This past weekend we went down to Escalante to do some hikes that we hadn’t had a chance to do the last time we were down there. I knew going in June would be risky since it gets unbearably hot in Southern Utah in the summer, but it was the first weekend in June and this spring has been unusually cool. Reality did not cooperate with my logic. As the weekend got closer and closer, the forecasted temps just kept going up.
But plans had been made and time requested off. The trip must go on.
We headed down Friday afternoon and met up with a friend for dinner at the Circle D hotel’s new restaurant. The food was good, and they let us sit with Stevie on the patio. The next morning we headed east on Highway 12 to Kiva Koffee. The breakfast there was delicious, and the views were even better.
My only complaint is that they didn’t open until 8:30, which ended up pushing the start of our hiking time back to 9:30. The weird thing is that everything in Escalante seems to open at 8-ish. The only coffee to be had before then is at the gas station on the way out of town.
The planned hike was Lower Calf Creek Falls. It’s a popular hike because it’s flat, fairly easy, and ends at a dramatic waterfall.
The scenery along the way was also stunning.
A woman in the parking lot warned us that she’d done the hike at noon the day before and had to carry her dog out because the sand got too warm for him to walk on. Good advice looking back, but we thought we’d be able to do the hike in two hours total and get out of there before the day really heated up. That was not to be. Stevie was slow in the heat, and we didn’t get to the falls until 11:30. By the time the clock hit noon, we hadn’t made much progress back, and the dogs started whimpering as their paws hit the sand.
We put Amos in our friend’s backpack. I carried Izzy, and Brian lugged Stevie over his shoulders. It was a long 2 1/2 miles back to the trail head.
After we all made it out alive, I declared a moratorium on hiking to Southern Utah during June, July, and August. It’s just too likely to be unbearably hot.
After resting up in our cabin, we decided to head back home the next day. On the way back, we drove along Hell’s Backbone road. It’s a well-maintained gravel road that runs through the mountains between Escalante and Boulder. Climbing up, the temps dropped, and we did a short walk along the beginning of the Upper Box.
It was a whole other world compared to the previous day’s hike. The trail runs along a creek and starts at about 9,000 feet. I’d definitely recommend it if you need to get out of the summer heat.
The drive down into Boulder along Hell’s Backbone was amazing.
I’m hoping to get back down there in September when the weather will be more cooperative. In the meantime, I’m eying Flaming Gorge.
