 |
| 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment