Coyote Gulch

The Coyote Gulch can be reached by two different trail heads. The Redwell trail is about .7 miles longer than the Hurricane Wash Trail. We chose the Hurricane Wash trail. The trail head is located about 35 miles down the Hole in the Rock road. This road is a dirt road with washboard bumps along the way. The road crosses many dry washes that showed signs of possible flooding during a rainstorm. The Road is well traveled as we counted 5 vehicles on our way into the area on a Thursday morning in October.

We arrived at the trail head and filled out the trail head backcountry permit. A permit is required for overnight stays in the back country. We gathered our gear and started on the trail at about 11:00am. The night before we camped in the desert just off of the dirt road. Another point of interest is the town of Escalante shuts down after dark. We went to get gas after midnight and there were no open stations so we had to get gas in the morning before we headed out to the trail head.

The beginning of the trail followed the wash. You just walk right down the wash. The wash is sandy with some boulders and rocks. As you continue to walk about a mile the sandstone starts to rise around you. After about another mile you come to a small slot canyon about 50 feet high and 10 feet wide. This goes for less than .25 miles and is probably not a fun place to be when a flash flood came through. After about another mile the wash begins to seep water and there is a small amount of unattractive water flowing until you reach the Coyote Gulch.

The Coyote Gulch is about 5.5 miles from the Hurricane Wash trail head. At this point you have past a couple of good campsites and The walls of the canyon have risen above 100 feet. The elevation loss from the trail head has not been that great. The walls of the canyon seem to rise more than the trail descending. From the confluence of the hurricane wash to the Coyote Gulch you will need to change into some footwear that can handle water.

We saw people wearing everything from leather boots and tennis shoes to thongs and sandals. I used a pair of Teva wet climbers. The water in the Gulch was a little on the cool side and it was from ankle deep to knee deep depending on the area. The first real big land mark is the Jacob Hamblin arch (Lobo Arch) located at mile 7. There is a great campsite or lunch area across the river in front of the arch. There is also another campsite on the other side of the arch across the river. We proceeded on along the winding creek. As you look up from the creek near the arch you will see that you are under a giant overhang. The echo quality here is great. The trail continues on through the creek and along side through willows and tamarisk.

We hiked 1.5 miles past the Jacob Hamblin arch to the Coyote Natural Bridge. The creek cuts right through the bridge and you walk right under it. You come to an area where the rocks choke up the river and the trail goes to the left or the right of the creek. We chose the left and then walked through a rock field and then crossed the creek at the third water fall that you have passed in the canyon. The water falls are not over 10 feet tall on any of them. We kept hiking to the Cliff Arch that is located at mile 10.5. When we reached here it was the end of a long day. There is an excellent campsite across the creek from the arch. We set up camp and cooked our meals.

In the morning we awoke and decided to get some pictures of the arch. so we crossed to the west of the creek up the slick rock about 50 feet up to a little flat. I walked around for a while Steve took some pictures. As I was sitting there I noticed some pottery shards on the ground. As I looked around I found a bunch of flint flecks and an arrowhead. I left them all there on the flat to be enjoyed by others if they ever venture that way. We picked up camp and decided to get some water from the creek. I pulled out my trusty filter and began to pump. This creek is very silty and I had to pull apart and clean the filter because it was getting hard to pump. This is a good reason for a field maintainable pump.

We decided since we would hike to the Escalante river and then head back we would leave the tents and heavy stuff and we just took lunch and the camera. We hiked about another mile until the walls of the canyon shot up high above us. We came to an impassable part of the river. there is a Rock wedged in the creek that is about 15 to 20 feet tall. We hiked back about 50 yards and caught a trail that went to the right of the creek up and around the area. this part of the trail was a little scary and you have to climb down a 10 foot ladder made of tree trunks. After this you travel down the creek for about another 2 miles to the Escalante river. If Lake Powell is high the trail is underwater. we noticed the high water line was about 10-20 feet above us through this area.

The Escalante is wider than the creek and about knee deep. The water was cold. We crossed the river and went up stream about .25 miles to where we got a great view of Steven's arch. We took some pictures and headed back to camp. When we got back to camp it was about 3:30 so we decided to get some trail behind us before we had to go home.

We Packed camp and hiked back to the Natural Bridge and chose a great campsite on the hill across from the bridge. As we set up camp we noticed in the overhang about 200 yards back above us there was a ruin. We decided we would look at it in the morning. The night was pleasant at about 45-50 degrees. We woke up and headed up to the ruin. The area had been vandalized and there were really no artifacts left here. So we hiked back down to camp. On the way up to the ruins we followed the trail that went to the right along the rock that became the bridge. On the trail there is a little clear pool of water from the seep above. We filtered water here and Went back to camp.

From here we hiked back to Hurricane Wash, where we took off our wet shoes and put on the comfortable dry hiking boots. from here it is a gradual incline back to the car. The last day we were tired and the trail seemed to be longer than when we went down. All in all this was a very enjoyable trip to an area of the world where I have never been. The weather had cooperated with us and was warm (70-80 degrees) in the days and cool (40-50) in the nights. The fall colors were just starting to come out, which was surprising to us. About two hours after we got out of the area and were eating in a small cafÈ in Escalante the cold wet storm came in all it's fury. We couldn't have timed it better.

By the way the CafÈ on main street in Escalante has a mean double cheese burger and onion rings, a must after burning all of those calories and eating MRE's and Pack food.

For More Information:

Glen Canyon Nation Recreation Area.

By Steve Mann
Steve Mann is the Editorial Director and a Co-Founder at GearReview.com.