Escalante - Fence to Scorpion

Escalante River - Memorial Day

We did the Escalante River for our big summer packraft and it was awesome.

First of all - big shout out to the people that participate in the Escalante river watershed partnership. This organization is doing a fantastic job restoring the river corridor.

http://escalanteriverwatershedpartnership.org/

We did the trip over 4 days starting @ Fence Canyon - which was a short hike down to the river.

The gage height was ~ 1.85 feet.

We spent night #1 @ 25 mile Wash @ a great camp spot on the upriver side of the wash.

Spent some time hiking up 25 mile wash and got a great shot of this colorful stream cut.

And pour over. We shared this area an incredible amount of birds and frogs. We saw a few strikingly yellow small songbirds. Please let us know if you know what these are. 

We spent another half day on the river and camped in lower Moody Canyon - which was a fantastic canyon with a running spring and tons of wildlife.

Lower Moody Formations

Pictured above w/ Dani is a what we believe to be a Red Spotted Toad. However, we are not 100% confident in our identification due to the fact that this toad does not show up on this cool website below

http://wildaboututah.org/the-call-of-springtime-utahs-frogs-and-toads/

Regardless of identification - the frogs in Moody Canyon were capable of projecting their small chirps into a chorus of sounds that reverberated off the walls and alcoves.

Looks down Lower Moody

 Back on the river - things became more rocky after the Moody's - and we had to wade several riffles.

We split from the river on the afternoon of Day 3 to exit via Scorpion Canyon.

Scorpion contained permanent water sources in the lower reaches and lots of 

 POISION IVY (disclaimer).

Some of these water holes contained "Speckled Dace" a native sucker fish species. Somehow they must have migrated up from the river during high water.

Dani climbs one of the large sand dunes in Scorpion

Further up things dried out - and we found much sand, alcoves, and the remnants of some Moqui Steps  as pictured here <https://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Photo/detail/photoid/883494/> these formations are the remnants of ancient steps carved into the rock to facilitate travel in and out of canyons.

We are still working on our wildflower identification....

So during this float - we kept noticing that 6-8 inch diameter tree trunks were cut along the stream bank with smooth chain saw cuts. This was absurd to me because we were so isolated. Turns out that the Escalante Watershed Partnership has removed about 75% of the invasive Russian Olive from the river.

Note the lack of Russian Olive on the left bank! Very cool work by this organization. We are interested in helping to knock out the remaining 25%. You can read about the terrible effects of Russian Olive on the riprarian ecosystem and on recreation opportunities at their website.

Sometimes we skipped rocks. 20 + was my record. 

I've run out of things to say.... Enjoy the pictures

The Coalpit

The Utah Transplants have made it to the Coalpit Headwall - and they can't stop going back!

We've been trying to ski the Coalpit Headwall for three years!

http://utahtransplants.blogspot.com/2014/03/getting-to-coalpit-headwall-is-tough.html

We failed twice to reach the head wall. Mostly because  2/3 of our group is from locations that don't have mountains or snow (Virginia and Texas). We eventually became moderately efficient at moving around on snow - and actually made it to the head wall, only to spend hours in the <10 foot visibility.

We've decided on the Bell's Canyon approach after our numerous attempts. While not direct @ 6 miles and 5800' - it's non-technical, so the only thing that can stop you is yourself. Which almost happened on this attempt - skinning w/ one powder basket is twice as hard.

The second best approach from a effort stand point is Coalpit direct. The downside to this approach is the avalanche exposure. It exists from all aspects at all times.

Brian skis out the apron. We were able to ski the middle line and the narrower gully lookers right. The Coalpit exit has extreme avalanche exposure from the sides of the gully - be very wary of making a late spring exit in this lower area. Name of the game is to start early - because the lower 500' before the waterfall is a dangerous place with warming snow. A good refreeze is key too - in order to bridge the creek all the way to the waterfall.

Brian nears the Coalpit from upper Bell's Canyon.

Usually in early May we have found snow and switched to skins at the upper Bell's waterfall.

This hand line seemed safer a week earlier w/ Cole. Much snow melted between then and our next trip. This is a much delayed post - from our early May exploits. Happy ski season. See you next year.

Spring Break 2016: Desert Stuff

Spring Break 2016

We wanted to packraft - but the Dirty Devil flow kept dropping. The word is that anything less than 150 cfs lends to boat dragging.

So @ 10 PM on a Thursday night we called an audible and decided to hike a little known trail from Burr Point down to the Dirty Devil river to explore some side canyons. Dani (above) @ Burr Point overlooking the river. 

45 MPGs. Enough said.

We stopped in Hanksville to pick up some topo maps - and traced the route that we remembered from the WWW. Our memories were poor - because we spent the day wandering around the slick rock playground trying to find a way down to the river. 

So we set up a camp w/ a good view.

and tried to stake out our new "no poles required" tent in one inch of sand.

Somehow the wind always blows when you camp in the desert - but we made it through the night for an incredible sunrise and blizzard.

Snow dumped for about 30 minutes and then the sun came back out.

Me (below) above the great alcove. Very close to the trail in the x-y plane, but very far in the z.

The real trail traverses under the large cliff band. Now we know the exit track for our future river trip.

After getting shut down by the Burr Point trail - we took off down the BLM roads to explore a potential side canyon of the Dirty Devil called "Beaver Wash".

"Beaver Wash" was a complete bust - it was the poopiest parcel of earth that exists do to extensive cattle ranching. It also is completely full of tumbleweeds because it was a very dry wash. We decided that even if we hiked far enough to find water that we probably didn't want to drink it.

So we bailed up into the desert country to make a beeline back to the car. On our way back we found this dead cow carcass, which symbolizes our time in "Beaver Wash".

At this point we had no plans at all - but the afternoon was still young. We started driving and decided to hang a left to head towards our favorite National Park, Capitol Reef.

10 miles down the Notom Rd - we found "Sheets Gulch" and decided to give it a shot.

We love "Sheets Gulch" and Capitol Reef!

Dani teaches middle school science and loves igneous intrusions into sedimentary rock.

We loved this rock formation too - but how this happens is not covered in the 7th grade curriculum.

Sheets started as a dry stream bed in open desert. After 5-6 miles you're enclosed in soaring Navajo sandstone.

Sometimes things don't go according to plan and it's better that way.