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.

Kodachrome Basin

Kodachrome Basin State park was one of the places we skipped in 2020 Utah winter trip. We skipped that time because 1) time restriction 2)fee. Utah state parks require fees to enter. There are so many places to hike in the vast BLM in Utah. Why do I need to pay? That's what I thought, but after hearing some good things about Kodachrome, 3 years later we came back to check it out.

Ballerina Spire

First we did Panorama trail-Cool Cave loop. Total 6 miles with minimal elevation change. Easy and scenic hike. Kodachrome basin is very pretty. It was much more stunning scenery than I had expected. There are many spires and chimneys in many colors. Rocks and mountains are colorful, including orange, white, gray, brown and so on. One of the biggest spires in the park is ballerina spire. Indeed, it is distinctive and spotlight-worthy tall and straight like a ballerina. It can be seen in the long distance. The spire is not monotonous color. It consists of orange, brown, light brown, white. It really spires tall in the background of blue sky.

Cool Cave

Another interesting point is Cool cave. It is a cave actually its micro environment is chilly. It is cool to see that. When we were in the cave, the voice echoed. Even walking sounds echoed.

From Panorama point

A small spur trail to panorama point is very nice. The view is fantastic. 

We had a little more time before sunset after the panorama loop, so we did Angel's Palace trail (1.5 mile). This was also a quite scenic loop, and we did in the best time frame. The evening light reflect the mountain and it was gorgeous color to see. 

Evening light reflection

 

One more bonus was nobody (again) was hiking in the park. The big parking lot that can hover 30-40 cars was completely empty. Solitude is great.

Golden Cathedral, Utah

Golden Cathedral

Golden Cathedral, stunning and dramatic double natural bridge. 

My bucket list had Golden Cathedral in the Escalante area in Utah for some time. The Golden Cathedral is often used as the iconic symbol in the area. I had seen in the picture on the internet, but I really hoped to see in person some day. It became true!

It is about 10 miles (out and back) via Fence Canyon approach. The Golden Cathedral is in the Neon Canyon, which is a side canyon of Fence canyon. To reach the trailhead, there is total 26 mile of dirt road drive. 16 miles on Hole in Rock road, and 10 miles on Egypt road. Especially the last couple of miles are rough. At least AWD is needed, 4WD is better for sure.

We hiked this on December 21st, 2023. Who hikes in late December at -12C (10F) and crosses 10 times the ice-cold Escalante river?

NOBODY. 

No car at the trailhead in the morning, no one for the entire day on the trail, no car at the trailhead at the end of the day. According to the trail registration, we were only 2nd group in December to hike into Golden Cathedral. I love this. Complete solitude. The whole canyon and the Golden Cathedral was ours. What a priceless experience.

The view from trailhead

The trail is of course not signed, but well marked by carin, and going down into the canyons. Already the view from trailhead is amazing. The left picture was taken at the beginning of the hike. The scenery was pretty shining by morning light. First, the path goes down into Fence canyon. There is another approach directly going to Neon canyon, but it is more route finding work needed. 

First crossing point of Escalante river

After a while, we reached the first (of total 10) river crossing point. The left picture is how it looks like. Escalante river is a bit muddy, not-clear water. You might think it is not so deep. It is important to know that all river looks much more shallow than you think. Also, it seems not so strong current. Another mistakes many hikers make is underestimate the strength of current. One more point---the picture looks pleasant on a sunny day to cross this for you reading this in a heated room. This was the day of -12C (10F)! The river was actually deep. It was deep enough to wet my butt (yup, underwear got wet). The current was much stronger than the first look. Luckily the first one was the deepest and the other 4 places were thigh depth. 

Right after 5 crossings was first reward! The large panel of petroglyph! Can you see how many objects on the wall in the left picture? Human, bighorn sheep, bird footprints, circles, lines, etc. A lot of mysterious art can be found on the wall. Here, you can spend hours to admire these!

Soon after this rock art panel, there is a junction to go into Neon canyon. Compared to Fence Canyon, Neon Canyon is narrower and high canyon walls at the both sides. The walls have countless black varnish, which is impressive. Soon after entering Neon canyon, Golden Cathedral showed up. Neon canyon continues, but lower approach, Golden Cathedral is the end. Upper approach you can continue. 

