Peek-a-Boo and Spooky Gulch, Utah

 Great slot canyon experience! Really narrow. Narrower than you can imagine. 

3.5 mile loop including both Peek-a-Boo and Spooky Gulch with narrows from Lower Dry Fork trailhead.

 

 

 

Narrows

Lower Dry Fork trailhead is along the Hole-in-the-Rock road (26.2 mile drive of Hole-in-the-Rock road). First part is hiking through narrow. The narrows look narrow? After doing Peek-a-Boo and Spooky Gulch, I consider this is a wide narrows, although the word wise it sounds weird. 

 

Peek-a-Boo Gulch entrance

After this narrows, you will come to the entrance of Peek-a-Boo Gulch. The left picture is the entrance. This entering part is actually most challenging (it is better than the ending is a challenge in my opinion). There is 6 meters (20 feet) nearly vertical climb. Not too bad. There are moki steps and all dry. In the book I read in advance said often pool under the climb and the climbing rock is wet, which is not safe. First Mr.N climbed up. It might be difficult to see in the picture, but rope was left there. Rope is not tied anywhere, so anyway at least one person in the group needs to climb without rope. Once one person is up, next person can use rope (the first person need to hold the rope). Luckily I was able to use the rope thanks to Mr.N. After we both climbed up, a group of 5-6 people (most likely everyone was over 60 years old) came and heard screaming. They were not speaking English, but it was clear saying crazy. We proceeded the gulch, but we never heard they came into the gulch. Since we knew more obstacles would coming in the gulch, we decided not to help or chat too much with them. I judged unsafe for them. 

 

Double Natural Bridge in Peek-a-Boo Gulch

Go under rocks in Spooky Gulch

Right after the first challenge, several challenge continued as I read in the book. We needed both hands and legs and most of the time first threw a daypack to the top, then climbed it so that light body can be pushed up easily. Challenging but it was really FUN!! Also it is really cool to see double natural bridge in the gulch. It is very unusual thing. It was my first time double natural bridge in such a narrow gulch.
It is called Peek-a-Boo, because once go through the bridge, another bridge come into your view. Peek-a-Boo gulch is less than a mile and opens up quickly. 

 

 

Then there is 0.5 mile of open vista walk to the entrance of Spooky Gulch. This is called spooky, because it is dark in general, and one section one needs to go under the rock (I read some books and it might be possible to go over the rocks, though). 

 

 

 

Spooky Gulch

After this challenge, the Spooky gulch gets extremely narrow. There is no way to pass two persons at the same time. Due to that trailhead sign recommend one way loop (Peek-a-Boo to Spooky). I was much easier than Mr.N since I'm a smaller person. While I had fun here, Mr.N said it was exhausting due to narrowness. Daypack needs to be carry in front or side. No space to keep it put on the back. It is same as packed Japanese train. You must not put a pack on the back. The picture with my foot can give you a sense how narrow it is.

foot in Spooky gulch

 

In any way, this is highly recommended hike to experience Grandstaircase-Escalante and slot canyons.

Coyote Gulch, Utah

Coyote Gulch a spectacular place in the Escalante area. This was on my bucket list and I am so glad I explored Coyote Gulch. 

We did this as 2 night/3 day backpacking. Round trip 26 miles (plus some side trips). To go to Coyote Gulch there are several approaches. We chose the easiest way via Hurricane Wash. Other ways require 4WD with high clearance car to reach the trailhead. We had an AWD with not too high clearance, so we decided to be safe.

Jacob Hamblin Arch

First 6.5 miles is dry, mostly walking in the Hurricane wash. At 6.5 mile, you see a massive arch. Jacob Hamblin Arch. Fat, tall, magnificent arch. There are several camping sites both sides of arch. We thought about camping here before start, but we arrived at lunch time there, so we took nice break here and continued hiking. From there, it is not avoidable to wet your feet. Every meander of the creek, a hiker has to cross it.

Coyote Natural Bridge

At 9 mile point, there is another breathtaking spot. Coyote Natural Bridge. Since this is a natural bridge, the creek goes through the bridge. The rock color is lighter, and desert varnish is more distinct. We climbed a side used trail to get a nice view from here. In the distance we saw a little remnant of ruins in the alcove. Fun. 

 

 

 

rock art

After passing Coyote Natural Bridge, we found a petroglyph high up the canyon. There is a used trail to go up there: why not checking out? The trail was steep, but it was worth the workout. Now nobody can tell what the art mean, but it is really fascinating to see it. There are two colors: white-ish and brown-ish. Not sure it is a human or some sort of trademark for the tribe. The art was on the side of alcove. 

 

Pieces of corn, bone, pots

When we checked out the alcove, there are signs of ruin, although most of it was no longer intact. There are many corns, pieces of pots, ropes, bones are left. Those things were on the remains of ruins as you can see in the left picture.
Corn are very small. I can imagine their tough life in 8000 years ago.

11 miles in, we reached the saddle that had an excellent view of Cliff arch. We set up a camp there. AWESOME VIEW! The picture below was taken from our campsite. Evening light reflect on the rocks and the color became firing orange. What a glorious color. 

Not everybody sees Cliff Arch from this angle. In fact, most people stay at the river level and not climbing up the saddle. I watched a Youtube video doing day hike in Coyote Gulch and he stayed at a lower level, because he was so tired at 38C (100F) weather in late June. Understandable at 38C, you want to stay close to water and not sun exposed dry saddle. From below, the view will be the next picture. The same arch, but it looks completely a different thing. I like the both directions, but I am glad I saw the full of arch hole. In the evening I was even able to see the shadow of arch hole on the back rock wall. How cool it was.

Cliff Arch

Cliff Arch from another angle

The next day we left a tent and proceeded to Crack in the Wall as a half day hike. The another angle of Cliff arch was seen on the way to Crack-in-the-Wall. Literally, there are cracks (three) in the wall at Crack-in-the-Wall. It is another way to go to Coyote Gulch from another trailhead, but it needs good high-clearance and 4x4. Also rope is needed. We didn't plan to go out via Crack-in-the-wall, but went there to enjoy the view. The view was incredible! Escalante river down, and up can you see the huge Stevens Arch?

View from Crack-in-the-Wall

We found a good viewpoint for Stevens Arch. This arch is immense. Nobody around, all ours!

Stevens Arch

After we enjoyed the view, we traced back to the campsite, and proceeded back to Jacob Hamblin Arch and camped on the 2nd night. Day3 we traced back to the trailhead.

We saw 2 dayhikers at Jacob Hamblin Arch who came via Crack-in-the-Wall on day1. I think they came back to Water tank trailhead via sneaker route. On day3 in the morning we saw a day hiker going to Jacob Hamblin Arch in Hurricane wash. Other than that, nobody. Our most remote day was day2, and that day absolutely nobody in the gulch! It was so so worth it with great view in complete solitude.