Spring Break Day 5 - Escalante Arm Side Canyons

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Day 5 (Tuesday, April 18, 2017): Escalante Arm Explorations: Explorer Canyon, Willow Gulch, Davis Gulch, Fiftymile Creek.

This day was all about exploring the nooks and crannies of the Escalante Arm. It ended up being my favorite day of the trip. We began by going upriver as far as we could, trying to make it to Explorer Canyon that had many cool features in it that we wanted to check out. On the way up, we saw Anasazi cliffhouse ruins up high in a cave on river right. That was really cool, but the area was closed to the public at the moment, so we couldn’t see them close up. Not much beyond that, the water turned a clay-colored brown and we quickly ran out of depth. We used the trawling engine to get us a little further upriver, then got out the paddles. Finally, Eben anchored the boat and we got out and walked across the river to the sandy deposits on the side of the delta. While waiting for Eben to anchor, the kids and I discovered that the canyon walls in that one spot were aligned perfectly for echos! It did two-to-three distinct echos per word. That was fun to play with. We waded through the river and finally got to Explorer Canyon, whose marking buoy was lying sadly on the sand due to the low lake levels (3598 ft). Though our plan was to walk upcanyon to some cool features, that was not going to happen at this point as none of us had brought our shoes and it was now hot and rocky in the canyon. So, we turned around and splashed through the Escalante River, only 6-8” deep in this spot, back to the boat. We then went a couple miles downstream to Willow Gulch which seemed like another really interesting spot. However, due to low water levels, we couldn’t access much of what we had read about in books, but it was still fun to poke around its tight canyons. So, we then went into Davis Gulch. It was fun winding our way through its tight turns and steep walls. We tied the boat up at the head of the inlet when the water got too shallow to continue, and set off on foot. It was a beautiful walk up a small streambed in a narrow canyon. After about a mile, we got to a little waterfall which essentially blocked our progress. But there was a nice pool that had formed under the waterfall and the kids and Eben had fun swimming in it. Charlotte discovered that by standing in one spot on the sandy beach and rocking back and forth, they could destabilize the sand and sink up to their knees into the mud. What fun! We spent the afternoon sunning ourselves in this great spot. Finally, we headed back. La Gorce Arch, in the canyon wall high above us on the walk out, was particularly impressive with the blue sky shining through. The last spot we investigated was upriver in Fiftymile Canyon from our campsite. The lake level had come up a foot since we’d arrived and we were now able to make it beyond our sandy beach and further up into the canyon. It was neat to explore that area too, but it didn’t have the same vegetation and greenery as Davis Canyon had. After a long day adventuring, it was nice to return to camp without a houseboat. However, the wind had kicked up quite a bit and it wasn’t a very relaxing time in the camp due to mini sandstorms flying around all night. In fact, the wind had ripped the stakes for our sun shade out of the ground and when we got back to camp we couldn’t find it anywhere. After lots of scouting around, Eben finally located it sunken in the bay behind our tent. He dashed into the water to retrieve it, but swimming is very hard with a large open parachute behind you. I ended up having to throwbag Eben and help pull him in, but we did get the sunshade back!

Can you see the Anasazi cliff house ruins in this cave?

 Here they are up close. This area was closed to the public at this time, so we couldn't hike up there.

 Charlotte spent much of the trip reading Harry Potter #7.

 The end of the navigable Escalante River.

 

This is the best echo wall we've tested at Lake Powell....

 

We made it to Explorer Canyon. Unfortunately there was no water here and we didn't have shoes with us to continue the hike on the rocks.

 

 

 Anchoring spot for our boat at Davis Gulch.

 Heading upstream on foot.

 La Gorce Arch from the backside.

 Popping into a cave on the way back to Fiftymile.

 Walking time at end of Fiftymile Creek.

 Steep walls, very little vegetation at head of this canyon.

Spring Break Day 4 - Rainbow Bridge, Dangling Rope Marina, Cha Canyon

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Day 4 (Monday, April 17, 2017): Rainbow Bridge Hike, Dangling Rope Marina, Cha Canyon in the San Juan Arm

This was our big mileage day. We first headed to mile 49 and Forbidding Canyon. At the end of it is Rainbow Bridge – a 290’ tall sandstone arch that was formed when the river stopped going around the rock and started to make its was through the rock. To get there we pulled up to a large float and hiked a mile up the canyon. To our surprise, there was a passenger ferry pulled up and a bunch of tourists were heading out of the canyon as we were heading in. The valley was delightful and the arch was spectacular. We ate lunch in the shade beneath the arch and had a nice chat with a couple who was spending a week sea kayaking around the different canyons and camping out. Spurred by a rapidly diminishing supply of suntan lotion (we really lucked out on the weather – it was sunny and 80 every day), we traveled another 10 miles down lake to Dangling Rope Marina. They had only opened for the season a couple weeks earlier and their supplies were sparse. But we did manage to restock on sunscreen and peanut butter and the kids got to have ice cream. From there, we went back up the lake to mile 57 and the San Juan Arm. We went up that arm about six additional miles until we cam to Cha Canyon. At its head was a really cool sandstone bowl with wavy texture to it and a tiny creek running through it in a series of small ponds and drops. It was a magical little spot. Securing the boat, however, was a bit of a problem and so Eben and I took turns exploring it while the other drove the boat around the cove. Had we more time and a better tie up for the boat, we could have kept hiking up and out of the canyon up to the mesa. We then returned the long way home to our campsite only to find that a houseboat had joined us for the night. Though they were nice enough, it felt like a startling invasion of space – after all there are hundreds of other coves and it was irritating that they pulled up here. We tried to make the best of it. The kids swam in the water and we played bocce ball on the beach after dinner. The other group had a fire in the cave up on the wall near our camp spot and it did look really amazing at night. 

 Edison drove a lot of the way!

 Hungry fish at the boat dock for Rainbow Bridge.

 Following Forbidding Creek to Rainbow Bridge.

 

 

Dangling Rope Floating Marina

  

Steep canyon walls mean that even in this cove anchoring is impossible due to the depth being 175 feet. Securing the boat to the sheer rock faces was equally impossible. So Eben and I took turns manning the boat while the other explored the canyon with the kids.

 Cha Canyon - a magical sandstone bowl with a little stream running through it and dropping down into 8 little pools.