JULY 2010
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STEVENS ARCH AND THE ESCALANTE RIVER
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| JESSE IN HURRICANE WASH |
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| CANYON WALL NEAR JACOB HAMBLIN ARCH |
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| SMALL WATERFALL |
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| JACOB HAMBLIN ARCH |
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| COYOTE NATURAL BRIDGE |
Coyote Gulch is a very entertaining thirteen-mile walk beginning in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and finishing in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. There are several different ways to hike Coyote Gulch, but we chose to start at Hurricane Wash, located about thirty miles down Hole-in-the-Rock Road. The dirt road is a bit rough, but we were able to make it without much trouble in a Honda Civic.
The first few miles of the hike were through open desert. This section is not real entertaining, but it is the price you pay to get to the beautiful features beyond. After about three or four miles of walking, Hurricane Wash will begin to tighten up and you will pass through a nice narrows section. A couple more miles and you will encounter a small stream and eventually reach Coyote Gulch. For much of the year, Coyote Gulch has a stream running through it the entire way to the Escalante River. When we visited over the Fourth of July weekend, the stream kept getting smaller and smaller as we hiked, until it nearly evaporated just before reaching the Escalante River.
While hiking Coyote Gulch in the summer is much hotter, it allows you to hike in relative solitude. We encountered few people on our way up the first day, and on our thirteen mile walk out on the second day we did not see a single person. While we made this a two-day hike, camping just below Stevens Arch, most people make it a three day hike, camping at Jacob Hamblin Arch. The area around Jacob Hamblin Arch is a great place to camp, and the spot we camped at along the Escalante River would likely have been covered in water in the Spring.
