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Grand Staircase: Escalante -
Day 2 and 3 (click once on any photo to display full image) |
Golden Cathedral
On the second day we did a hike
to a remote place called Golden Cathedral, which is a giant cave like opening
with a pool of water at the bottom covered by a rock dome with holes and slots
that let light through, casting onto the water below and then reflecting onto
the walls of the cave opening. Although hard to describe, the beautiful
pictures that we saw of it on the internet when we did our vacation planning
certainly made it look worthwhile. Normally photos aren’t as good as the real
thing, but in our case it was the complete opposite - what we saw in person
wasn’t nearly as spectacular as the internet photos - so it was rather
disappointing. I'm guessing we were there at the wrong time of the day, however
none of the hike descriptions that we read when we were doing our trip planning
indicated that the dramatic lighting effects were only visible at a specific
time. Also, given the number of pictures posted on the internet, it was somewhat
strange that we did not encounter any other hikers on our journey. It wouldn’t
have been so bad if it had been a short and/or easy hike to get there, but
instead it was long and difficult. There wasn’t an established or marked trail
to follow, so we had to use GPS to find our route and even had to bushwhack at
times. First we had to make our way down a large mountain side, traverse open
desert to the base of a valley, and then cross a small river. We knew about the
river and had brought along water clogs to change into so that we wouldn’t get
our boots wet, but what we weren’t prepared for was having to cross the mucky
tributary that fed into the river on the other side. This muck was a lot like
the muck that we encountered at the bottom of the slot canyon on the previous
day. It is very deceiving because it looks like it is stable enough to walk
across but you start to sink as soon as you step on it and then you can’t lift
your leg after sinking so far down especially when wearing water clogs that
don’t stay on your feet very well. It was like being in quicksand. After
crossing the tributary we still had further to go along sandy terrain before
getting to the Cathedral, and that proved to be slow going because the muck on
our feet collected sand and stones which made walking quite painful. Despite
all of that, there were a few “positives” aspects, like the desert hare that we
saw on our drive to the trailhead (just in case you don’t already know, a
desert hare is like a rabbit but taller with a more upright posture and longer
ears), the rare cloudless sky with its deep blue hue that greeted us at the
start, the neat looking "cannonball" like rock (interesting because
evidently it had been worn so perfectly smooth as a result of rolling around on
top of a large flat rock, and in hindsight I should have taken a picture of it
but didn’t because who would have thought that would be a highlight of the
hike), the muted acorn trees (short and stubby trees with immature acorns
consisting of soft green shells but hollow inside), and last but not least, Li
enjoyed using his compass and GPS "toys" to hone his navigation
skills!
At the base of the valley after
making our way down the mountain side, our destination is the mouth of a dried
up river canyon just behind and slightly to the left of Mo in the photo below.
We used the elevated rock in the background as a landmark to navigate our
route. There's that deep blue cloudless sky that I mentioned.
The somewhat disappointing
Golden Cathedral as we saw it. Yes, it's massiveness is impressive but where is
the golden color?
Golden Cathedral as we expected
to see it based on this web photo - massive but also golden in color.
Devil's Garden
After returning from our hike
we make a quick stop to see the rock formations at Devil's Garden. That's Metate Arch in the photo on the left below. Once again the
internet photos were more impressive with formations displaying a golden hue,
although the shadows cast in our photo are also somewhat intriguing.
Death Hollow
Our hike on the third day was
supposed to be a short, easy, and relatively flat out and back hike that
overlooked an area called Death Hollow. But once again it wasn't short, easy,
or flat, with lots of undulations over sandy terrain and slickrock.
The effort versus reward payoff was also lacking because the views weren't that
great, but the worst part was not having enough water to drink. Thinking it was
going to be a short hike, we each only brought one quart. When the hike lasted
longer than expected we ran out, and the desert like conditions (high heat,
full sun, and no shade) exacerbated the situation.
Calvin T's Smoking Gun BBQ
and Saloon
All that hiking sure does work
up an appetite - I hope the food portions are on the same size scale as this
giant chair outside Calvin T's restaurant in
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