Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

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 f...

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...