Box-Death Hollows, Escalante UT 2022

[Charlie Horse]

This year's big trip was to Escalante Utah, and lasted 1 week.  Nan and Phil brought Finnigan, their 8 year old goat, and 2 trainees, Scout and Sonic.  My big goat, Barry Goatalo, had a bit of a limp so I had to take Woodstock (9) and King George (2.5).  I bought George from Nan a couple years back, and George needed some packing experience.  He'd only worn his training pack twice, and the first time was a rodeo.  He'd never spend an over-night nor been away from his sister Butterfly, so this was a big trip for him.

Of course we got some pickle pie in Bicknell on the way down.

You can get a sense for the weather-- Giant storm cells in all directions.  We just did a short 2 mile for-fun walk to the edge of a canyon on day 1.  We were car-camping so we still had to set up and only had a couple hours.  The photos and scenery were epic, though, with the storms in the distance.

   

   

The place was lousy with Moki Marbles.  They're iron-rich hollow spheres.

   

   

   

[Charlie Horse]

Of course, being the desert, there had to be an ominous omen.  

   

   


   

Nan and Fin

   

   

[Charlie Horse]

Strangely, despite very large storm cells to the north and south, we didn't get a drop of rain all afternoon and overnight.

   

   

   

In the distance, its true that an F5 tornado formed.  And by true, I mean false.  There was no tornado, but tornados are exciting, and in the end, isn't that the real truth?  The answer is no. 

   

   

There was a lot of wind over there though-- Lots and lots of green leaves were laying around in sheets on the ground when we finally got over that way.  Possibly giant hail... Or an F5 tornado.

[Nanno]

Cool cloud photos! I haven't even had time to look over my photos yet. Hopefully tomorrow.

[Charlie Horse]

The next day we headed off to something Nan called "The Cosmic Ash Tray", whatever that was supposed to mean.  I had no idea.  The route would take us over those stone hills and dunes with strange erosion patterns on the surface.  While we were out, a mild rain came down for 15 minutes or so.  The rock turned shiny and tons of puddles and little rivers formed in the cracks.  I'd always wanted to see the desert like this!

   

   

   

   

   

   

[Saph]

Beautiful photos & descriptions, Herb! Looking forward to more of yours & Nan's as well. Way to get it done!--Saph

[Charlie Horse]

And now (drum roll) the COSMIC ASH TRAY!

At the top of this stone hill, through this small, smooth saddle we could hear voices.  We knew we had arrived.

   

I didn't know what to expect.  So here's how I'd describe the COSMIC ASH TRAY.  Its like a volcano-- a big hole scooped out of the top of a mountain.  The sides of the hole are vertical except for the saddle area, which is still so steep we knew we'd have a hard time climbing out, not to mention the goats.  The inside is filled with colorful sand and there's a giant stone... Phil thinks it may be an alien skull, free-standing in the middle of the sand.  I can see a way that some water can flow in, but there's no way out.  I've got no clue how something like this could form naturally.  That leaves only one answer to this geological impossibility....

   

Ancient

   

Alien

   

Astronauts

The people that were down in the sand had a rope to help them escape.  Otherwise, I think I'd have called this "The People Catcher"

[Charlie Horse]

   

When we got back, the map software said we had gone 9.3 miles.  Seems legit.  A smaller storm cell came in and it started to rain.  Phil and I hid in the horse trailer along with the goats for 15 minutes while it rained.  Nan was off  in the truck looking for a new camping site.  After the rain stopped, we heard a strange roaring sound.  Phil thought it might be waterfalls on the big rock formations to the south where the rain had hit much harder.  In the beams of sunlight, I could see large objects falling-- Big hail!  We got back in the trailer.

   

The hail never got us at the trailer, but there was a rented camper jeep in the parking at the trail-head.  I think those guys were out when the hail hit.  Here's a pic with 60x telephoto showing hail piling up on ledges.

   

We ended up staying in the same location and the storms cleared up overnight with no rain at all.

[Charlie Horse]

The next day we had planned on hiking to a certain arch, but re-examining the map, it became clear it wasn't a 9 mile hike, but 9 miles each way!  We decided to explore the stone hills instead.

   

We marched down, down, down into the canyons below, always aware we'd have to climb out on the way back.  We had a turn-around time along with a rough destination picked out.

   

We found a waterfall.  Here we are at the top looking in.  Woodstock isn't wearing a pack because its just a day hike.

   

We found an arch-in-the-making...

   

   

And a pool where the waterfall (now dry, despite the recent rain) would splash down.

   

   

[Charlie Horse]

When we decided to turn back, we wanted to try to climb out of the canyons in a more direct route we'd spotted earlier.  Would it work?  Maybe.  We'd have to find a way up the smooth rock and over the capstone edge.

   

An uphill slog.


   


   

   

Looks steep, doesnt it!  If only there was interesting scenery to look at while we climbed.

   

The rock looks like muscle fibers.  It turns out it was a good move.  We found our way out and marched back to the truck on the main road.  We met a rich wanna-be gypsy lady from Arizona in a sheep caravan trailer.  We got the "Are those.... goats?" question that makes it clear she aint no country girl. 

The hike today was a big success even though it was a random hike in a random place.  Escalante is awesome!