November 2, 2018

In Escalante, UT for the second night. We stopped here last night on our way to Bryce Canyon from Capitol Reef. We had left later then expected and didn’t feel like driving through the night. We found a beautiful campground with a lake on one side and big orange cliffs on the other along with clean bathrooms and showers. Dan made shrimp, broccoli and pasta when we got in. This morning we showered, woo! Then we went into the tiny town to the post office. There was a natural grocery store next door that I asked if he wanted to check out. We walked in and it turns out they closed a couple of days ago but the owner opened for the day while shutting things down and cleaning. It was so cute with a bunch of different healthy foods and a nice coffee section. We got some treats and lattes. The owner was really nice, she gave us a lot of suggestions of things to do in the area so now we’re staying here for the weekend. We had felt pretty burnt out after Capitol Reef yesterday and need some slower time before the next big park. Plus this area is beautiful. After, we went to an RV park that had coin laundry and hung out in there to get some work done while the clothes went. This trip has been really fun and different from last years. I like no housesitting and having no schedule at all. Every day has been so fun and different.

November 4, 2018

We’re on our 4th night at the state park campground in Escalante. Today we checked out the slot canyons that the postal man had told Dan about, Peekaboo and Spooky. After reading the reviews on All Trails I was pretty nervous for them. People talk about the 15 ft cliff to climb up and how extremely skinny/small the canyon is. To get there we had to drive on a crazy dirt road for 30 miles out in the middle of nowhere. It took about an hour to get to the trail head. We were driving on a major slant with a big ditch to the side. I kept closing my eyes hoping we wouldn’t tip over. We had a little difficulty location the beginning of Peekaboo because of the lack of signage, which is actually pretty cool because it is such a low key place compared to national parks we’ve been to.

The trail was really cool right from the beginning, with arches overhead. We started climbing through the Peekaboo passages in amazement. It got very narrow and I thought how could Spooky be even more narrow?! Well it was soon shown. After getting out of Peekaboo a short trail brings you to Spooky where almost immediately you have to go down 10 feet using ropes. After a few turns the canyon walls just keep closing in tighter and tighter. It is so crazy that water has formed these passageways that are so deep. We had a lot of fun going through and I was glad that once I was doing it, it wasn’t so scary but still a challenge. Climbing back up to the car the light was beautiful glowing over the vast land and just got prettier as we drove, ending with an insane sunset in Escalante.

Yesterday we decided to do the things that the owner of the grocery shop had suggested. We drove to the Burr trail which is a crazy drive with huge drop offs on either side. As were we were making our way we met hundreds of cows in the middle of the road being herded by a big group of people on horses. We weren’t sure what to do so we turned around and went to the Burr Trail Outpost, a little food shop in Banchor, UT (a town of 200 people). It was really cute with lots of art for sale but also a yummy food and drink menu. After eating we tried driving on the trail again but ran back into the cattle. There was a car attempting to drive through ahead of us so we got behind them and started slowly making our way through the middle of the cows. It was pretty funny. The Burr Trail was very beautiful with massive orange formations on either side and Aspen trees still bright yellow. We drove back to Escalante and did the Calf Creek Falls trail. A 6 mile sandy trail through beautiful canyons along a stream. There were big fields of yellow bushes, high rising red cliffs with crazy stripes and so much inspiration. The waterfall at the end was gorgeous with so much color. We got back to the car and made dinner at a picnic table at the park on the stove while the sun set.