Weekend Photos: Escalante Arch and more

I'm nearing the end of my photos from the April trip to Utah, but I still have a couple more posts' worth.

After spending the early morning at the Devil's Garden, we headed into the town of Escalante for snacks and showers (about $9 with tax at the Escalante Outfitters, so one of my pricier showers but much overdue--as some will remember from my May IWSG post).

We promptly undid much of the effect of the showers by launching on a late-morning hike up the Escalante River to Escalante Arch and Cliff Ruins Arch. I usually avoid hiking in the desert at mid-day, but the trail was flat and promised at least some shade, so we went for it. Spoiler alert: it was hot.

Overlooking the Escalante River. The line of trees following the curve of the cliff shows where the river runs.

Cottonwoods and red cliffs.

The Escalante River. The word "river" is an elastic term; in the desert things are "rivers" that in Western Washington would barely qualify as "streams". Too big for a creek, in my opinion.

About 3/4 of an hour's walking, with options for scrambles vs. river crossings (wet boot crossings) brought us to the Escalante Arch. If you just accept the wet feet--and many people were hiking this in water shoes or sandals, neither of which would work for me, but weren't unreasonable--the trail is easy and straight-forward.

Took me a minute to realize I was looking at the arch.

 

At this point one of our party opted for a nap in the shade, while the other two of us crossed the stream yet again to go find the cliff ruins and the second arch. It took only 10 minutes or so to reach the side trail up to a spot with a good look at the ruins--and some petroglyphs and pictographs, including some more modern but still historical graffiti.

You can see here that someone much more modern has scratched their name and date there. That's a crime, and carries a hefty fine, as well as just being bad karma and proof of idiocy. Just. Don't. Do. It. 

The route to the cliff alcove wasn't obvious. The residents almost certainly used ladders.

Zoomed in on one of the two structures visible from below.

We had trouble spotting the arch, but finally located it up at the top of the cliff--not what I expected. Since my boots were already wet, I crossed the stream for a better view.

Back at the car after three hours and 4 1/2 miles (lots of stop time for photos, studying the ruins, and trying to find ways to get across the stream without getting wet), we finished the drive--maybe my favorite in all the world, but not great for those who don't like heights--through the Calf Creek drainage to Boulder, UT. We pulled in there at the Burr Trail Grill, for late lunch/second lunch (depending on who ate what on the trail), before heading down the Burr Trail road for our next camp and adventure.

A bit of poor map/ guidebook reading gave us a bit of an adventure down the wrong rough dirt road, but we managed to find the right area, and a good camp, before the afternoon was spent. 

Morning found us ready to explore the Wolverine Petrified Wood area (protected; no collecting) and Wolverine Canyon. 

Sunrise over camp.

As at all trailheads out there, signs warn that you can die if you mess up. In this case, a few bones nearby drove home the point.

Probably bovine, not hiker.

The Burr Trail Road is paved, but to reach the Wolverine Petrified Wood area we had to take the unpaved Wolverine Loop Road some dozen miles. It's a good road, though (if you avoid going off on the wrong side-road; see above) and the petrified wood area is in the first half to 3/4 mile from the parking lot.
 

The petrified wood in that area is pretty dark--I've seen it in some places that is very colorful, but this mostly turned black, with red overtones. You can see the tree rings in many pieces, though. 

Yes, all stone. Yes, used to be a tree.

 
As explained on the info sign at the trailhead, these are late-Triassic conifers that were buried in sand and volcanic ash, in stream bottoms. Silica from the ash gradually mineralized the wood. The amount of color in petrified wood depends on the other minerals present.

Not all the trees had fallen, or at least, the stumps also remained to be petrified.

There were even a couple of logs. I don't know exactly what processes make them break into chunks, but the pieces are disconcertingly like the rounds you cut from a tree to haul home and split for firewood. These might dull the axe! (As well as getting you a fine or even jail time if you try to take them home).

 

The mud/siltstone layer is a good indicator for fossils--and petrified wood.

Beyond the petrified forest, we continued down Wolverine Wash as it narrowed and dropped into a canyon. If it hadn't been getting hot, I'd have been tempted to keep going deeper into the canyon. A long enough walk, and you'd join Little Wild Horse Canyon, and eventually reach the Escalante River (too far for a dayhike, especially on a hot day). 

In the exposed part, approaching the narrowing canyon. Most of our hike back up to the car would be over this, in full sun, so we didn't want to push it.

At just past 3 miles we encountered what I have always called a royal arch--basically, a cave that's on the way to being an arch, like the sort of thing royalty might stand under. This one was impressively large and shows part of the process of the creation of an arch, I think.

A short distance away, there were a couple of vultures on a spire warming their wings. They must have been about ready to face the day, because when I got too close they flew, so my photos are very long telephoto shots and not quite clear.

Those unmistakable red bald heads! 

With all our rambling among the petrified wood, it was getting late in the morning, and time to head back. Happily, though we were descending a wash, the actual drop was minimal, so the "climb" back out wasn't bad. A couple of breaks in the shade and we were back to the AC in our vehicles.

Wolverine Loop Road. Most of it was this quality--a fast dirt road, and fairly recently graded so not bad with the washboards. 

We headed back to Boulder, to the Burr Trail Grill for another great lunch, and on to Capital Reef National Park. Stay tuned for the Navajo Knobs trail next weekend (I hope--I'm falling behind in my photo editing as I try to deal with the novel editing).

P.S. I'm going to set a publication date within the next week (that is, I'll set it then; the actual date will be a little farther out!) 

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2025   
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