate than imagined, definitely somewhere not to get stranded- brings new meaning to 'out in the middle of nowhere'. Our final stop was a surfer sandwich stop at University of California, Davis where the sun shined and the beer was stronger! A fantastic way to finish the ultimate Utah adventure, that I now lovingly refer to as Utah- Booyah!!!
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Janet Lots of info in here for anyone wondering what these places hold for a traveller to the land of rocks and deserts.
Aunt Margie WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!