Travel in the time of Covid pt. 4

After leaving Zion, we were ready for some less populated hikes – and we got that! Our next stops were Bryce Canyon National Park and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

We unfortunately did not give ourselves enough time for the back half of our trip. The only day we had in Bryce Canyon was driving from Zion to Escalante, and due to some major snow only got to spend a few hours there.

The one hike we were able to do, Peekaboo Loop Trail, was a lot of fun but also a lot of work. You start the hike quickly descending to the canyon floor 1500 ft below, then make a big loop, only to have to finish the hike with that same 1500 ft elevation change.

The views were amazing but around the time we reached the bottom of the canyon, a good amount of snow was coming down. This obscured the sights a bit and made the hiking all-around more difficult. That isn’t to say we didn’t enjoy the hike, but there were times on the way up that we nearly lost the trail because it had been covered in snow – and drudging through snow going uphill was a workout!

When we got to the top, we took a picture of the view to give an idea of how hard it was snowing – at that point you could basically not see anything!

We decided to head to our Airbnb for the night, since we weren’t sure what kind of roads we would be driving and how bad the snow would get – so we only got the one hike in. We will definitely want to spend more time in Bryce the next time we’re down there!

Our Airbnb is worth a callout. We stayed at the Escalante Cliff House, which was way overkill for the two of us but it was remote, had a great kitchen, and great views in the morning! Well worth a visit in the off-season when the prices are cheaper, or with a larger group where you can split the cost.

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument may have been our favorite place on our trip. We only had a day there, so we tried to pack a couple of fun hikes in – and they turned out to be a blast!

The first hike was the Lower Calf Creek Falls. This was such a nice hike – it’s relatively flat, but a decent length so you’re not in and out in half an hour. And best of all, it ends in a beautiful waterfall, which was definitely unexpected!

The second hike we did was a new experience for us – slot canyons! I knew I wanted to hit some up while we were in Utah but every opportunity had been thwarted by snow so far. Finally, I got my slot canyons!

We drove down a very bumpy dirt road for about 20 miles, which took approximately an hour to the Peekaboo and Spooky Slot Canyons. From the trailhead, it’s maybe a mile or two of fairly easy hiking – and then we came to an unexpected challenge, a maybe 30 ft elevation change at a very steep grade, all snow and ice covered. We threw on our crampons and made it down with a bit of scrambling – but you could see spots where people, either on purpose or accidentally, just slid down the slickrock.

We finally made it to the first slot canyon – Peekaboo. We had to help each other get to the canyon (it was a bit of a jump up), but then the fun started! Peekaboo was a good intro, fairly narrow but enough room to breathe. Then we get to Spooky Canyon – at times it was so narrow, if we had put on any more vacation weight we wouldn’t have made it through!

One of the most intimidating moments was the 7 ft drop we had to navigate in Spooky Canyon. If we hadn’t run into a better prepared fellow hiker, we probably would have turned around – it’s a straight drop down between boulders with no indication that that was the correct path. Fortunately, the other hiker knew what he was doing – he dropped down and then helped us down as well. Thanks Chris from LA!

And with that, our day in Escalante was over. The next day we were off to our last National Park, Capitol Reef!