This morning was one of the best of the trip so far. We woke up in time for sunrise and headed off for a morning hike.
We chose to hike to Lower Calf Creek Falls, a 6km out-and-back trek with minimal elevation. We did the first half in the cool shade before the sun rose over the canyon sides.
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| Lizard tracks. |
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| Beaver lodge. |
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| Pictographs on canyon wall. |
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| You can see the pictographs on the lower left. |
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| Beetle tracks in the sand. |
The waterfall at the end of the trail was the ultimate payoff. The exquisite 124 ft waterfall coupled with the secluded white sand beach and crystal clear water might just be the most perfect place in the world. I have never been anywhere so beautiful.
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| Look at that! |
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| Yippee! We’re here! |
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| Our very own beach. It was incredibly lovely. Cool and shady. |
Notable events included Alistair getting “attacked” by a cactus. To date he has been enthralled by cacti. He is fascinated that they produce prickly pears and has received several warnings that their spines hurt and he should avoid touching them. Somehow (Lord knows how), Ali cried out on the hike after getting a spike wedged between his thumb nail and the skin (in the same spot one might get a hang nail). Ouch! Our fingers were too large to pull it out without tweezers (which we didn’t have on the trail) but Liam saved the day with his small, nimble fingers and pulled the spine out of Ali’s hand. Disaster averted.
The water was refreshingly cold and we waded and swam at the base of the falls. We had the falls to ourselves for most of the time we were there. We left when people started arriving around 10 am. We passed close to 50 people hiking in as we were hiking out. The hike out was hot but bearable.
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Look closely and you can see Seamus and I swimming.
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| We made it back! Whew. |
Next up was lunch at Kiva Koffeehouse. This cafe is in the middle of nowhere, part way between Escalante and Boulder. We are not sure how they stay in business but we really enjoyed our time here. The coffee was divine and we ate breakfast burritos and roasted turkey sandwiches. Liam - who is growing up before our eyes - ordered a decaf iced latte. Who is this kid?!
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| They even had sheep petroglyphs in the bathroom, lol. |
We ventured back into Escalante for gas and a small grocery run. We window shopped at Escalante Outfitters and I found a new book to read at the local free little library.
On our way back to our campsite, we received a National Weather Service warning about flash flooding in the area. We are camping up high so no worries about getting washed away but we packed up our camp chairs, hooked up the truck to the trailer for stability in the wind (this was a bit of a fiasco but it got done), and hunkered down inside the trailer to wait out the rainstorm. It was more windy than rainy and, honestly, I think it was more chaotic with three energetic boys trapped inside a small trailer than it was outside in the storm.
After supper we packed up and pulled out of our sandy parking spot with no trouble at all. We headed off to be closer to tomorrow’s adventure at Capitol Reef National Park. We drove up, up, up through Boulder, then Grover, and ending up just outside of Torrey, Utah. At one point we hit 10,000 ft elevation! We are bedded down for the night at a free parking spot on public land. Best of all, the temperature is 16 degrees Celsius with a crisp breeze! We are going to sleep well tonight.
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| We saw a mushroom rock! |
