Mishap at the Coyote Gulch

There was a time in my life when I was completely immersed with the beauty of the American Southwest. Its red rock terrain & its desolate yet paradisiacal landscapes had consumed my imagination. I felt truly ‘free’ in its wide open roads, and it brought out the best in my photography. I was slowly earning a reputation among friends of leaving no rock un-photographed here!

Thanksgiving weekend was fast approaching, and I had two coveted tickets to “The Wave” in the Paria Canyon/Vermilion cliffs wilderness area. With almost a week to spare, I wanted to pair this up with another photogenic destination. Having done the big parks of Utah multiple times over, this time around I wanted to explore an off the beaten path destination, a hidden jewel of the backcountry that only shows up in the photo journals of die hard Southwest fans. In Grand Staircase-Escalante national monument, we found that perfect spot. 

Designated a National Monument in 1996 by the Clinton administration, this vast sun-drenched backcountry has all the elements of a perfect Southwest adventure – towering red sandstone cliffs, natural bridges, remote waterfalls, beautiful arches, rugged slick-rock terrain and narrow slot canyons.

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Our Itinerary:

The three of us – Vishnu, Randhir and I had a quite a bit of back and forth before agreeing on the following itinerary:

Day 1: Three of us hike up to the Lower Calf Creek falls

Day 2: Try a day hike to the Coyote Gulch  

Day 3: Early morning hike to the Zebra Slot canyon, lunch & split up. Vishnu & I will drive to Kanab, Utah

Day 4: Vishnu & I do “The Wave”

Day 1 went without a hitch. Lower Calf Creek falls was an easy well marked hike, and we were lulled into a false sense of confidence.

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Popular routes for exploring the Coyote Gulch

Prior to the Lower Calf Creek falls hike, we had stopped at the local Inter Agency Visitor Center in Escalante, UT to get directions from the BLM Park Rangers on the Coyote Gulch hike. We put forth our constraints – that we had just a day and would love to be able to do the best sections of the Coyote Gulch as a day hike. 

The ranger spread a map out and gave us a rundown of our options. The Coyote Gulch is typically done as a one-two night backpacking trip. The hike can be anywhere between 12-28 miles out and back depending on the route you take. For those who prefer a march over a leisurely walk, a day hike is possible as well, but it does require a fair bit of route finding across open desert and rock scrambling.

The most popular approaches being:

Route 1: Red Well Trailhead

From highway 12, drive south on the Hole-in-the-rock road for 30 miles, and turn into the dirt road heading east. A short 1.5 mile drive will take you to the trailhead. 

• Red Well trailhead to Confluence of Hurricane Wash & Coyote Gulch (one way) – 6.5 miles
• Red Well trailhead to Jacob Hamblin Arch (one way) – 8.1 miles
• Red Well trailhead to Coyote Natural Bridge (one way) – 9.8 miles
• Red Well trailhead to Escalante river (one way) – 14 miles

This route is easy but very long. It is ideal for backpackers and family friendly. Do not forget to get your free backpacking permits if you decide to camp.

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Route 2: Hurricane Wash Trailhead

From highway 12, drive south on the Hole-in-the-rock road for 33 miles. The trailhead is very close to the road right next to a turnout for livestock corral. 

• Hurricane Wash trailhead to Confluence of Hurricane Wash & Coyote Gulch (one way) – 5.5 miles
• Hurricane Wash trailhead to Jacob Hamblin Arch (one way) – 7.1 miles
• Hurricane Wash trailhead to Coyote Natural Bridge (one way) – 8.8 miles
• Hurricane Wash trailhead to Escalante river (one way) – 13 miles

This route is easy, long and is the most popular way to do Coyote Gulch. You will spend quite a bit of time on a sandy wash. It is ideal for backpackers and family friendly. Do not forget to get your free backpacking permits if you decide to camp.

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Route 3: Jacob Hamblin Arch Trailhead/ Sneaker Route/ Forty Mile Water Tank Route

From highway 12, drive south on the Hole-in-the-rock road for 36.25 miles. Turn left into the Forty Mile Ridge road. Drive for 4.3 miles on this dirt road until you see a steel water tank right by the road. This is the trailhead. 

• Jacob Hamblin Arch Trailhead to Jacob Hamblin Arch (one way) – 2 miles
• Jacob Hamblin Arch trailhead to Coyote Natural Bridge (one way) – 3.7 miles
• Jacob Hamblin Arch trailhead to Escalante river (one way) – 7.9 miles

This route is short, but requires navigation across an open desert with no signage and quite a bit of rock scrambling on a 45 degree gradient. Ideal for those short of time and want to do a day hike. Stay away if you have a fear of heights.

