Utah Vacation - Dry Fork

Today we drove down Hole In The Rock Road to the Dry Fork trailhead.  Hole In The Rock had been scraped after the recent rains and the first few miles as far as the Devil's Garden turn-off were quite good and the rest passible.  My notes from last time said the side road to the trailhead required 4-wheel drive, but that hardly describes it.  I was driving and came to a point where I could not imagine a car, 4-wheel drive or not, could make it over the shelf of rock in the road.  While I was deciding what to do, another car came along and after a couple of attempts managed to get through.  So W took the wheel and we made it.  Coming back after the hike was even more challenging.  Not sure we will ever be driving that road again.

The hike itself was a fun explore.  Six years ago we investigated Peek-A-Boo slot canyon, went through Spooky slot canyon, and walked a little way into Dry Fork but didn't have time to go far.  So this time, we wanted to explore Dry Fork.  We did not remember how much effort it takes to get down into the canyon that contains these hikes.  It is hard to get a good perspective from photos, but it is a long way down from the top on the right of this photo to ground level in the middle of the picture.


I found the route most people were taking to be too difficult; over very steep and slippery rocks.  But we found another route that worked very well and we got to the mouth of Dry Fork.

This year, probably due to the recent rains, it was not dry but other hikers had made paths through the mud so it was not a problem.  We hiked in about 1/2 mile until it got too narrow to go around the mud, then we came back out.




Then we had to go back up the trail.


and up


and up.

Utah Vacation - Willis Creek

Driving north, we found Skutumpah Road to the left off the paved portion of Cottonwood Road, just a few miles south of Cannonville.  We had missed it on the drive south.  This road is also said to be impassible if wet, and it was barely passible dry.  We were so glad we had 4-wheel drive.  The road condition was not helped by the fact that they are laying fiber along the shoulder, making the road even softer.  That was quite a surprise.  I can't imagine what parts of this desolate, but beautiful, land the fiber is connecting.  We drove about 6 miles down the road to the Willis Creek trailhead.


We knew we would get our feet wet but figured our shoes needed a bath.  And the water was only a couple of inches deep at most, with plenty of rocks to step on.  We walked down into the creekbed

and along the creek as it flowed through neat canyons.  We only went in about a mile before turning around.  We had enough walking for the day.  And while the canyon was neat, it wasn't nearly as deep or as dramatic as Cottonwood Narrows.




There was a small waterfall where the creek dropped into the next canyon.

Utah Vacation - Grosvenor Arch

As we drove back up Cottonwood Road, we took the 1-mile spur to Grosvenor Arch.  There is a short paved walkway to the view of the arch.


There was not much else to see there, so we drove up the road to our next stop.

Utah Vacation - Cottonwood Road

After the first of several nights at the wonderful Slot Canyons Inn outside of Escalante, we did our first hike in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.  We rented a large 4-wheel drive vehicle so we could tackle some of the unimproved roads in the area.  Today we drove to Cannonville and then past Kodachrome Basin State Park onto the unpaved Cottonwood Road.  We had been concerned that the rains of the previous few days would make the road impassible, but the rangers at the visitor center assured us the road was fine, and it was.  We drove down to the north end of Cottonwood Narrows and had a wonderful explore.

After a couple of tries we found our way into the narrows and walked about 3.5 miles round trip.  We didn't go all the way to the southern end.  The valley opened up and wasn't as interesting farther south, and we had lots more exploring we wanted to do.
There are LOTS of these neat eroded holes in the park.

We had read that the canyon was wet, but it was completely dry.









It was more open toward the southern end.

Utah Vacation - Capitol Reef

After we left Goblin Valley, we drove through Capitol Reef National Park on our way to Escalante.  We had never stopped to hike there so we decided to explore Grand Wash, which can be reached from a trailhead right off Route 24.  We walked about 3 miles round trip.  There was some water in the wash, so we christened our new hiking shoes with even more red mud.

Utah Vacation - Goblin Valley

Yesterday we flew from Newark to Grand Junction, Colorado.  We rented a car, stopped at Walmart for groceries, then headed west.  We spent last night in the nice River Terrace Inn in Green River, Utah.  Then this morning we drove to one of our favorite spots, Goblin Valley State Park.

This is the view of the valley from the parking lot.


It rained overnight so there was water flowing in the valley and lots of slippery red mud.  But we enjoyed the exploring anyway.

2017 Paddling Summary

With the rainy weather, we only did 19 paddles this year.

• Big Tupper from Rock Island Bay
• Big Tupper from Moody
• Kunjamuk River
• Little Tupper
• Long Pond
• Lower Osgood
• Massawepie
• Middle Branch St Regis River
• North Branch Moose River
• North Branch Saranac River
• Piercefield Flow
• Raquette River Axton to Crusher
• Raquette River Crusher to Moody
• Rollins to Follensby Clear
• Saranac River cleanup
• Saranac River during 90 miler
• Six Carries
• South Creek to Middle Saranac and Weller Pond
• South Creek to Second Pond

Paddling and Hiking at Massawepie

Yesterday I went paddling with the group to Massawepie Lake.  We did about 6.5 miles around the lake, stopping at the tip of one of the eskers for lunch.  A friend told me how to find the trail around the lake, so today we hiked part of the trail.  It was fantastic, but we didn't get all the way to the tip of the esker we were at yesterday.  We hiked for 1-3/4 hours and since we left late and didn't bring lunch, we were forced to turn around.  It was another gorgeous, still day.

And there were toads everywhere.


We will be sure to go back sometime and plan for a longer hike.  It was wet underfoot some places, so I might be tempted to wear water shoes the next time, or perhaps take them.

Paddling From Rollins Pond to Follensby Clear

It was a gorgeous, still day today, so we did one of our favorite paddles, taking advantage of having two cars.  We dropped off a car at the southern parking area on Follensby Clear Pond.  Then we drove to the put-in at Rollins Pond and launched the boats.


We paddled through Rollins and into Floodwood where we stopped at one of the first campsites for lunch.


Then we paddled across Floodwood and down Fish Creek.


Then through Fish Creek Ponds and Spyder Creek into Follensby Clear, for a total of 8-3/4 miles.

Paddling the Saranac River

It is finally nice weather, so we visited some friends who have just moved into a new house on Lake Flower and we paddled with them on the Saranac River from their house, south almost to the entrance to Kiwassa Lake.  It is the final day of the 90-miler canoe race, so we got to see lots of boats go by.  We were surprised how many held 4 or more paddlers.

Biking Around Fish Creek

We did our usual 9-mile bike ride around Fish Creek campsites today.  We were surprised how quickly the sites have emptied after the Labor Day holiday.  There weren't many sites occupied and no traffic, so it was a great ride.

Paddling Big Tupper - Again

The winds were forecast to be "light and variable" again today so we tried to come up with a place to paddle that would be away from the holiday crowds.  We settled on the south end of Big Tupper Lake.  We put in at Rock Island Bay and followed the shore south to Bog River Falls.  There were quite a few motor boats on the lake, but they weren't an issue.  Before we got to the falls the winds were already rising, so we headed back to the car.  We covered less than 4 miles, but it was still nice to be out in the beautiful sunshine, though the temperature was cool.