vacation pictures #7: Escalante River, Utah

[ilanarama]

To wind down our trip, we revisited the Escalante area. (We were most recently there in the fall with friends: photos | lj post.)

We camped out on Spencer Flat between the towns of Escalante and Boulder, where we saw a fantabulous sunset and alpenglow on the sandstone, then drove to the Escalante River trailhead on Utah 12 near Calf Creek Falls. There we met a BLM ranger, who was Our Kind of person, so we chatted for a while before setting out for the Escalante Natural Bridge, a couple of miles upstream.



Along the way we saw many wildflowers, including the ubiquitous globe mallow, which is really quite pretty, I think. Also, we saw a huge snake - the photo doesn't really hint at the scale: this guy was five feet long, at least, and as thick as my arm - which I looked up when I got home and discovered was a Bull (or Gopher) Snake.



Finally, we got to the Escalante Natural Bridge, which is really incredible; it's a massive stone arch over a side canyon, just set out a little from the alcove of the canyon. Hard to photograph, a remarkable place. We had lunch there and ran into the BLM ranger again; we asked him about petroglyphs and ruins, and he said, oh yeah, just look real careful when you go upcanyon to the skyline arch (another half mile upstream), and also about halfway between here and the trailhead (which we had missed on the way up). Sure enough, we found both sets of ruins he mentioned - and I'm sure there were plenty more that we missed. The teaser photo is of a petroglyph close to the ruin pictured below. Many of the petroglyphs had been defaced by more modern graffiti, and if you look closely on the wall behind the ruin you'll see EEK written above the red migraine-y wavy line.




Then we hiked back downstream, pretty much literally; the trail crossed the river about fifty bazillion times (okay, six) but the cool, calf-deep water felt so nice, and the day had become so hot, that on the way back we abandoned the trail for the stream bed. Between crossings, where nobody could see us, we stripped down and washed off. (At least, we thought we were far enough away from the crossings, but later we noticed we were actually within view of one, so apologies to anyone we flashed :-)



OMG only one more set to go. I may actually get all these posted before our next backpack on the July 4th weekend.

ETA also, I am amused that on Flickr, "naked me" has more views than any of my other photos in this batch. Reminds me of everyone wanting to see my boobies.

Comments

HOORAY FOR BOOBIES!

[askesis.livejournal.com]

Re: HOORAY FOR BOOBIES!

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Eeee, what cute little blue footies! *loves*

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

I love your travelogue posts & pics. They remind me of the many awesome trips all over the west that I took with my pal Carol, and let me see intimate views of many other beautiful places that my knees will probably never permit me to go in person. It's a happy thing.

*wolf whistles at your nekkid self*

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Hee, I was looking for my "naked" icon to reply and then remembered it's on the other lj :-)

Thank you so much! I - I can't imagine not being able to get out to these places (although I know it will happen to me someday). For now, I am happy that I am fit and healthy enough to go visit them. (And yay that you and Carol were able to travel around and have a good time. I remember reading - CSI, NCIS, one of those thingies, the self-insert story you wrote for flashfic that you said was based on your real trip!)

(And speaking of, got your email, will get back to you later today or tomorrow.)

[zebra363.livejournal.com]

EEK to the graffiti.

I love the idea of swimming nude in the creek!

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

Yeah, one of the aggravating things was that people had carved their initials RIGHT ON TOP OF some of the rock art, and had also made imitation rock art alongside the genuine stuff. I mean, I'm just guessing that the photo above is of something the Anasazi did - it might have been carved by a bunch of hikers from Skokie or something :-( We were looking at the lines sidelong to judge how weathered they were.

At this point, we had last showered two days earlier, so we weren't as utterly filthy as we might have been, but it was hot and mmmm, it felt good.

[(Anonymous)]

Gotta admit, that looks mighty refreshing! Reminds me of the time I was doing a solo day-hike in the San Gabriels back in the late 70's and I came around a switchback to find myself face to face with a completely naked guy -- except for his running shoes -- running down the trail towards me. Believe me THAT was a surprise! He said "Hi!" and kept on going. I shouted after him, "Everything OK with you?" and he just waved his hand. Never saw him -- or anyone else -- again on that hike. Weird.

Eric W.

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

!!!!

I figure, it's reasonable to expect that people in and around creeks and lakes might not have any clothes on. But right on the trail, wow.

[ignazwisdom.livejournal.com]

That is some SERIOUS SNAKE, there. Also, your stream adventure looks fun. :D

[ilanarama.livejournal.com]

I actually like seeing snakes in the wild - they are nifty! There was one under one of the half-underwater rocks off to my side, too, a little skinny green snake that I could only tell was a snake and not a piece of vegetation because he stuck his head up and flickered out his tongue a little (and then clearly decided, "ugh, smells like PEOPLE" and hid out again).

[ignazwisdom.livejournal.com]

I saw a snake last summer when I was biking on a trail--it was a big black thing, maybe three feet long, right in the middle of the trail. I had to swerve to avoid running over him. I stuck around long enough to make sure he made it to the other side of the trail before taking off.