What is there to see in Southern Utah? (Part One)

Fremont Indian State Park

Are there petroglyphs in Utah?

Southern Utah is covered with various memories from the past including petroglyphs, pictographs, and pictoglyphs. Off highway 70, there is an exit to clear creek canyon road that will take you to Fremont Indian State Park Visitor Center. On the road to to the east of the visitor center is a trailhead to the Cave of a Hundred Hands. You can pull off and hike the less than a mile walk to the cave, or hike from the visitor center. This is an extremely easy trail. There are a number of handprints protected behind bars, though I did not count a hundred…

The trails surrounding the Fremont Indian State Park Visitor Center are worth a gander as well. There is a short (less than half a mile) completely paved loop that offers some amazing rock art views. This trail is named Parade of Rock Art and you will drive right by the trailhead as you enter the parking lot.

While walking the paved path, you will see a marked dirt path that appears to dead end at a cliff. You are able to walk down that path and then crawl up some large rocks to an area with more rock art. This trail is called the Court of Ceremonies.

Keep following the trail straight ahead if you’re up for a longer loop hike. If you take the first path to the right, it will guide you up and over the mountain. Stay right at the fork and it will spit you out on the other side of the visitor center parking lot. I did not see any more rock art on this portion of the trail but it did offer some sweeping views of the surrounding area.

Butch Cassidy

We continued our journey to Escalante, South on highway 89, and we’re surprised to find Butch Cassidy’s childhood home. This is my favorite part of traveling; allowing enough time in travel plans for spontaneity. This area is very well maintained and there are picnic benches behind the home. So if eating lunch by a famous robbers home is something you want to check off your bucket list, here’s a location for you.

We arrived at the airb&b in the early evening. Escalante definitely has the small town vibe and I love it. The grocery store closes at 7pm. Many of the restaurants are closed by 7pm or 8pm. We did have time to try a burger at Nemo’s drive thru, which I would recommend. The onion rings were deliciously crispy and salty as well.

We had a large group joining us and thankfully we were able to find an airb&b home that would fit all eight of us comfortably. It was very spacious with a full kitchen and exactly what we needed for the weekend.

Cosmic Ashtray

Early the next morning we headed to Escalante. Escalante National Monument is massive and contains dozens of earth shattering views. We had hoped to see a number of these sights, but the day had something else in store for us. Cosmic Ashtray was the first set location of the day. Now here are two things I didn’t know before heading out; most of the roads in Escalante are dirt roads (not greatly maintained dirt roads I might add), and getting anywhere in Escalante takes about double or triple the time Google says. Our compact SUV is all wheel drive with all terrain tires, and we still struggled in areas. The road to cosmic ashtray gets quite sandy in areas and eventually became impossible to continue. We eventually left the cars and hiked from that point, which ended up being a perfect location. The hike is not marked at all! I would recommend mapping it out before hand and bringing a navigation system!

The directions we followed (there are many ways to get here):

We drove southeast from Escalante on highway 12 and turned right onto Hole in the Rock Road. We then turned left onto Harris Wash Road. After a little over 3 miles of driving, you will see the Harris Wash trailhead parking space on the right. We continued following the road for another 3.7 miles. At that point, we hit some deep sand that appeared to continue on for forever. We parked and hiked to cosmic ashtray from there; which ended up being about a mile hike. Again, mapping out the exact location of cosmic ashtray would be wise. It is difficult to find amongst all the similar looking rock.

Cosmic ashtray is breathtaking from above but you also can venture into the magical sand dunes below. Foot holds have been carved out of the rock on one side. The slant might not look like much in a picture, but climbing down them feels mighty precarious. There is a pipe in the rock at the top of the “stairs” where a rope can be attached for more safety. I took my slow sweet time and, with a friends guidance, made it safely down.

These are by far the best sand dunes I’ve ever been to. Generally the strong winds required to form sand dunes, leave me with sand in my teeth and every other facial cavity. Cosmic Ashtray is another story. When we visited, it was so incredibly calm.

There must be a lot of wind here generally because the sand appeared to be untouched. But during our visit, everything was peaceful and serene and the wall of rock provided glorious shade on a sweltering day.

This was the only sight we had time for in Escalante. We hiked back to the cars using a different path and then had to push both cars down the sandy road. If we had not had eight members in our group, I fear we would still be stuck in the Escalante sand.

Lower Calf Creek Falls

I picked a wonderfully hot weekend in June to hike around Southern Utah. After completing our first warm hike in the middle of the day, we collectively decided it was time for a cool down. So we headed back down the long Escalante dirt road to go north on highway 12 in order to find the trailhead to Lower Calf Creek Falls.

The road is on the left side of the highway and is well marked with a big sign. Follow the weaving road for a short distance to the parking lot. The entrance fee per vehicle is five dollars. There are bathrooms, drinking water and camping sites right by the trailhead. You will walk on the paved road past a few camp sites and the trailhead will be on the left side of the road. The whole hike is stunning: tall cliffs on both sides, fascinating red rock formations contrasting nicely with the green trees, and occasionally a river. Beautiful.

Round trip from the parking lot, the hike is 6.2 miles. Most of the hike is sandy and the trees did not provide shade mid-day. This was not the cool down hike we were looking for…until we reached the water.

Seeing the waterfall through the green trees made me feel like I was in a dream. The temperature instantly dropped and jumping into the freezing cold water felt amazing on my warm skin and sore muscles.

Nature has an excellent habit of reminding me how small I am.

The hike back was very pleasant. The sun had retreated behind the cliffs, offering amazing shade, we took breaks to enjoy the scenery, and everyone had water. This is one of the most spectacular waterfalls I’ve ever seen!

Escalante Petrified Forest

This park is right outside the town of Escalante, so we had to check it out. It’s a great little desert hike. The beginning portion leads you up a mountain but the rest of the hike is relatively flat. The main loop is 2 miles. There are only a few massive chunks of petrified wood here, but those few pieces are beautiful.

The art that mother nature creates with petrified wood will never cease to amaze me. As you walk along the path you will find little gatherings of small pieces of petrified wood. I appreciated that a lot. I took it as a kind gesture; people finding beautiful small pieces of art and leaving them behind for others to enjoy.

As you walk along the rim and hike back down to the parking lot, there are great views of the beautiful blue reservoir below. This was an excellent beginning to another beautiful day in Southern Utah.

Capitol Reef

The final destination of this trip was Capitol Reef. We did not have enough time to explore extensively, but we did find a perfect hike that starts right by the visitor center. There isn’t a trailhead sign, but you will see paths behind the visitor center leading to the river. Just follow the water upstream for a mile and you will find a little waterfall.

Rocks have been stacked over the years to create a nice depth water oasis. The temperature of the water was absolutely perfect. A ranger told us you can begin a six mile hike farther upstream and follow the river all the way down to the visitor center; just another hike to add to the continually expanding “to do” list. The little hike that we did complete was an ideal walk through nature and a wonderful way to end another trip to Southern Utah.

Have a wonderful adventure and remember to enjoy all this beautiful nature!