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.