Southwestern Burnup Tour - Buckskin Gulch Backpack Day 3, Peekaboo and Spooky Gulches - September 2011

Return to alavigne.net home

NOTE: You have javascript disabled in your browser. This presentation will continue to function, but with only basic capabilities. In order to view this presentation will full capabilities, please enable javascript in your browser, then refresh this page.

[< Previous Page]

[page 1] [page 2] [page 3]

[Next Day >]

courtesy AHyndman

Crossing Cat Pasture

Sunset over Fiftymile

Spooky Gulch

courtesy JInnes

Into Spooky Gulch

We turned right again and followed the sandy floor of the wash, which quickly tightened up into the lower narrows of Spooky Gulch. In anticipation of the coming dusk, we all donned our headlamps.

Spooky tightens

Spooky Gulch

Cave-downclimb

Spooky immediately narrowed into a fairly tight but straight slot. Even though we were only 600 metres away from Peekaboo's slot, Spooky was noticeably different in character. The walls were tighter and straighter, and they had a more knobbly character to them - different from Peekaboo's smoother swirls. We soon came to a small boulder jam that required a vertical downclimb of about twenty feet through a tunnel-like section. A bit of careful coaching regarding stemming techniques got us all down safely.

courtesy JInnes

Impossibly Tight

Crack-in-the-earth

Arn fits easily

Below the downclimb, we reached the really tight section of Spooky Gulch. Vertical walls with a knobbly texture narrowed down to a width of about 1 foot, requiring a sideways shuffle for long distances. The combination of approaching dusk and the tight confines of the canyon made it quite dark; we had to at this point turn on our headlamps. Appropriately, it was kind of spooky in here at night.

Spooky at Night

Although spooky was tight and dark, it was not long. Thirty minutes after entering the narrows of Spooky, it abruptly ended, and we were back near the main wash of Dry Fork Coyote. Above, the stars were starting to appear in a late-twilight lit sky. Under headlamp light, we trudged through the sand back up to the access path, and up to the bench to the trailhead.

Interactive Trackmap, Peekaboo-Spooky Loop - Click map to expand

Interactive Trackmap, Peekaboo-Spooky Loop - Click to expand

Hike Data - Peekaboo-Spooky Loop

Start Time: 4:52p.m.

End Time: 7:05p.m.

Duration: 2h13m

Distance: 4.6 km (2.86 mi)

Average Speed: 2.1 km/hr (1.3 mph)

Start Elevation: 4973ft (1516m) *

Max Elevation: 4984ft (1519m) *

Min Elevation: 4657ft (1420m) *

End Elevation: 4942ft (1506m) *

* : +/- 75 feet

Total Elevation Gain: 365ft (111m) *

Total Elevation Loss: 413ft (126m) *

* : +/- 75 feet

Elevation Graph

Below is a video sequence containing a few scenes from our very quick loop hike of Peekaboo and Spooky Gulches. Click directly on the image below to start it.

Video, Peekaboo and Spooky Gulches - Click on video above to start

It had been a bit of a whirlwind day - backpacking out of Buckskin Gulch, doing the complicated swap between Kyle and Gosia, then rushing up to the Escalante area and doing what is arguably the best intro slot canyon hike. We had even been thinking about whether or not we should head on out of the Escalante area and position ourselves for the next phase of the trip. The general sense, though, was to call it day and relax a bit. We decided to do nothing more than to drive back to Escalante, get a motel, then have a nice straightforward restaurant-type dinner. "With steak on the menu", Arn added.

courtesy AHyndman

Arn Finally Gets Steak

We drove the 40 or so kilometres back up the dusty Hole-in-the-rock road to Escalante, and asked for (and got) a couple of rooms at our usual haunt when we are in this area -- the Prospector Inn. After cleaning up, we hurried across the street to the Circle D Eatery restaurant. The restaurant is close to the Prospector and the food is decent.... and I knew they had steak on the menu.

Next Day →

[< Previous Page]

[page 1] [page 2] [page 3]

[Next Day >]

Send feedback or leave comments (note: comments in message board below are separate from those in above message board)

send feedback |

homemade custom message board

(4 messages)
(last message posted on Tue. Nov. 29, 13:38 EST 2011 by dad)