2021 Colorado Plateau Part 2: Escalante and Bryce Canyon

A panorama view of the Hite area as it is today. 38 yeas ago, when I first visited the region, the lake was full and boats and clear water would have been seen from this viewpoint. Now, the former boat launch ramp (the concrete strip in upper right of the photo) sits useless, hundreds of yards away from the now-river-again.

Reserving a campsite at Escalante Petrified Forest State Park the minute the sites become available has become a real challenge. We were able to get one, but ended up having to really tilt the left side of the trailer, to get it close to level.

Sue, Keetna, and Andy arrived ahead of us. Dave and Doug will arrive later. Note our Escape trailer in the upper right of the photo. Andy and Sue have a 17 foot Escape (left of photo)

The next morning, the crew is off on a small path across the sagebrush. Our goal today is to navigate off trail to a view down to the top of Escalante Natural Bridge. We first saw the Bridge on our 2006 backpack up the Escalante River Canyon. http://www.twohikers.org/CanyonCountry/BMTEscalante06/bmt06_day1.htm

The route, inspired by this blog ( https://debravanwinegarden.blogspot.com/2017/10/cream-cellar-road-and-escalante-natural.html ), is over sand and slickrock Navigating with a GPS seemed pretty essential.

Sue, Keetna, Doug and Roger crossing some slickrock.

Andy, Susie, Doug and Sue figuring out the next few hundred yards.

Great scenery is a bit distracting from the route.

It took us awhile to figure out the safest way to bypass some steep slickrock in the drainage. But smooth going now.

We finally arrive at the overview spot for the Natural Bridge. But you can't quite see it from this point.

By negotiating some vegetation, and being very careful, Roger was able to look nearly directly down thru the Bridge. Note the people standing in the distance looking up.

Doug and Andy getting a different perspective.

Keetna, still wearing her winter coat, was obviously more impressed with the nice shade.

Taking the easiest way back, which essentially, was the way we came.

Lunch with a view.

This is the GPS route we took on our return from the overview of the Bridge.

The next day, we felt like we should focus on petroglyphs. So it was back to Hwy 12's crossing of the Escalante River, where we would climb to the so-called 100 Hands Panel. But the nice Claret Cup in bloom had to be photographed.

Getting both two-legged and four-legged friends up on to narrow, rocky shelves can be interesting Dave decided to take an easier route.

Pretty much all together now.

Another minor obstacle, unless you are a canine. One wonders what is going thru Keetna's mind right now.

This same photo appeared in a recent issue of the NPCA magazine. Some stupid and arrogant-beyond-words decided to try to saw this petroglyph out of the wall on which it was enscribed. Of course, lots of other jerks had to try to write their names. or initials.

A nice petroglyph, with a lot of foul graffiti.

An interesting juniper snag.

Finally, we see the 100 Hands panel, for which this little area is named.

Looks like some sort of Shaman has been carved into the rock. Of course, some idiots had to fire some bullets at it.

Dave and Susie taking a breather.

Andy was heading further out on the wall, and found a great panel of petroglyphs.