Golden Cathedral! Quite a unique natural bridge to see. Feel like you are on the different world. Such an amazing and even eerie structure. Sun was coming into the deep canyon while we were sitting there, and it was nice to observe every minute the color get changing by sun. Wonderful time.

I ate CHOCO PIE at the Golden Cathedral. My favorite Japanese snack at an awesome spot. I believe that I am the first person who ate CHOCO PIE at the Golden Cathedral! (and I will be the last person I believe)

There is pool under the double bridge. The pool smells some bacteria or fungus in my nose. We went into the pool and looked up the bridge. It was cool. Such a nice day we had.

The Last Season by Eric Blehm

 This blog is not directly related my own hiking. It is a book review. Don't worry. It is still related to hike. Even better, it is a story happened in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. More specifically, it is a story about a backcounty ranger Randy Morgenson in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (SEKI). 

This is a book of 335 pages written in English, which is not my favorite language. I don't usually turn the page of English book with excitement wanting to know the next. Most of the time, I don't finish English book more than 100 pages. This book was an exception. I finish chore of the day and ran to this book every night. 

Randy was a very experienced backcountry ranger. Indeed he served 28 seasons in SEKI. This legend ranger, on his 28th season, he went missing in the middle of nowhere. Having missing own ranger in SEKI, they conducted biggest ever search and rescue (SAR), but he remained missing. 

Throughout the book from numerous stories from his family, his fellow rangers, his wife, letters from park visitors, it is easy to visualize his passion and philosophy into mountains and beauty of remote nature. I have common thing with him, loving remote nature, it was nice to dive into it. More pleasantly, it is nice to remember my John Muir Trail trekking and countless hikes in Sierra by reading about stories in Yosemite Valley, Mount Dana, LeConte Canyon, McClure Meadow, Bench Lake, Tenaya Lake, Rae Lakes, and so on. It is easy to read books where the stage is wilderness I have hiked in.

Story is not that simple as you imagine from beginning. Even in the remote beautiful place, human beings is human beings. Things could get ugly or complicated. It is ironic since some people go to remote wilderness to escape from ugly human relationships. 

I don't tell the detail since I want individual to read and find out, but I recommend this, especially if you are a hiker. 

Presidential Traverse in a single day

One of the most scenic and intense hikes in New Hampshire is known as "Presidential Traverse" It is called that way since it goes through peaks of Presidential range. It is 22 miles with 8891 feet elevation gain. This covers Mt. Madison, Mt.Adams, Mt.Jefferson, Mt.Clay, Mt.Washington, Mt.Monroe, Mt.Franklin, Mt.Eisenhower, Mt.Pierce, Mt.Jackson. (Jackson is optional). Nearly entire route is rocky as East Coast standard. The terrain makes the journey slow down. It took me almost 15 hours including 1.5 hour break. 

First, I left the Boston area 2 a.m., then drove 3.5 hours. I started hiking at 6 a.m. Traditionally the starting point is Appalachia trailhead, and go south bound. The reason is because in this way the hardest part is the first half. First 3.7 mile is Valley Way trail and climbs up 3600 feet. There is a hut at the junction (Madison Spring hut). The hut provides potable water for hikers. This is great. The only spur of the Presidential Traverse is from here to Mt.Madison. 0.5 mile to the summit, so 1 mile spur. I summited Mt.Madison at 8:17 a.m. After I came back from Mt.Madison, I ate a rice ball at the hut and refilled my bottle with water. Then I headed for Mt.Adams. This is the most rocky area of the hike and usually you follow small paint on the rock. I missed somehow the paint and I went to Mt.Quincy Adams (this is not included in Presidential range). This is just a small mountain on the way to Mt.Adams. I used my extra energy. I went back to the trail and summited Mt.Adams at 9:41 a.m. Another 2 miles, I summited Mt.Jefferson at 11:12 a.m. I was getting tired and got slowed down. Another 1.5 mile, I summited Mt.Clay at 12:20 a.m. Another 1.5 mile, I summited Mt.Washington at 1:25 p.m. Because there is an auto road to Mt.Washington summit, there were tons of people there. There is a food court but it was crowded like Walmart. I didn't want to stay there, so I didn't take a break and continued. Hiking down 1.5 miles, I reached Lake of the Clouds hut. I was able to take a break in not so many clouds there. From here I stopped recording what time I summited each mountain. Too tired to record.

