Escalante

It started with us wanting to visit national lands. Our planned trip to Glacier National Park was cancelled during the pandemic year. We couldn’t rebook it with the same tour company this year because all their national park trips were solidly booked by May.

Sierra Club came to our rescue. They had two spots left on the Escalante Base Camp trip at the time I first checked it out. We had never done any trip with Sierra Club before, but we were willing to give it a try, although I was a bit nervous of having to lug camping and backpacking gear on the airplane. This trip would have one night of backpacking.

Despite the Covid Delta variant surge in the summer, our trip was a go. We got a leadership change. No big deal, except for a small problem that our flight wasn’t scheduled to arrive to Salt Lake City airport until 11am and the new leader wanted to meet at 11am. The meeting time was later changed to noon. But with Southwest canceling 30% of their flights a week before our departure due to staff shortage and other Covid-related problems, we didn’t feel too comfortable. We reserved a car rental just in case and hoped for the best.

The best delivered. We were able to get an Uber ride to the airport at 3:30am for a 5:45am departure. Both flight legs were on time. Except for a small inconvenience that the preTSA security line wasn’t open so early, everything went smoothly. We made it to Salt Lake City in time - with time to spare to recharge our phone and cancel the car rental.

We were picked up at the airport by Howard and Ann, our trip leaders. And off we went eastward to the place we’ll set up camp, in the vast area of the Grand-Staircase-Escalante National Monument. We stopped for a lunch break on the way. Bryan pointed out Mount Timpanogos which has the silhouette of a sleeping Indian princess. I snapped a picture.

The mountain view stayed with us most of the way, which was a departure from what we usually see. When the sun was setting, the sky turned multi-colored and it was beautiful. I wish I could have captured its beauty in full.

It was getting dark by the time we got to where we’d set up camp. I was glad we didn’t have to navigate the landscape ourselves. We would not have found the base camp on our own. The rough dirt road threw me off. At camp, we witnessed the moon rising. 

I would not see this again for the rest of the trip. We set up our tents and our leaders prepared eggplant pasta dinner in the dark. We ate and settled in for the night. It was the first time I used my Magma sleeping bag, and it zipped up with Tom’s bag nicely. It did its job of keeping me warm on this trip.

Our routine each day was to have fresh coffee prepared by Howard around 7:15am, followed by breakfast, clean-up, and lunch packing. We’d hike between 5-8 miles per day. We’d prepare dinner when we get back to camp after the hike. The leaders had prepared meals ahead of time as much as possible. We took turns for kitchen duty which included heating up water, carrying out the cooking instructions, setting up the food station, and cleaning up. Our group was introduced to delicious Latin cuisine and the ingredients used in each dish. 

We were lucky with the weather. Except for the last night at camp, it did not rain or snow on us. The temperature was perfect for hiking. Our experience was enriched. I learned of new terms such as slot, cairn, moqui, wash, breaks, slickrock, peek-a-boo, pozole, atole, masa harina, champurrado. 

Hiking Day 1

Our destination was Peek-a-boo and Spooky Gulch. We got a late start after a breakfast of quinoa and dried fruits. On the way to our hike, we stopped at Calf Creek Recreation Area for water. This took us some time because there were many containers to fill. Once we were on the way, we were delayed by a cow herd for quite a while. 

We didn’t get to the Upper Dry Fork trailhead until past 1pm. By then everyone was hungry. We found a good spot for lunch after about a half mile of walking. We had artichoke spread with crackers and tomato salad for lunch. 

After some difficulty finding the trail, we walked through the Dry Fork Hollows and found the entrance to Peek-a-boo. The description that “the climb has carved steps but is still a little tricky” is fairly accurate, except it was more than a little tricky for us. Howard went up and dropped a rope down to help those who wanted to follow him. 

The rest of us walked around the rim of the canyon and met the brave souls on the other side where they emerged from the deep and narrow part of the canyon. 

Since we didn’t want to get back to camp late, we forwent the Spooky Gulch and hiked back to the trailhead via the Rim Trail. 

We were back to the car around 6pm and it took us over an hour to get back to camp. It was dark, but I found my right contact lens in the tent. I thought I had put it in my eye, but that wasn’t the case. Amazing! Somehow I felt I was helped and guided by Cô. I thought of Thầy and Cô throughout the trip and missed them a lot.

Dinner was corn appetizer, tortilla soup, and potato and kale tacos. We settled down in our tent around 10pm. 

Hiking Day 2

We had a breakfast of Homewrecker oats with lots of condiments of dried fruits and nuts. We packed a lunch of lentil quinoa salad with crackers and carrot squares. 

We got an earlier start today. Our destination was Red Breaks. It is described as a “fabulous slickrock country.”  Howard told us to enjoy the terrain and the journey by watching out for what nature has to offer and not worry about the destination or time. It is a vast area with no trails. We just headed towards a peak in the distance. 

Along the way, we found moqui marbles which are small round rocks composed of iron oxide and sandstone. 

We saw a variety of desert flora and several small pools of water. I got my picture taken pretending to drink from one of the pools.

We did reach the peak we aimed for. Some of us climbed up on it to enjoy the vast beautiful vista below. 

We got back to camp early around 4pm. Before dinner, we had time for Howard to talk about our hiking plans and for me to share the story of how Tom and I met. Bryan followed up with the story of how he met Debi. Dinner was a tasty spaghetti, even with gluten-free pasta.

Hiking Day 3

Despite going to sleep earlier the night before, I got up late this morning. I thought I was late for my kitchen duty, but it was a good thing my kitchen duty did not start until after breakfast. Breakfast was sweet potato and hard-boiled eggs on crackers. 

