2022 - West - June 8 - UT - Escalante - Escalante River Trail & Hogback

 Another hike is in the books - Escalante River Trail to a natural bridge, an arch, and an old native dwelling. This hike was more strenuous than I thought - over 5 miles with lots of river crossings, tons of hot sand, and not much shade. There were more lizards than other places we've hiked, and they were huge - about 12" long. 

The water was so cold but in this heat it felt great.

Two miles in was this beautiful natural bridge.

Up on the edge of the bridge were these bird nests built from mud.

Another 1/2 mile brought us to this arch.

and down and to the left of the arch was an old native dwelling built into the side of the rock cliff.

Then - the hike back - 

Once the hike was over, we thought it would be nice to head over to Boulder for some lunch. This meant driving The Hogback. This is eleven and a half miles of the craziest 2-lane road you’ve ever seen; a rocky spine with a drop of over a thousand feet on both sides.

The first time we drove this we were in our old RV. In the RV you are up higher and can't really see the shoulder of the road and you feel like you are inches from the cliffs instead of 5 feet.

If you click on the following link and get past the first 30 seconds you will see what I mean - 

https://youtu.be/Br4wiXcFnnQ

Here is a view out the Jeep window - 

Did I mention - no guardrails on lots of curving, cliffy spots.