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Capitol
Reef and The Grand Staircase |
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Dates: (6
days, 5 nights; Sun-Fri) |
Assembly Point:
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Tour
Cost: $1,795 (includes all lodging, all meals, park entrance fees, van shuttles to and from Salt Lake airport, leaders, trail maps & narratives) |
Of all the hiking programs that we have crafted in the course of the 14 years since we launched our first Grand Canyon Hike, none has posed a greater challenge as to content than our Capitol Reef and the Grand Staircase adventure. Our other Colorado Plateau hikes—the Grand Canyon series, Canyonlands/Arches and Bryce/Zion—provide well-delineated parameters within which to structure a program. In contrast, the vast expanse of the Grand Staircase/Escalante National Monument is daunting, to say the least and the inclusion of Capitol Reef National Park with its geographical proximity and geological affinity with the Grand Staircase, creates hiking options without limits.
Creation in 1996 of the Grand Staircase/Escalante, one of our newest national monuments, has provided a partial cloak of protection (falling well short of wilderness designation protection) over some of our nation’s most precious remaining wildlands in an area that has been a fierce battleground between developers and environmentalists.
Our program assembles in Torrey, UT, at the western entrance to Capitol Reef, and we’ll provide van shuttle transportation from Salt Lake City early morning of Day 1. We’ll arrive at the Capitol Reef Resort early enough to visit the Visitors Center within the park and stretch our legs with a short hike along the Fremont River Trail that rises above the river for an outstanding view of the Fruita orchards and several of the park’s prominent formations (3 miles).
Following our first of two overnights at the Capitol Reef Resort, we’ll hike to Cohab Canyon, climbing initially to a grand overlook of the Fremont River Canyon and then descending into the narrows of Cohab with its soaring sandstone walls. We’ll continue on to Cassidy Arch and through the Grand Wash (10 miles).
The Rim Overlook Trail is our focus for Day 3. We’ll climb from the Fremont River, initially to Hickman Natural Bridge and then well beyond to Navajo Knobs, some 2,000 feet above the valley floor. The views from the Knobs, in a word, are incredible (10 miles).
We’ll van shuttle from Capitol Reef late in the afternoon to Boulder and spend the next two evenings at the Boulder Mountain Lodge. We’re headed for the Burr Trail on Day 4 and a full day’s exploration of the intriguing Waterpocket Fold. We’ll hike Lower Muley Twist Canyon and then climb from the canyon to the crest of the Fold with its striking views of the Fold and the high peaks of the Henry Mountains to the east (10 miles).
On Day 5, we’ll travel west into the Escalante to experience the remarkable slot canyon hiking for which this region is famous. We’ll spend much of the day in the Dry Fork of Coyote Gulch, scrambling, and we do mean scrambling, through slots aptly named “Spooky” and “Peekaboo” (7 miles).
We’ll spend our final overnight at the Prospector Lodge in Escalante and hike to beautiful Calf Creek Falls (6 miles) prior to our return to Salt Lake.
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