Day 6 (Wednesday, April 19, 2017): Fiftymile Camp, Iceberg
Canyon, and Halls Creek Bay
We packed up camp and left the Escalante Arm and our camp
spot and started heading back up the lake. On our way, we poked into Iceberg
Canyon which has many forks to it and towering sandstone walls. We took the
boat up as far as we could, until there were skeletons of willow trees poking
out of the water. Then we hopped out and hiked further until we got to a
rockfall that had choked its way across the canyon and created a lake behind it
– about 30-40 feet above the streambed. We found a trail around the rockfall
and had lunch on the shores of the little lake. Then we continued to head
upriver to mile 93 and Halls Creek Bay. It is just west of Bullfrog Bay where
we launched the boat. It had a completely different feel from the middle of the
lake. Here there were not steep canyon walls, it was more like rounded out
hills and islands in a turquoise bay that was choked with old trees sticking up
at the far end. We saw five or six houseboats here (more than on the rest of
the trip combined) and it took us awhile until we found a secluded beach for
camping at the mouth of the bay. It was a great little spot with several ledges
and a lot of carved sandstone hillocks that provided some much needed shade. The
kids explored the area while we set up camp. They found dozens of golfballs
which was kind of random, but they loved it. After dinner we went on a nice
hike up behind our tent to get a view of the lake and the sunset. This spot was
more open than our previous site and we got to see a lot more stars that night.
After Reed went to bed, we also got to play spades with Edison and Charlotte
and had a lot of fun hands at that while sitting around the fire.
Iceberg Canyon had crazy willow trees sticking up above the waterline. It was very creepy.
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