The Last 3-day Weekend

Once I realized that I only had 2 weeks left of my stay in southern Utah, I knew I had to make the best of it.

I was motivated to make my last 3-day weekend the most adventurous yet.

Luckily, I had a coworker to accompany me on my adventures.

On Friday, we headed out to Lower Calf Creek Falls; a wonderful 6-mile, sandy hike that led to an incredible 120-foot-tall waterfall. It was amazing to see how this waterfall fed the entire canyon its water. Trees, animals, shrubs, all flourished in the canyon in which it fed. It was almost oasis-like.








The water was absolutely FREEZING. We jumped in on the count of 3 and I could barely stay in the water for more than 3 seconds. You know that feeling of pins and needles? Well, multiply that pain by about 100 and put it all over your body. That’s how cold it was.









What was great was this little area about 50 yards away from the water that still had a bit of sun shining on it. We ran to this area and soaked in the sun to bring our bodies back to life. I’d never been happier to feel the sun’s amazing heat. We had a nice lunch in the sunshine, then hiked back.
During the drive back we decided to hit the town of Escalante for a bit of rural exploration. We ended up meeting a gentleman by the name of Kevin, who has a PhD in chemical engineering, but you wouldn’t know it by his looks. A modest man, with a long, ungroomed gray beard, soft brown eyes, and torn clothing, he was extremely friendly, and welcomed us into his incredibly unique shop. “I build waterwheels and drums,” he said, as my coworker and I stared in awe at his work. “This piece has taken me about a year and a half, and I’m still not done yet,” he softly mentioned. “I’m selling it to a hotel in Park City for 35 grand.”

His work was like nothing I’d ever seen before and his passion for it was truly apparent. Check out his websites if you get a chance:
Tribalsounds.com
Hydrowheel.com



He suggested we go to Georgie’s for dinner. We took his advice and later thanked him for it. We had a wonderful Mexican dinner followed by fresh cookies, which we took to the local frosty shop to have mixed in with a milkshake ☺.
















Best Friday so far, now it’s time to make Saturday REALLY worthwhile.

Saturday started out AMAZING. I decided to bring my longboard along for some of the awesome hills we came across on Friday. I had my coworker follow me in the car and take pictures. The early morning adrenaline rush was a great way to start the day off ☺



So, if you haven’t heard of Peek-a-boo and Spooky slot canyons before, take a minute now to google and read some literature on them. They’re truly some of the greatest gems in this country. They’re located about 30 miles south on an un-maintained dirt road called Hole-in-the-Rock in Grand Staircase Escalante Nat’l Monument. The drive turned out to be the scariest part of the entire trip. With obstacles like sand pits, 10-foot slides, and areas with 100 2-foot-bumps gathered together, I was scared for my 1998 Toyota Camry. Ever time we bottomed out, I dreaded that it would be the last bottom-out the Camry would see, but at the same time, I was determined to hike Peek-a-boo and Spooky. They had been on my to-do list since the beginning of the summer and there was no way I was leaving Bryce without hiking’em.

The 30-mile drive took us a little over an hour, but we finally got there. As we were hiking out, I looked back at my Camry, “I hope she can get us out of here.”

The hikes were a real treat after the hour-long white-knuckle drive. I didn’t realize how tense I was until I finally got out of the car and took a deep breath. The drive took a lot out of me.

We decided to link Peek-a-boo and spooky together as a loop. We started with Spooky, which was….indescribable. As we were squeezing and shuffling through the slots that were sometimes not much wider than the distance from my nose to the back of my head, I couldn’t stop giggling. I was so happy to have finally been right in the middle of the world-famous slot canyons. The rest of the hike was incredible. I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking for me.






Well, the camry made it out (thank the heavens) and I'd never been happier. In the words of my old roommate Ryan, "The Camry runs on good times."

We hit a little café in Escalante for an amazing green-chile cheeseburger and we also stopped in at the frosty shop again.

Sunday was supposed to be a relaxed day since I had work at 4:30, but my neighbor woke me up early, “Let’s go hike the cottonwood narrows.” I couldn’t refuse hahah. It was a wonderful day-hike, but after doing peek-a-boo and spooky, no slot canyon can compare. Grovesnor arch was sweet, though! It almost looks like a castle or a fort or something.

I slept that night feeling very accomplished and satisfied.