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Route 4: Forty Mile Ridge Trailhead/ Crack in the Wall

From highway 12, drive south on the Hole-in-the-rock road for 36.25 miles. Turn left into the Forty Mile Ridge road. Drive for 6.8 miles (2.5 miles past the Jacob Hamblin Arch trailhead) on this dirt road to reach the trailhead. The last two miles of the trail is pure sand, and will need a sturdy high clearance 4WD.

Option 1 (head west to Jacob Hamblin Arch):

• Forty Mile Ridge trailhead to Jacob Hamblin Arch (one way) – 2.5 miles
• Forty Mile Ridge trailhead to Coyote Natural Bridge via Jacob Hamblin Arch (one way) – 3.6 miles
• Forty Mile Ridge trailhead to Escalante river via Jacob Hamblin Arch (one-way) – 8.4 miles

This route is short, but requires navigation across an open desert with no signage and quite a bit of rock scrambling on a 45 degree gradient. Ideal for those short of time and want to do a day hike. Stay away if you have a fear of heights.

Option 2 (head east to Crack in the Wall):

• Forty Mile Ridge trailhead to Crack in the Wall (one way) – 2 miles
• Forty Mile Ridge trailhead to Escalante River via Crack in the Wall (one way) – 3 miles

This route is ideal for adrenaline junkies and experienced hikers with rock climbing skills. Ropes are a must. Stay away if you have a fear of heights. The hardest section requires you to shimmy an 18 inch “crack” in the wall for almost 50 feet.

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Our Route:

The park ranger recommended the Sneaker Route (Route 3) to us. It was the fastest way to get into the Coyote Gulch – head straight to the Jacob Hamblin Arch and then east 3 miles a little past Coyote Natural Bridge to cover the most photogenic section of the Coyote Gulch and hike back up the same way. He looked at the three of us, and said “it does require a bit of rock scrambling, but you guys are young, nothing you shouldn’t be able to manage”. In hindsight, it was a gross overestimation of our capabilities. Well, mine at least.

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Our Gear:

On the fateful day, the three of us had all woken up well before dawn to start our Coyote Gulch adventure. 

We were all super geared up to conquer the Coyote Gulch. Or so we thought. 

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Hole-in-the-Rock Road:

Just 5 miles east of Escalante on the way to Boulder is a turn off to a dirt & gravel road called the Hole-in-the-Rock Road. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, this trail plays a very prominent role in the history of the west & stands as a testament to Mormon grit & resilience. Legend has it that Mormon leader Brigham Young directed his followers to settle Southeast Utah. In the late 1800’s, a Mormon expedition of 250 pioneers set out from Escalante with a goal to cross the Colorado river and settle the sparsely populated region to the east. Well into their journey, they came upon an impossible task – getting to the Colorado river meant descending sheer canyon cliff walls. Scouts were sent out to see if there was a more passable route. They came across an actual hole in the wall to the Colorado river below (hence the name). This was still a jaw dropping 1,300 feet, mile long descent, and was not large enough for their wagons to pass. For six months, the Mormons toiled away to blast and chisel the rock to make it more passable. Stairs were carved out on the canyon walls, and a dug way was built. It is said that the first wagon was driven by horses that were blindfolded so they can overcome the fear of walking down the steep grade. This epic descent allowed them to cross the Colorado river and settle east in Bluff, a journey of nearly 300 miles across inhospitable terrain.  

Today, this same bone jarring Hole-in-the-Rock Road forms the access points to the most popular attractions here – Zebra slot, Peek-a-boo slot, Spooky Gulch & Coyote Gulch. Nothing much seems to have changed over time as well, the dirt road still remains remote and rugged with no cellphone coverage. Despite being just a 40 mile drive, it took us around an hour and 45 minutes to get to our trailhead. We caught a beautiful sunrise en route.

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BLM Vs NPS Hikes:

The trailhead was hard to miss – a large water tank juxtaposed right by the dirt road. I got down to stretch my legs and sign up at the trail register. To my surprise, there was none. In fact, apart from the fact that there was a water tank, there was no other indication that this was our trailhead. It just dawned on me that we will have to rely entirely on our navigational skills across an open desert. The well marked signs at the Lower Calf Creek falls hike the day before had lulled me into a false sense of confidence. I know now that whereas most parks in the USA are managed by the National Park Service (NPS), there are a select few that are managed by Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Escalante is one of them. Philosophically, these two agencies manage their parks very differently. NPS trails are typically well maintained, with clear signage and amenities for hikers. Safety & Caution for hikers are an utmost concern for them. In contrast, BLM considers itself as custodians of the land & prides in keeping wilderness wild. BLM trails have minimal amenities (if any), and virtually no signage to mar the terrain. 