Then I summited Mt.Monroe, Franklin, Eisenhower, and Pierce. At the Mt.Pierce, there was a choice to go back straight to the trailhead, or detour to add Mt.Jackson. I got my second wind and decided to add Jackson. Around 9 p.m., finally I finished! I got a crown! 

To celebrate I ate at Burger King at 10:30 p.m. and got chocolate shake. Finally went back home around midnight. It was a long day. By doing this, I beat my record. Now my personal record of elevation gain in 1 day is 8881 feet. (It was Mt.Shasta with around 7700 feet).

Mount Washington from Mount Monroe

Sahale Glacier Backpacking in North Cascades National Park, Washington

 North Cascades National Park. For a long time it had been on my list. Despite I wanted to visit, I didn't study the trail for this trip at all. The reason was, we originally planned to backpack in the other region (Spider Gap). Unfortunately the road to the Spider Gap was closed, so we spontaneously went to North Cascades National Park. 

To backpack there, permits are required. We just showed up at 2 p.m. at the wilderness center and asked if there is available permit on the day. The only permit available on that day was Basin Creek camp. Without knowing much, we said, "Sure"

The ranger was a little worried, because it will be 2000 feet elevation gain and 2000 feet elevation loss and we still had to drive to the trailhead. We said it would be fine. The ranger was from Mass, so she got excited when she found out we came from Mass. 

View from Cascade Pass

The first three miles from trailhead is switchbacks in the woods. Those switchbacks are really gentle. I felt like flat. If it was in New England, you would have to straight up in 1 mile instead of 3 miles. Once we got out of the woods, it has open vista. Extremely beautiful. With short distance, we already reached Cascade pass. Completed the uphill of the day. The view was gorgeous. Then we hiked down into the valley. 

Porcupine

The highlight of the downhill part was a porcupine. Evening is the golden time for wildlife sighting. Not only because it is their activity time, but also they sometimes come out on the trail since man-made trail is so much easier to walk for wildlife as well. When I turned the curvy part of the trail, a porcupine was on the trail. "Oh" I stopped a couple of meters away from him. He was also, "Oh" and stopped. We stared at each other for a while. I tool pictures. Then he thought, "OK. I need to go off trail" and went off in the woods. I love wildlife sighting. It is precious. After 3 miles, we settled down to the Basin Creek Camp. It is designated campsites with 3 spots. Cooking area is common and bear locker is there. This is nice because we didn't need to carry a bear canister. I don't like to be forced to talk with other campers in the common area. I know that a lot of people like "chat, chat, chat" with hikers but I am an introvert and hiking is the time to be away from chatting with human beings (probably I am minority though in that sense). There are another party of 3 guys from Seattle were at the cooking area. I let Mr.N to interact with them. 

Beautiful Basin

The next day, we traced back to the trailhead, but we did two side trips. The first one was short to the small basin. It was worth it. Countless falls could be seen coming into the basin. Nobody was there and really peaceful. 

The second side trip was a big one. First we went back to Cascade Pass, which required 2000 feet elevation gain, then from there, 2.3 miles with 2300 feet elevation gain of side trip to see Sahale Glacier. To go to Sahale Glacier is a popular dayhike, so there were many people on the trail. I wouldn't say it was peaceful trail, but, BUT, the view was incredible. Probably one of the best views I've had. No wonder how popular the hike is. The trail is a lot of scree portion and I wished I had not carried the big pack. I got tired with total of 5000 feet elevation gain of the day. The glacier was amazing, and the all surrounding mountain scenery was FANTASTIC! We took a long break to soak into the view. WOW. I wanted to stay longer, but it was past 4 p.m., so we started descending. Going down was easier with admiring views every step. There are many mountain goats with babies. Cute! After Cascade Pass, switchbacks were endless, but we came back to the parking lot. We saw a black bear on the road near the trailhead. 

WOW

What a view-packed 2 days!

Goat Rocks Wilderness (Cispus Basin-Cispus Pass, Old Snowy Mountain, Goat Lake, Hawkeye Point), Washington

Following backpacking Three Sisters loop in Oregon, we drove to Washington and backpacked in the Goat Rocks Wilderness.

