We were up bright and early so we could pack up and head out. We were really concerned about getting a campsite at Calf Creek Campground--they only have 13 campsites and they fill up every day.
We were on the road by 8 and after a quick stop at the visitor's center, we were off. We decided to take the back way--we went down Notom-Bullfrog Road thru Capital Reef to the Burr Trail Road thru the Grand Staircase-Escalante monument. We were told the road was really wash-boarded but I didn't think it was all that bad but I was the passanger. Here are some pictures of the Burr Trail Switchbacks...ummm...it looks like the same picture.
Here are just some views of the Escalante area...
There is a section of the Scenic Highway 12 called the Hogback--it's a ridge with steep dropoffs on both side and a very, very narrow road...oh yeah...and no guardrails.
This picture gives a good example of the views...and the side of the road which you can see in the bottom corner!
We arrived at Calf Creek Recreation area around 10am and were very lucky to get the LAST campsite! It was crazy...we quickly set up camp and went hiking because so many people kept driving by wanting a site. We loved site #11...it was away from all the other sites and had a nice level area for the tent. We were not by the creek but that was okay with us--we were just happy to get a site. This turned out to be our favorite campground on the trip. It was private and quiet--no generators running at 6am and you were not right on top of your neighbors so when people were packing up, we didn't hear them at all.
You can see the same cliffs in the picture behind the Calf Creek sign and in the backdrop of our campsite
The hike from camp today was to the Lower Calf Creek Falls. The Lower Falls are about 130 feet high and a 6 mile hike roundtrip. Calf Creek gets it name from early settler's who used the area for calves weaned from their mothers. The box canyon provided a natural pen for the calves. We passed juniper and pinyon pine trees...granaries built about 1000 years ago by Anasazi and Fremont Indians...and some pictographs.
The granaries were used by the Fremont people to store corn, beans, squash, nuts, berries, seeds, etc.
Pictographs are painted images while petroglyphs are carved images...I did not know that! The Fremont Indians painted 3 figures with red pigment.
We even saw some deer on the trail...
These are pictures from the falls...it was amazing how much cooler it was back by the falls. We didn't go swimming in the pool but enjoyed the view!
After we were back at camp, we wanted to find the Upper Calf Creek Falls...we had been up and down the road about 4 times looking for the trailhead and never saw it. We did have some information from the internet that the Upper Falls trail was about 5 1/2 miles north of the campground. The trail to the upper falls was described as a difficult 1 mile hike over steep sandstone slickrock...dropping 500 feet from the road into the creek. It also can be difficult to navigate and require some rock-scrambling.
We drove up the road about 5 miles and found an area where there were 2 cars parked back off the road. We went and checked it out--there was a guy sitting there waiting for his buddies so we asked him about it. He said we were in the correct spot...well, he actually said this is in between the upper and lower falls. We could see a trail, so we went for it. This was the view from the top...
And this was the view from the bottom of the 500 foot dropoff...
This was the trail...or what we thought was the trail...
We got down to a point where we had to cross the creek and there was no way to do that without getting our feet wet. We decided that we had had enough and turned around...no where in any of the descriptions that I read did it say you had to get your feet wet. We scrambled back up the rock wall and called it a day. We hate it when we don't get to the end of a trail though and it bothered us all night.
Back at camp we listened to the brewer game and made dinner. Tonight's dinner was burgers with mashed potatoes and corn...with Jamacian all spice of course! It sure was yummy!
Ending with a self-portrait and the pretty blue sky!
We hiked about 8 miles today for a total of 38.5 miles total for the trip!
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