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Descent into Jacob Hamblin Arch:

Fortunately, the trail was not hard to make out – there were plenty of footprints in the desert sand & cairns set up by other hikers that came to our aid. With minimal elevation gain, we set a brisk pace and got to the edge. And then I froze! Out in front of me was a 100+ feet near vertical drop to the floor of the Coyote Gulch. Calling this a “sneaker route” seemed like a cruel joke – this was certainly a Class 3 scramble all the way down slick rock. My immediate instinct was to cut our losses, head back and pick another hike. It took quite a bit of a pep talk from Randhir for the both of us to commit to the descent. We started down nervously, and pretty soon, I was on my butt trying to slowly inch closer down to the floor without loosing my footing.  I also had the tacit realization that once you are past the toughest part, you have no option but to go down. It feels much safer to continue to head down towards terra firma.

We finally made it to the floor. I had miraculously survived the descent with just a few scrapes to my arm. Mixed feelings of relief & exhilaration started coursing through my veins. They were short-lived as we were interrupted with a sharp “OYE” from up above. We gazed up to see a hiker trying to navigate the same path, but with ropes & proper gear. He yelled “Can you hold on to this?” and threw a small pouch towards us. It had taken us forever to come down this path, deliberately stopping every few feet. He made short shrift of this, adeptly finding his way down in a matter of minutes. Thankful to see another soul, I desperately tried getting some intel on whether the climb up out of the Coyote Gulch gets easier somewhere else close by. It was disheartening to hear that the climb only gets worse towards the east, and is a lot more precarious where he was headed – to the “Crack in the Wall’. The easiest way out would be many miles west of Jacob Hamblin Arch, either out of Hurricane Wash or Red Well. We wished him luck as he set out east. 

The remarkably beautiful Jacob Hamblin arch compelled us to momentarily disregard our troubles. Hewn over a millennia by wind & water, its colossal size left us feeling dumbstruck at how tiny & insignificant we truly were. Unlike the hot desert on our way here, the floor of the Coyote Gulch was nice and shady. The water was hardly ankle deep & cool to the touch, and the leaves of the trees were resplendent in fall shades of yellow and green. After clicking away to our heart’s content, we sat down & devoured our packed sandwiches. 

It was now time to plan out our exit. Randhir voted to climb up the same way we came down. This time, I firmly put my foot down. Wild horses can’t force me up the precarious slick rock again! I voted to exit out through the Hurricane Wash, a slog of 7.1 miles west. But then our car was parked at the Jacob Hamblin Arch. It seemed best that we part ways. Randhir would head back out the same way, get our SUV and pick us up from the Hurricane Wash trailhead later in the day. A few anxious moments later, we saw Randhir finally make it to the top. 

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Coyote Gulch Hike:

We finally started our journey west towards the Hurricane Wash. You would be hard pressed to find another trail that is as gorgeous as the Coyote Gulch. It was as quintessential Southwest as it can get. Soaring sandstone walls on either side, the hike runs besides a river tributary that constantly meanders through the red floor, forever carving out the Coyote Gulch. Trees were everywhere, its leaves offering a beautiful contrast to the massive rust red sandstone walls and alcoves. It stays nice and shady throughout the hike. Somewhere along the hike we ran into a herd of deer that stared back at us, curious and unafraid. I found myself constantly resisting the urge to stop & whip out my camera every few feet. 

We were now a solid three hours into our hike, and panic had fully set in. What started out as a brisk walk had turned almost into running. At our pace, we should have covered 3 miles an hour, and should be near our exit. Trouble was, there was not a single signage anywhere. We had not come in this way, and we had no idea what the exit looked like. Every time the river snaked through, our hopes would rise up that the exit would be just around the corner, only to have them dashed time and again. We would see footprints go into the water and come out on the other side, but none leading away from it. Maybe because of the season, or because it was Thanksgiving day, we were also all alone ever since we parted ways at Jacob Hamblin arch. Sheer cliff walls on both left and right, it was starting to feel like a beautiful prison. Since it was November, sunset was early as well; just an hour and a half away. Despite having headlamps, we would lose most of our light. 

At some point, the left side of the canyon wall was becoming much shorter. In our map, we recalled that the Coyote Gulch was parallel to the Hole-In-the-Rock road, and out of sheer desperation tried cutting left out of the Gulch. The idea is that if somehow we were able to make our way out to the desert again, it is a perpendicular cut that will take us straight to the dirt road, and we can then hitch hike our way out. Wishful thinking. We stopped dead at a bunch of fallen trees and thorny bushes blocking our way. For good affect, there was also the bones of a big animal here. We were truly lost and had wasted invaluable time. 

Luckily, we retraced our steps back to the river, and continued west by following the footsteps yet again. By now all light was lost & we had to rely solely on our headlamps. It was now a final push! The temperature dropped drastically, and we were started to freeze a bit. The water was turning into ice at places. Finally, at some point, we saw footsteps head away from the river to a wash. Our hopes were up again to see footsteps head out to a rock. I set my tripod up, and tried to step on it to see if I can jump and find some purchase to scale the rock. Alas, no such luck, I slipped and fell down foot first into a puddle of water. 