We used our water shoes to cross the Escalante River on the trail to Phipps Arch. We crossed the water a few times. The water was very cold for me because I didn't wear socks with my water shoes, but my feet recovered quickly once I was out of the water. We walked along the river for a while and it was beautiful. The bright yellow cottonwood leaves and the orange Gambel oak leaves added to the beauty of the landscape. 

When we were almost at our destination, most of us were stopped by the steepness of the hill. Only two participants went on with Howard to see the arch and share their photos with us.

We got back to camp after dark. Dinner was chips and guacamole for appetizer and Aztec stew served with Cotija cheese. The stew was one of my favorites of camp cuisine. We had champurrado, which is a traditional Mexican chocolate drink, for dessert. Howard took pride in his cooking. Just watching him hunching over the stove of hot liquid and later telling us about the food, I could feel his love of cooking and of sharing his knowledge with us.

Hiking Day 4

We had what Howard calls "pimp your grits", which is purple in color because he used purple corn flour, for breakfast. We packed peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. I ended my kitchen duty and Tom started his. The drive to Capitol Reefs to hike the Upper Muley Twist Canyon trail took us about 2 hours. We saw arches, peek-a-boos, and pretty scenery on the hike.

Pi

We went to the Strike Valley Overlook for a beautiful 360-degree view. 

On the way back to camp, we stopped at Boulder to check on our dinner reservation at Hell’s Backbone Grill the last day of the trip. We were told the forecast was for a cold evening. They won’t be open if the weather was too cold for their wait staff because the seating is outside. This prompted a talk for a plan B later on.

We got back to camp around 6pm. We had an appetizer of beer cheese dip and a dinner of pozole verde with a pumpkin seed base and white beans, and Indian lentil rice around 7pm. Howard made strawberry atole for dessert. 

Hiking Day 5

Today was our last full day of hiking. We set out for Lower Calf Creek Falls after a breakfast of oatmeal. We took along a trail guide that lists 14 interpretive stops. Howard decided that we’d take turns reading the interpretive information at each of the stops. That was a fun and educational way for the group to stay together, for the faster people had to wait until everyone gathered for the reading. The walk was beautiful with the fall colors. 

We saw evidence of cultures that lived here long ago.

The waterfall was beautiful, cascading down 126 feet of colorful rocks. This is where we stopped for lunch. 

We got back to camp early. Trish said she wanted to hear my poems. Ann arranged to squeeze in a time for me to share a poem among bird and land conservancy talks. I shared the poem about life as a train journey, written for Thầy when he was diagnosed with cancer. People could certainly relate to that. I appreciated this portion of my train journey through the beautiful Escalante National Monument.

I found some time for solitude before dinner. I lay in the sun taking a nap. The breeze was cool but not uncomfortably cold. It felt good to be out there on smooth rocks with socks and shoes off.

Dinner was chili and French onion soup with Swiss cheese. The soup was one of my favorites of the camp cuisine. 

It rained right after we settled down in our tent. The top of our sleeping bags got wet during the night, but I’m not sure if it was due to the condensation inside the tent or of a faulty rainfly. It had dried out by morning. I must have slept soundly and was not aware of the thunder and lightning that came past midnight and how the storm gradually moved away from our camp site.

Last Day of Trip

We broke camp this morning and packed up. We had cereal and milk for breakfast and packed peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. We were all ready to take a half-day hike before an early dinner after 4pm at the Hell’s Backbone Grill and before checking into our hotel rooms for the last night of the trip. 

The gods decided against our plan. The minivan that had been sitting at our camp site for six days refused to start. Howard drove to the Calf Creek Campground parking area to ask for help. Linda went with him. They borrowed a jumper cable which did not work. They went to return the cable and arrange for plan B while we stayed on site. The weather had turned chilly. Some of us found a spot to shelter from the wind and ate our lunch. Prasad stayed on the road to keep the line of communication open with Howard and with AAA. Debi and I walked around looking at birds. They were small and fast. It was hard for me to catch them on camera or on the binoculars I borrowed from Debi. I finally got pictures of a dark-eyed junco and a jay. They were not the best bird shots, but I was happy to have them, taken with my small Cybershot. 

I walked with Ann to Route 12 to tell Howard not to wait for the AAA truck because it would not be coming until 3pm. It turned out Howard had left Linda and Marion at Route 12 to wait while he went to town to arrange for alternatives. The four of us walked back to our camp site. Thus, we had our walk after all.

Howard found a mechanic in town who was able to come an hour before the AAA truck would be available. The mechanic was successful in reviving the minivan, amid our cheers. But a half day had been gone. The mechanic warned us of the snow to come. So as a group, we agreed to cancel the dinner reservation in Boulder. We stopped at the Anasazi State Park museum in Boulder before heading to the motel. We learned about the Ancestral Puebloan and Fremont cultures of the 15th and 16th centuries. I picked up the book The Desert Is Theirs for Milli and a pair of earrings for myself. 

We were all thankful for a long-awaited warm shower at the motel. Afterwards, we celebrated our week of camp at Chak Balam, a local Mexican restaurant in Torrey. 

We had a good night of sleep before heading to the airport the next day. 

I give thanks to the Sierra Club who made this trip possible for people who would not have planned the outing on their own. Thank you, Howard and Ann, for a week of adventures and fun. Thank you, Prasad, Debi, Bryan, and Trish for some of the pictures used in this piece. Thank you, all fellow campers, for sharing a portion of my train journey.