Escalante River Trip

 Escalante River Trip

This is my write up of an eleven day paddle trip on the Escalante River in southeast Utah.   Rather than a day by day report, I will try to report the highlights, and give my impressions.

We put in mid-May at the Highway 12 bridge, near the town of Escalante, and took out at the lake.   Most users hike in and hike out; almost all the boats that we saw were packrafts, very small and light.  Having hiked in and hiked out with an inflatable kayak, I said never again, too much work.   Our trip was roughly twice as long as the usual trip, about 90 miles.  There were few other parties in the upper and lower sections, but many between Fence and Coyote canyons.

The trip felt different than other river trips I have taken.  The river is narrow, often 20 to 30 feet wide, with trees on both sides.   Our view of the canyon was often limited, but constantly changing; I felt it was a never ending wonder.  The canyon was smaller than many other desert canyons which I had paddled.  The water level was low during the trip, averaging about 20 cubic feet per second; most rivers are considered to be low at 500 cfs!  

This was perhaps the most strenuous river trip that I can remember.   With the low water, we were constantly maneuvering to avoid rocks and sand bars, and often had to get at least partially out of the boat when the boat got stuck.   One strenuous day included a portage and a lot of rocks; after 4.5 hours, we were tired, only having made four miles that day!

Another difference in this trip was the degree of alone time.  Doug and I were the only people on the trip, and Doug likes his alone time, so I had more alone time than usual, time to think, listen, and take in the canyon.  Usually I travel in a group, so camp time is often conversation time.  I read Edward Abbey’s book, Desert Solitaire, during the trip.

The ugly load on my inflatable kayak.

The length of the trip was roughly double a typical river trip, with eleven days on the water.  This contributed to my boat looking a lot like the Beverly Hillbillies truck, with dry bags piled on front and rear. In my canoe, I can easily keep everything below the gunnels, so it looks very tidy.

Doug has run the Escalante many times, and hiked extensively, so he was like a local guide.

One of the highlights of the trip was the pink room, a box canyon with a pool and extensive overhangs.   It seemed to be a sacred space, and almost impossible to photograph.  It was kind of a 360 degree experience, with rock on three sides and above us.

The two headed sheep is in the center.  I enhanced the photo for readability.

Another highlight was the Baker Bench rock art panel.  It was huge, and seemed to go on and on.  It was hard to get your head around it.  This panel is famous for two headed sheep.  These were petroglyphs, pecked into the rock.  As usual, the age and meaning of rock art is hard to judge, and may have included work over  many centuries.  Some of the art is of course relatively modern, with horses and cowboys.

We saw surprisingly little in terms of wildlife on the trip; perhaps animals only come out at night.  We did run into a herd of cows.

There were a few springs that we could use, and in some places we filtered water from a side stream.  The river was extremely muddy, so the springs were critical.

Our tow

We had made arrangements to be picked up by a boat on the lake.  The boat showed up around 9:30 AM, and we stopped to pick up another couple of paddlers.  But then the boat broke down!  We sent a satellite message to request rescue. A tugboat came and towed us back to the marina, but this was a long day. 

I did enjoy the trip, especially the unique aspects of it.  But once is perhaps enough……