RockyMtRebel
December 14th, 2020, 03:11 PM
I woke up on Thursday morning and headed to the town of Escalante to gas up. I had to wait 15 minutes or so until 9am when the only grocery store in town opened. I got a few food items and hit the road for Cottonwood canyon. It was a very cloudy and cooler morning, my weather app said it was snowing (which it wasn't) and that it was raining where I was going. As I started down Cottonwood, a few drops where falling and I got all nervous about the clay/sand turning to snot and being stuck out there for days. The original forecast did not predict rain and I pushed on. Power lines follow this canyon the entire time, which really took away from the "out there" experience this could be. It's a 50 mile straight thru but is smooth sailing for the most part, very little washboard (thankfully). As I got to the ending, I was glad because my gas was still between 3/4 and Full, lots of downhill coasting on this road the way I took it (North to South). I was going to go into the little town of Big Water to gas up when I reached Hwy 89, but I decided I had enough gas so I went straight for House Rock Valley road.
Me and the wife drove down this road last year and hiked Wire Pass to Buckskin Gulch, a very popular slot canyon. Buckskin Gulch is the longest slot canyon in the world (apparently), and Wire Pass is a short slot canyon that joins up with Buckskin. Wife and I just did the 1.5 mile easy slot canyon trail and it was awesome. We then drove north on House Rock road and turned around at the access roads to the Paria Platea and the main attraction, White Pocket. I've been dying to go back ever since to check out White Pocket. Google it if you don't know what I'm talking about, it's pretty amazing. So as the rain continued a very light and misty rain that wasn't inhibiting the driving. I drove past Buckskin (stopped for a break and took a couple pics), then past Wire Pass trailhead that was pretty busy with hikers actually. I kept going south, past the Utah/Arizona border (see picture) and made it to the turn off for White Pocket. I was nervous, reading about people in trucks getting stuck in deep sand. Turns out it was pretty easy, very sandy but the moisture stiffened it and made it easy to drive on. Fun to drive on actually! I made it to White Pocket and was by myself! I took some video of this amazing place, and the video does not do it justice either. It's AMAZING!
After running around on the formations for a while and taking pics and videos, I drove off looking for somewhere to camp. I drove all over and checked out a few spur roads but nothing grabbed me, so I drove to the Cottonwood Tepees trailhead for the Coyote Buttes South trailhead. The clouds broke while I was at White Pocket and the sunset this evening was great, with no-one for miles (maybe hours). This was another long day with a lot of miles but super rewarding, visiting places I've been dreaming about and looking at maps about visiting. I heard this saying a few weeks ago and love it, "I didn't buy this boat to have it sit in the harbor". :thumb:
Me and the wife drove down this road last year and hiked Wire Pass to Buckskin Gulch, a very popular slot canyon. Buckskin Gulch is the longest slot canyon in the world (apparently), and Wire Pass is a short slot canyon that joins up with Buckskin. Wife and I just did the 1.5 mile easy slot canyon trail and it was awesome. We then drove north on House Rock road and turned around at the access roads to the Paria Platea and the main attraction, White Pocket. I've been dying to go back ever since to check out White Pocket. Google it if you don't know what I'm talking about, it's pretty amazing. So as the rain continued a very light and misty rain that wasn't inhibiting the driving. I drove past Buckskin (stopped for a break and took a couple pics), then past Wire Pass trailhead that was pretty busy with hikers actually. I kept going south, past the Utah/Arizona border (see picture) and made it to the turn off for White Pocket. I was nervous, reading about people in trucks getting stuck in deep sand. Turns out it was pretty easy, very sandy but the moisture stiffened it and made it easy to drive on. Fun to drive on actually! I made it to White Pocket and was by myself! I took some video of this amazing place, and the video does not do it justice either. It's AMAZING!
After running around on the formations for a while and taking pics and videos, I drove off looking for somewhere to camp. I drove all over and checked out a few spur roads but nothing grabbed me, so I drove to the Cottonwood Tepees trailhead for the Coyote Buttes South trailhead. The clouds broke while I was at White Pocket and the sunset this evening was great, with no-one for miles (maybe hours). This was another long day with a lot of miles but super rewarding, visiting places I've been dreaming about and looking at maps about visiting. I heard this saying a few weeks ago and love it, "I didn't buy this boat to have it sit in the harbor". :thumb: