Weekend Photos: Backpacking Coyote Gulch, Part 2

Last week I shared photos from Day 1 of a 2-night, 3-day backpack into Coyote Gulch. This was part of my larger trip with 2 friends to explore the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument back in April. 

Today, we'll cover Day 2, with an 8-mile dayhike to Cliff Arch, and Day 3, the hike out.

Despite the rain, hail and even snow the night before we started our trip, we were in early-rising mode to dodge the heat of the day. That country can change at the drop of a hat from cold to hot and back again.

Moonset at sunrise. For a while, it's all about the reflected light.

We were on the trail before 8 a.m. and soon hiking past lots of places that might have been nicer camps (but wouldn't have divided our days so neatly). I do recommend taking advantage of the wider parts of the canyon to camp away from the trail.

About 35 minutes of walking took us to Swiss Cheese Falls, named for the ways the water has eroded holes into the rock.

Coyote Natural Bridge was the next special feature. It's a bridge, not an arch, because it was carved by water flowing through it, and the water continues to flow through it. It wasn't the first, or the last, place we had to cross the creek that morning, though we made it across with (mostly) dry feet. My goal was just to keep them dry as long as possible.

About 2 1/2 hours (and 4 miles or so) into the hike we came in sight of Cliff Arch. It is probably possible to get much closer to the arch than we did, but we chose to enjoy a long break at the falls upstream.

Sort of made me think of an elephant's trunk.

 

The creek offered a lot of cool falling water. There was a family group there when we arrived, but they soon continued their hike and we had the place to ourselves for the better part of an hour.

The beach and main falls. It wasn't *quite* hot enough to tempt me to jump in, but close.

 

Eventually reality set in and we headed back to camp. On the way down we'd bypassed a side-canyon leading to "The Black Lagoon" but on the way back Alex and I decided to check it out. We weren't sorry. It was an unusual thing to find in a desert canyon.

The water is black from decaying vegetation. I've never seen anything quite like it.

The family group from down by Cliff Arch was checking out the lagoon and told us there were petroglyphs or pictographs nearby. (For those who like to know: petroglyphs are chipped into the rock, pictographs are painted on). We might not have found them, but they did, and directed us to what proved to be an area where people clearly once lived, though there was few signs of their houses left. 

The pictographs were large and with a keen eye were visible from the canyon floor. 

 

 

Many rocks under the overhang had petroglyphs chipped into them.

 

There were also mortars for grinding grain (above), and other evidence of habitation, including a lot of pottery shards and chips from the manufacture of stone points.

On the way down we'd done a scramble up and around a large free-standing rock to avoid wading. On the way back, Zeke and I decided the day was hot enough that wading sounded good. I knew I had another pair of shoes at camp, so didn't mind getting my boots wet.

Careful route selection got me through with water barely over my knees. 

Looking back downstream to the thing I didn't want to climb around.

Soon, we were back in camp, enjoying an early dinner and again feeling the warmth leave in a hurry when the sun stopped shining down into the canyon. The day's hike was pushing 9 miles, and we felt like we'd had a workout.

Losing the sun

Our final day we were up and eating breakfast as soon as we could see to do so. We had another 8+ mile day, with packs and not only climbing a bit all the way, but ending with that 3-4 mile exposed hike up Hurricane Wash. We knew we wanted to do that as early as possible, and were hiking by 7:30.

Farewell to Lobo Arch

I almost managed to keep my feet dry. Almost.

Back to the flats, and the heat.

 

I hit the trailhead about 11:15, and it was already hot. The guys were a bit behind me, feeling the heat more than I did, or possibly just enough smarter to shade up from time to time instead of pushing through. Crucially, we all made it out, and with no more rain, the road was in good shape for us to drive back towards pavement. We left two of the cars at a camp, and carpooled into the big city of Escalante for ice, groceries, beer, and lunch/treats. There would be one more short adventure on the Hole in the Rock Road, then on to other parts of the Escalante, coming soon!

 

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2025   
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