Escalante, UT
Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, Escalante, UT
Kodachrome Basin State Park, UT
Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
We woke up to a chilly 30 degree morning at 6 AM in Escalante, UT with no word from the Escape Goats Tour company if we were able to make a tour or not. Around 7 AM, I decided to walk over to Escalante Outfitters, where Escapes Goats picks up people for their tours and send out an email. B sent one out the night before, but I wanted to send another request.
Around 7:30 AM, we decided to see if the coffee shop in the outfitters store was open, but it was not. I checked my email and sure enough, Shawn from Escape Goats replied and said they had room for their tour of the day which happened to be Zebra Slot Canyon and Tunnel. Zebra is a lesser known one, compared to Spooky and Peek-a-boo slot canyons. Great! We we were set now for a 7 mile hike to destinations unknown :)
We met up with two other guys which were friends, one from San Francisco and the other from Hawaii. They were staying up the road at the Prospector's Inn. Things were looking up for us, and I like to think of it as if things were meant to be, then they were meant to be, as our plans for the day fell into place and we not only had something to do, but it happened to be the one thing we wanted to do the most, a slot canyon! On a side bar, I want to go and say, rent a 4WD vehicle or at least a 2WD with enough ground clearance and good shocks to drive the washboard roads of Hole-in-the-Rock road. Basically, every place you want to explore is off Hole-in-the-Rock road. Grand Staircase Escalante NM is not like national parks. Here there are no marked trailheads, paved roads, etc. You basically found areas to park your car and hike off on a path that leads to open spaces. If you go at it along, get a topo map and handheld GPS. When we got to Zebra slot canyon, it was not in a place that was visibly easy to find. Same for the tunnel. In fact, we ran into one set of guys that took the long way around to get to the tunnel (by long I mean that added a few extra miles than they needed to by going down Harris Wash. Oh one more thing, watch out for the free range cattle sometimes on the road.
I felt great knowing that we made the right choice going with Escape Goats. Shawn and his wife take you on tours that are not in any guide books or the Internet. The tours may seen expensive at first, but for what you get, it's really the best money spent. Also, it supports the local economy and helps keep great businesses like Escape Goats afloat. Shawn is one of the best trail guides I have ever run into. He not only shows you lots of ancient Indian artifacts, but he also has great knowledge of the local plants and actually gives you some to taste right off the trail. I want to highly recommend Shawn and Escape Goats if you are down in Escalante.
Shawn took us in his extra roomy Suburban down Hole-in-the-Rock road to the trailhead for Zebra slot canyons. There were some regular trails that people follow and even going down Harris Wash would get you there, but he knows the shortcuts and where to take you off the beaten path to see and explain things most people would just pass up and not even know about. I was blown away by the real Indian artifacts he found like pottery pieces, arrowheads, and implements used for crushing grains. These were not in some museum, but he actually found them and had them hidden away to show us.
He showed us rocks which had fossils of mussels in them and evidence of where fires made by Indians had been. WOW! His knowledge of the land made the tour 1000 times better. Also, his knowledge of every single shade tree helped too. I asked Shawn if this was the only way he made a living. Shawn responded by saying "It's not a living, it's a lifestyle." These are words that resonate well with me.
We eventually came upon a tunnel which was the only way to pass through a rock wall. The tunnel was dark, of course, but not long. It was however full of water that was crotch high and icy cold. After coming out of the tunnel, we had to scramble over some giant boulders and up some steeper sandstone walls. We finally ended up on an open area full of little black rocks that were hollow in the center but filled with sand, known as Moqui marbles. We were in an area with the largest concentration of them in all of the national monument.
Finally we ended up at the entrance of the slot canyon where we ran into a group of young 20 something kids mostly (with a few elders in their 50's) scaling the walls of Zebra. I can see why they call it Zebra know as the slot canyon has the prettiest striped walls I've seen. It's so different from Antelope Canyon near Page, AZ. and even from the pics of Peek-a-boo and Spooky slot canyons.
There were some tight spaces to negotiate, but I was proud to see B take up the challenge and negotiate the slot canyon.
About 30 feet in, we found a small bird's nest with a baby chick in it. I hope it survives. Anyway, we stopped for a lunch break under one of the shade trees that Shawn knew about and then headed back to the unmarked trailhead.
What an adventure we had! Shawn also is the only trail guide to still use pack goats for some of his longer trips. However, he will be giving that up due to the Forest Service's request for him to not operate his goats within 9 miles of any known free range area of bighorn sheep because the goats could spread disease to them. He's already spotted some bighorn sheep scat on the trail he usually takes, so he'll be doing away with the goats after this year as a proactive measure. However, Shawn did invite us over to his house after the tour to come visit the goats. Now, that's what I call a friendly and hospitable person.
After the hike, we decided to clean up Moby and organize a few things. I decided to pull over on a public street near the outfitters store. After about 15 minutes, some crotchety old man (which I believe to be the owner) came out of the art gallery and started talking to us in a condescending manner asking me why I decided to take my van and do all that in front of his business. My answer was simple, "It's a public parking." What I wanted to say was, "I don't see your name on this parking spot, what are you gonna do about it!" Anyway, he didn't like the answer and got even more rude to us. I knew he wanted us to move, but his approach was completely wrong. Here's my quick tip for people in general. Ask nicely first and it's much easier to get what you want. I wanted to be a complete ass to this old man, but I decided it wasn't worth it, so I asked him if he wanted me to move my van. Of course he answered yes, as I expected him too. So as I put back in all the things I took out of Moby, he just stood there and watch me giving me the evil eye all that time. I took my sweet time loading Moby back up, but I would have moved it anyway and faster if he had just been polite about it.
Shawn did offer us a visit to see his goats, so We did take him up on his offer to see the baby goats and the pack goats. By the time we were done, I think B was ready to take home a baby goat until I had to bring her back to Earth.
We ended up getting some souvenirs at Gallery Escalante. The owner is a photographer and his wife does basket-weaving. We were talking and found out that he moved there from Bandon, OR. That's pretty cool! He have us his own personal map of the different sights to see at the national monument alongside with some of his awesome photography. I recommend you check out his shop and talk to him. He's a nice, older gentlemen.
So there you go, our mixed bag of hospitality. Everything from very nice to very rude.
We headed out to Bryce Canyon National Park passing through a couple of small towns and stopping at Kodachrome Basin State Park for a little bit before arriving at Bryce Canyon NP for the night.
Sadly, as we were looking for a campsite, Moby happened to receive it's first battle scar as I backed him into a post scrap some paint on the bumper. Oh well...life happens.....
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