Escalante State Park, Anasazi Village State Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Lake Powell
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Info:
Day hike
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Spooky Gulch - Description
We did the standard route from the
Dry Fork Coyote trailhead into Spooky two years ago, so this time we wanted to
see the northern part of Spooky and Peek-A-Boo. The start for this hike is from
the Early Weed Bench Road. To get there you drive about 23mi down the Hole-in-
the-Rock Road and turn left at the Early Weed Bench sign. Then it's another
4.8mi to the trailhead (at the Early Weed Bench car park). Spooky Gulch lies to
the south. Driving time from Escalante was 1 1/2 hours. We liked Spooky Gulch
right from the get go.
All the way down to the narrows it's like wandering through a park with
the wash sandy and a lot of vegetation in it. The walking is slow because there
are a lot of minor and some bigger obstacles. Most of them can easily be skirted
on either side of the rim.
One obstacle we couldn't pass was an at this time dry pothole about 6´ in
diameter and 8´ deep. On the way down you can drop slowly into the hole and exit
on the other side, which is just 4´ in height. On our way back we scrambled it
up like spiders with both feet and hands on either side of it.
We finally arrived at the narrows of Spooky Gulch. Steve Allen recommends walking
on the right rim for about 25 yards and then chimney down the 12 feet. He
describes that part with a skill level of 5.0 climbing. But it was already so
late in the day that we just had time to take a look at it and had to return.
So we decided to keep that part and Peek-A-Boo for the next time. Even if we
weren't able to do the loop hike it was well worth the effort, because there
was absolute solitude and an awesome landscape.
