Rod planned a fun little weekend getaway for us to get me out of the house!
We went down to Escalante and explored just about everything we could that didn't require us to walk in any water! It was too cold to be wet, but perfect for all of our other adventures!
We had a great time!
The sunset on the way down was gorgeous!
We stopped at a scenic turnout - but the wind was blowing SO hard and we were freezing!
Our first hike was to Lower Calf Creek Falls.
We were the ONLY ones there!
The hike in was so fun - there were so many little nooks and crannies that had formed in the rocks!
These giant walls reminded us of Lake Powell, so we wanted a picture - but we also tried to capture the size! They are just massive!
So many little cool ice formations hanging from branches, reeds, etc.
We are so pink from the cold, but the falls were breathtaking!
Rod caught some really cool pictures of ice next to the falls! By the time we left, a lot of these huge chunks of ice had fallen off. It was quite the sound to hear them fall!
Apparently you can't poop here. :)
Look at the ice on the walls! It really was SO cold!
I stepped back to take a picture of Rod taking a picture to try to capture the magnitude of the falls!
It's 124 feet!
This little duck was unphased by the cold!
After our adventure at Calf Creek, we took a drive into Boulder.
What a funny little town! We stopped at the Anasazi State Park Museum to use the bathroom. The ladies there were so happy to have some visitors! The museum was free because it was under construction, so we decided to wander through it. The head lady at the museum chatted our ears off forever! We did learn some cool things, but we eventually had to find a reason to go.
Rod bought me a beautiful ring made out of malachite while we were there.
Our new friend encouraged us to check out Long Canyon Slot. We were so excited to see it . . .
While it was definitely beautiful, it is the SHORTEST slot canyon we've ever seen!
We got to see a lot of the Burr Trail Road though, and that was fun!
We both really wanted to see Peekaboo and Spooky Slot Canyons, so we drove over to Hole in the Rock Road. We stopped along the way to see Devil's Garden. It was so much cooler than we were expecting it to be! It seemed to go on forever with so many unique rock formations!
Metate Arch was fun to see!
This one is Mano Arch!
We headed down the road another 20 plus miles and started the hike into the slot canyons, but the sun was already starting to set and the wind was blowing so hard. We were freezing and as we started to do the math, we realized there was no way we could safely hike through the slots and get back to the car before dark. We were pretty bummed.
We quickly learned that Escalante is a ghost town in the winter months. NOTHING is open.
We were starving and had four options! Gas station hot dog, Subway (also in the gas station), a little grill in our hotel, or 4th West Pub. We chose the Pub! It was a good choice! Rod's burger came with their branding on the bun!
We went back to the hotel and tried to hot tub, but the hot tub was cold, so we called it a night!
The next morning, we tried to decide what our best options were.
We both agreed that we were willing to travel the 33 mile dirt road again to see the slot canyons.
WORTH IT!
We kind of laughed at this little gauge for measurement, but once we got into Spooky, we realized it wasn't a joke. If you couldn't fit through those bars sideways, you could NOT fit in Spooky!
Such a beautiful, but COLD morning! It started out at about 11 degrees!
Not sure what was happening with our faces - other than we were so excited to see how cool Peekaboo Slot Canyon was!
This canyon twisted and turned and surprised us constantly! It was amazing!
Then we got into Spooky Gulch - it was also amazing, but it's more of a narrow slot canyon than the corkscrew that Peekaboo is. There were some TIGHT spots in this one!
We weren't sure how to navigate this part at first - go over the rock pile, or under!
We had to go under.
Flash floods fascinate both of us - we'd like to watch one happen from a safe distance, but being in these slot canyons quickly made me realize how deadly a flash flood would be. You could see debri from previous flash floods, and you could see how the strength of the water flowing through the canyon formed all of these little pockets! You would not get out if there was water in there.
Hiking in, we had no idea what we were looking for, but on the way out,
we could see the entrance to Peekaboo!
We decided to call it a day and a trip after this hike, but once we got in the car and started researching, we realized that we missed SO much, so it will definitely be a place we visit again!
It was the perfect weekend!
