Mud storm in the making

A wind and rain storm had followed then chased us from Escalante to Hanksville. On the Burr Trail between Boulder and Notom, we had to hurry to keep from getting caught on a dirt/clay road in muddy conditions, which can be totally impassable if enough rain falls.

At Hanksville, we decided to go ahead with our planned hike to Little Wild Horse Creek caves and then a short visit to the Temple Mountain pictographs and Goblin Valley state park, rock formations.

A dust storm built up to the south and east of us as we hiked across the slickrock up to the Twin Caves. We timed it just right and reached the shelter of the caves, just as hail began to fall. Rain mixed with the dust storm. literally created a "mud storm" to the east of us, but we were able to hike out from the caves without getting rained on. The winds were high and gusting though.

After a short visit to Temple Mountain and winds that were too difficult to be out in at Goblin Valley, we returned to our motel rooms at Hanksville. We talked about heading back to Washington early, with the weather as tough as it was. Our truck, which we left in Hanksville (we rode with Jason and Lusha in their vehicle for the hike), was absolutely incapsulated in red mud.

In the end, Lusha convinced us that the worse weather was passing and that according to her Blackberry, the forecast looked better for Thursday. So we had a hamburger, fries and shake Wednesday night at Hanksville and stayed. Thursday morning, we were glad we did. Thank you Fly Flipper.
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Road Trip - Utah April 17th - 24th, 2010: My wife and I headed for Southern Utah, just before midnight on Friday the 16th of April (after she got off work at her part time job). We drove straight through to Southern Utah, to take advantage of the good weather forecast early on in our trip. Storms were forecast for later in the trip and in fact we got a pretty good taste of same on Wednesday the 21st.

Here in outline form are the places we visited and hiked:

Saturday 4.17.2010
> Rochester Rock Art Panel near Emery, Utah
> The Moore cutoff road
> Sinbad’s head pictograph panel (we camped under a pinon pine near here)

Sunday 4.18.2010
> Black Dragon Canyon rock art panel (after first taking the wrong turn and doing some interesting four wheel drive travel way up the San Rafael River). Short hike.
> Pictograph Canyon pictographs. Short but interesting hike.
> Drive Hanksville, Torrey, Boulder, to Escalante (check into motel)

Monday 4.19.2010
> Drive out the Hole In The Rock Road. Visit Devil’s Garden and Metate Arch.
> Drive to Dry Fork of Coyote Gulch. Hike down to Peek-a-boo and Spooky slot canyons. I hiked the loop up Peek-a-boo and down Spooky while my wife hiked with another lady hiker up Dry Fork and then down to the bottom of Spooky.

Tuesday 4.20.2010
> Hike Lower Calf Creek Falls (my third hike here and my wife’s second) and scramble up to two sets of pictograph panels.

Wednesday 4.21.2010
> Drive the Burr Trail road from Boulder to Notom (my fourth time on this scenic route and my wife’s second). Photograph in Long Canyon and along Waterpocket Fold. Race a rain storm north on the dirt (rapidly turning to mud) portion of this route.
> Hike to the Wild Horse twin caves across the slickrock. Hit with hailstorm as we arrived and watched a “mud storm” (thunderstorm falling through a dust storm), travel across to the east of us. The wind caught up with us at Goblin Valley State Park.
> Revisit the pictographs on Temple Mountain.
> Visit Goblin Valley State Park (my second visit and my wife’s first). Howling winds.

Thursday 4.22.2010
> Drive from Hanksville (we had a motel room there) to South Mule Canyon.
> Hike two miles up South Mule Canyon photographing “house on fire” ruins along the way.
> Check with Kane Ranger Station. Decide to skip a hike down Kane Gulch (too much water and mud on route).
> Take short, but beautiful hike to Yellow House ruins.
> Drive Valley of the gods loop from west to east.
> Drive up through Bluff to Monticello, Utah (cold winds). Stay in motel there.

Friday 4.23.2010
> Drive Monticello, Price, Salt Lake City, Wendover, Wells, Jackpot (where my wife got to spend a couple of hours at the penny slot investment center at Cactus Pete casino - while I slept in the truck canopy bed and read). Drive through the night through Boise, Baker City, Pendleton, and on to our home in Eastern Washington.

Saturday 2.14. 2010
> Arrived home at 5:30 am.

Note:
As long planned (discussions started back in November of 2009): we met a couple, also from Eastern Washington in Escalante on Monday night. These nice friends, whom we met through flickr, joined us on all the hikes and drives we took on Tuesday and Wednesday, as well as the South Mule Canyon hike on Thursday morning.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time with Jason and Lusha. Their company added greatly to the fun we had on this trip. We took different routes down to Escalante as well as back home, so we could all customize a portion of this road trip to fit our individual “must see/must do” priorities. A good time was had by all.

Visit Fly Flipper’s flickr photo stream to see their photographs from this road trip: www.flickr.com/photos/lushaevans/sets/72157623754464683/

My wife and I visited Southern Utah and Western Colorado at exactly the same time of the year in 2009. Here are three sets of photographs from that trip, which includes a wonderful backpacking trip into Coyote Gulch, in the Escalante River Canyon Country:

Capitol Reef, Red Canyon, Burr Trail April of 2009:
www.flickr.com/photos/12150532@N04/sets/72157617350799426/

Coyote Gulch backpacking trip April of 2009:
www.flickr.com/photos/12150532@N04/sets/72157617350433766/

McInnis Canyon/Rattlesnake Canyon Arches trip April of 2009:
www.flickr.com/photos/12150532@N04/sets/72157617259181215/

There is an old saying that “firewood” warms you twice. Once when you cut it and the second time when you burn it. I feel the same way about a road trip or a hike. I enjoy it three times: Planning for it; doing it; and sharing the memories with others afterwards