It’s SPRING BREAK yeah!
This was our last “Spring Break” as a family as our youngest graduates high school this year. Spring is in the air so naturally we packed up and headed south. If there is one place to see natural phenomenon it would be Southern Utah. We traveled down the road with off and on conversation while listening to a book on tape. Stopping for the occasional bathroom break, historical sites, and scenic view points. Our last stop before making it to our hotel was short hike along the Escalante River trail up to find the 100 Hands Pictographs. Left behind by the Fremont Indians thousands of years ago. Along the short hike you can find the Shaman and other pictographs.
Utah is full of pictographs and petroglyphs. The parks try to protect them but there are many more not in parks. You’ll be on a lovely hike or ATV ride and look over at a cliff and there they are. As you sit in awe of the amazing landscape that Utah gives it is easy to begin day dreaming of what life was like back then. How many people have stood in the same spot as you and lived.
So after we found our hotel we cleaned up, rested, and made plans for the second day. We will hike to the Cosmic Ashtray or Cosmic Navel. Now if you want to see a natural phenomenon this one will knock your socks off. At first it seems just like any other trail head. But as your fussing around with your packs you begin to notice little details. There are, of various sizes, round dark rocks. Moqui Marbles! You can find them all over Escalante. But this area hasn’t been picked through. You have all the sizes. From so tiny that you think they are just fragments to large ones that cover the palm of your hand and all the sizes in between. As you put on your pack and begin up the trail there are more. With every step you uncover more. They are in the sand and rock. Every where you look you find more. It’s fascinating.
We have a general idea where to go and of course the gps coordinates. We begin down the trail but know that at some point the trail will fade out and we would need to rely on gps and land marks. We know that it will be up on a ridge. The hike was fairly easy. A mix of pale orange sand and slick rock. Slick rock is easier to walk on then sand. Most of the way we stay on the slick rock winding around the bottom of the hills checking the gps periodically. Still heading in the right direction. After about three and a half miles we believe that we have made it to the hill that holds the Cosmic Ashtray. Up Up Up we scramble. Looking around every big rock hoping we would be the first in our group to spot it.
At last we all hear the cheer from Kenzie. She spotted it and was excited. So if she is excited then it has got to be a site to behold. We quickly scramble over and there it is in all it’s glory opening up the top of the ridge into a bowl of sand. We had seen many pictures of this but non of them do it justice. The size and depth alone is astounding. The color of the sand was nothing I had ever seen before. The sand was bright fiery orange. Each grain was about the size of sugar but so so soft. And it didn’t stick to you. The colors when looking closely were clear, white, orange, yellow, gold, red, and black. There are some steps cut into the steep side that allowed the most nimble of hikers to climb down and then back up. Which of course we did.
We spent a better part of an hour down inside. Sitting in the sun with our feet in the sand. It was the perfect beach minus the ocean. How was this made? It’s technical name is Cosmic Navel. It gets it’s nick name the Cosmic Ashtray from its 33 ft tower inside. It is believed that a river once ran through here, then further wind erosion, and capturing of sand particles. It’s impressive. I wish I had taken a better picture for the depth. It is however about 200 feet wide. The sand is estimated to be about 26 feet deep. There is a bed rock bottom. The dune does shift and change by force of the wind. Estimated to be 216,000 years old. It was magical to just sit and enjoy a completely quiet space that felt as if you were on another planet.
We decided it was time to hike back and set off in the direction of the truck. During good conversation and exploring it is easy to get your self off tract. After checking out a rock structure that we thought might be ruins that ended up just being rock we found our selves just of tract and quickly changed course in the direction of the truck, again. Only stopping to tie a shoe lace or get a drink we quickly were making ground. Soon the truck came into view, we grabbed lunch and enjoyed each others company.
After packing everything up and heading down the road I asked for the gopro. At this moment in time my heart dropped as everyone was looking for it. Oh no, had we left it up on the trail some where. We quickly did a turn around and headed down the road toward the trail. It must have been at that last place we all sat down for water. Only a mile from the truck or less. It wasn’t there. Sam has a keen instinct when it comes to where he has been. We made one more attempt going a little further down our path. It’s easy to track in the sand but when we hit rock it was like we were never going to see the go pro again. But wait, Sam found it. Yes he did. Just laying there in the sand as if it had been set there. Cheers and a deep sigh of relief we returned to the truck.
Down the road we checked out more pictographs and enjoying the evening. It’s easy to be entertained with Cory and Kenzie around. We miss Josh though. It’s strange how our little family is all grown up. Getting use to them being busy is hard. I thoroughly enjoy the company of my children especially when they are all together.
Next phenomenon we are going to see is Jacob Hamblin’s arch in Coyote Gulch. You can hike this entire gulch although we did not. You can access just Hamblin’s Arch area by scrambling down a very steep are. It was recommended to have a rope. I used the rope to steady my self going down and then helped on the steep areas on my way back up. I recommend a rope. Sam and the kids did it with out. Once you hike out through more slick rock toward the gulch you will start to see what looks like a white bird painted on the side of the gulch. That is the area you go to find the entrance. Once down in you walk to the stream. You can go left or right. Left takes you to Hamblin’s Arch. My cell phone does not take the best pictures especially of something of this size. but it’s basically a double arch or two land bridges. The river flows through. It….is….gorgeous!
How does mother nature know where to place such things together. The green pop against the orange cliff faces. The sky peeks through the arches allowing for the perfect amount of soft light to dance across the river bed. If I could have staid there longer I would have. It was simply stunning.
But we only had enough time to wander for a bit. Kenzie still wanted to drive to see the Horse Shoe Bend which we would do the next day.
On the way to Page Arizona to see Horse Shoe Bend we stopped at a little place called The New Wave. I have not seen the Wave in person yet but the New Wave is said to be as good if not better. It does not require a permit. It is larger. Easily marked trail. The further away from it you get the better it is to see the actual changes is stripes. It really is a nice easy walk that allowed you to stretch your legs and take in the magnificent beauty of the desert. Most of the hiking in Page is on Reservation Land there for requiring a Guide from the reservation. Right now with Covid, the reservation is closed. The Navajo got hit extremely hard and will not be opening right away. So instead of a long guided hike we chose to look at Horse Shoe Bend, which cost 10 dollars, but was worth the once in a life time look at it. Even without the fiery sunset that makes this look out so famous it was still spectacular to look at.
After a stop for ice – cream we set off back toward Kanab. Along the way we stopped at the Toad Stools and tried to track down Paria Ghost town. The Toad Stools are fun. They differ from Goblin Valley in color and shape of rock. You have a distinct out line from white cliff faces, orange ground and mounds, and black rock as if it was just randomly dropped by buckets. It’s as if the wind hasn’t mixed them together yet.
Paria was an old Pioneer town which settlers had dealt with flooding one too many times. The last time they picked up and moved down the river just a little ways. All that is left now is the Pioneer and Piute Indian cemetery. Some time after the settlers left yet again the area was set up as a movie set and was the back drop for many old western movies. If you have seen any old western movie you will stand there looking around with a feeling you have been there once before.
Returning back to our hotel in Kanab we were full of excitement and wonderment about all that we had seen. Our little world has so much adventure to offer. Hope you make time to explore and find a natural phenomenon of your own.
Happy Trails to you
-jes