Due to some trail closure in the Northern part of trails in Goat Rocks Wilderness, we had to drive to the different trailhead from the one we had planned. We drove a quite bit, so we couldn't start hiking until 4 p.m. Despite the late start, thanks to a long daylight, we were able to make it to Cispus Basin by 7 p.m. It was 6 miles with 1500 feet elevation gain. The first part was in the forest, but once we got out of the treeline, it was surprisingly beautiful. Cispus Basin is DEFINITELY one of the most beautiful places I have hiked in. When I turned the trail and the entire Cispus Basin entered into my vision all of sudden, I was wowed. The picture below is the first sight of Cispus Basin. I thought, "How could so beautiful place exist?" We camped at the basin. It was an awesome spot to spend a night. It was super great, not only due to the scenery but also because nobody else was there. Compared to Three Sisters loop in Oregon, which was over 80F (27C), Cispus Basin was very cold.

Cispus Basin

 

Next morning, we did some day hike without big packs. From Cispus Basin to Cispus Pass is only a mile. Generally I love going up to a pass, because I can see the other side of mountain and whole new valley view.

Cispus Pass

This time was not an exception. The other side has an amazing view, too. In the distance, there was sea of clouds. This is PCT and I read somewhere online this portion of PCT is the highlight of Washington section. Even this is one of the highlights of the entire PCT. We saw only two PCT hikers going south. North bound PCTers were not yet in Washington in July.

Mount Adams

 

Basalt

A little after the pass, we saw a really good view of Mount Adams. From Goat Rocks Wilderness, you see two giant mountains: Adams and Rainier. Mount Rainier is much more famous, and I had only Rainier in mind, so first I thought it was Rainier, but according to the direction we noticed it was Adams. Both mountains are massive. Another interesting stuff was basalt. Very interesting geology there: the first basalt I saw in person was Devil's Postpile in Sierra. Now this one in Washington. This one you can see much closer with 1 minute off-trail scrambling. Not only these near the Cispus Pass area. You see another basin as you can look in the below picture. What a view-packed area!

Cispus Pass

 

Another basin

After some day hike exploring Cispus Pass area, we came back to the Cispus Basin. We packed up our tent, ate snacks, and left Cispus basin to head for Old Snowy mountain. It was hard to leave super beautiful Cispus Basin. Every single step was full of beauty. Leaving Cispus Basin, we saw another basin. Coming into Cispus Basin, this basin was just above us, so it was not easy to see it. 

 

 

Going to Old Snowy

Going to Old Snowy mountain is surprisingly beautiful as well. This wilderness area is really continuously pretty. This is unusual! Picture in the right is the way to the Old Snowy. What a lovely meadow with magnificent mountain range. Usually I'm not a fan of meadow itself, but in this case, combined with mountains, it made the scene so dramatic. 

The side trail to Old Snowy Mountain is not an official trail, but there is very clear used trail. The view is....fantastic! 360 view. One direction, you can see Mount Rainier. Luckily no clouds covered it. You see surrounding beautiful mountains all over the area. As the name indicates, a lot of snow remains and it makes the scenery even more magnificent.

At Old Snowy

At Old Snowy

 

 

mountain goat

On the way to descend from Old Snowy, we noticed mountain goat in the distance. Big group of more than 20 including several babies. The trail in the picture is PCT going down. That was not the way we went, but someday if I do PCT, I will go there! After 10-15 minutes, they went down to the gully---so we were lucky to spot so many goat. 

 

 

Goat Lake

We continued to descend the trail, and actually we did off-trail to go to Goat Lake. Goat lake is frozen and actually it will remain frozen through summer. As you can imagine, camping by Goat Lake was cold. It was truly beautiful and worth spend a night there, although more than 10 other tents were there for camping as well. It is only 6 miles from the closest trailhead to the Goat Lake, so I saw some people there clearly not experienced backpackers. Despite of that, we were able to find a spot with great view (actually the photo was take from our camp spot), and have solitude from other campers.  

Next day, our plan was to hike out, but we did a small side trip to Hawkeye Point. Ah again wonderful view. Mountains surrounding and Rainier in the distance. Perfect weather and temperature. Goat Rocks wilderness rocks. We were the first person who reached the Hawkeye point of the day. At the top two of us and other 2 people only. We took time to enjoy this special view. By the time we descend to the side trip junction, we saw 5+ people going up there. There was a party with kids, and the parent asked us how the view was. We said amazing. They asked if the Rainier could be seen and we said yes. Then the father told the kids that they would see that. Kids were sitting on the trail in aloof. Typical funny scene.

From Hawkeye Point

I fell in love with Goat Rocks Wilderness. So beautiful. I'm grateful that I was able to hike there.