Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

Back in April I took a little trip to Utah and visited some cools spots in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument--some old friends, some brand new. A highlight was a 2-night backpack trip into Coyote Gulch, in part because I'd intended to do this in 2023, but was stymied when I broke my foot. It was good to finally get there. As usual, I have too many photos I want to share, and will have to break this into two posts! Day 1 There are at least 3 ways into lower Coyote Gulch (that don't involve boats). Two of them involve a 4WD road (probably mostly passable to sedans) and some moderately unnerving scrambles. We chose the 3rd way, which means a longer hike (and an excuse to stay out 2 nights instead of the one most people gave the area). We dropped in via Hurricane Wash, an easy hike in in the morning's coolness, a bit longer on the way out in the heat. We in fact started about 9:20, by the time we finished fussing with gear. We weren't too worried about...

Today's photos are from a relatively easy hike (just over 5 miles RT, but with some fun stuff involving the willows in the creek bed) back in April. Still roaming about the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and this trailhead lies some 44 miles from the pavement off the Hole-in-the-Rock road. The road is passable to a passenger car at least in good weather, but there are times when you need to calculate the best route among the rocks. For the record, all photos were shot on my phone, as my poor, much-abused Sony RX100 finally succumbed to the grit of many backpacking trips. I kicked against carrying the much larger and heavier SonyRX10, but realized after this hike that I needed to bite the bullet and do so. Like most hikes in this area, we started high, on the rim of the canyon/wash/gulch, and dropped  down to the good stuff. That means always bearing in mind that the end of the hike is uphill and often in the heat of the day. At this point we've already dropped a w...

Welcome back for another episode of "Rebecca Rocks Out." After 2 years, I returned to Dry Fork Coyote Wash and to Peekaboo Gulch, where I broke my foot in April 2023. No injuries this time! Well, except to my camera, which finally succumbed to all the desert sand and grit halfway through the hike. I'm glad that cell phones these days have great cameras, so the trip wasn't a photographic loss. We went on from Peekaboo to Spooky Gulch, an even narrower slot canyon, though not in my opinion as pretty a one.   The hike starts with a short walk to the edge of the canyon, then a long walk along the shelf atop the sandstone. Starting the hike. Two years ago we climbed into Peekaboo from the bottom of the wash, a climb that I don't like and can't do without help. This time we hiked up alongside the slot and dropped in from the top. A bit of a search located the place we climbed out after I broke my foot. It was a less obvious route than I remembered! From there we hea...