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Night at the canyon:

Vishnu was hiking in silence the last couple of hours, but he finally opened up and stated the inevitable, “Let’s conserve our energy for now, spend the night in the canyon & try again in the morning”. Dog tired & hungry, we found a place behind a rock that cut out the cold winter draft. We wolfed into what was left of our snacks, and a small reserve of our water. It was now freezing cold, and I was starting to shiver uncontrollably. None of us had a clue how to start a fire with wet stones. So much for my steady diet of Bear Grylls & his insane adventures. Worse still, my feet was numb, and my toes were starting to sting like pins and needles. Oddly enough Vishnu seemed to be okay with his feet. It then dawned on me that I was the only one that fell into the puddle! Unfortunately, there was no reserve pair of dry socks to change into. But staying in my drenched ones was not an option either. By this time, my shoes had frozen solid at an angle, making it difficult to maneuver my numb feet out. It took sheer force & some skin off my heel to finally be able to wedge my feet off my shoes. I pulled them into my hiking bag to keep them warm & started rubbing them furiously with my gloves. I couldn’t feel a thing. It seemed like early signs of frostbite, and I started fearing the worst. We hoped sleep would provide some respite, but the biting wind & shivering cold kept us wide awake. Time was moving so slow! What seemed like an eternity was just 20 minutes from the last time we checked our watches. It was the longest night ever!

After what seemed like forever, we started seeing first light. Our spirits soared. I could finally understand why ancient man worshipped the sun. Our warmth & energy was directly proportional to the rise of the sun. Using my tripod to hammer my frozen shoes back to shape, I forced my feet back into my shoes. With my extended tripod as a crutch, the both of us hurriedly headed back to the footsteps we last saw yesterday night. 

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Red Well trailhead:

Just where the footsteps head towards the rock, we saw RW scribbled in a circle carved into the rock. We shouted out excitedly “Red-Well Trailhead” as both our lightbulbs went up at the same time. Using my tripod as support, we scrambled up the rock to find a small trail heading out. After a short 10 minute walk, we were out at the trailhead with the trail register. Realization started dawning on us that we had needlessly spent a night at the canyon just a fleeting distance from one of its main exit. It all seemed tragicomic now. However, we were not done just yet. There was not a single car at the trailhead, and we still had to figure out how to head back to Escalante. We started making our way back to the Hole-In-the-Rock road. Midway, we saw a vehicle fly past, and waved frantically. Too late, it was gone. Minutes later, we saw the vehicle turn in, and there was Randhir in our SUV. A sight for sore eyes. My foot slowly started getting back to normal with the heater in the car turned to high blast. We reached our motel exhausted, and slept like logs until well past late afternoon.  

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Randhir’s story:

Randhir made it back to the Jacob Hamblin arch trailhead just past lunch. Knowing that we had another 7+miles to hike to the Hurricane Wash trailhead, he set out to cover the Peek-a-boo slot. A few hours later, he headed out to the Hurricane Wash trailhead and waited for us well into sunset. Not seeing us there as well as the Red Well trailhead, he headed back to the motel & asked for help. The owner told him to alert the authorities right away. Evidently, hikers getting lost in the Coyote Gulch is a common occurrence, and there have been fatalities as well. I am told there was a search & rescue team sent out with ropes waiting for us at the Jacob Hamblin arch that night. He then spent a miserable night worrying over us (or at least that’s what we would like to have believed). At the crack of dawn, he headed back to the Hole-In-The-Rock road, and stopped at each of its exits before finding us at the Red Well trailhead. He immediately alerted the authorities that we were safe as we slept through our tiredness.

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In Conclusion: Our lessons learned

While our Coyote Gulch hike ended up as a misadventure, a lot of it was due to our lack of planning, and our inexperience of backcountry hiking. In spite of being a city slicker all my life & a desk jockey, I had an inflated sense of my own skills and capabilities, and a lack of appreciation for wilderness hiking. We lacked simple survival skills, and continued to make one mistake after another that cost us dearly. Packing in flint to start a fire would have transformed a wet miserable night into an amazing outing. If not for the biting cold, the night was just brilliant; never have I seen skies with more bright stars. Packing in an extra t-shirt and a pair of socks would have made all the difference in staying dry. We were always next to water, and yet worried about rationing our water supplies. Water purifier tablets would have left us with one less thing to worry about. Even basic map reading skills were absent. If we had carried a good topographic map, we would have know within an hour that we were lost. The confluence of Hurricane Wash & Coyote Gulch is within 1.6 miles of Jacob Hamblin Arch. The fact that we continued to see the river past an hour should have told us we were lost. 

As Nietzsche’s adage goes “What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger”, I would like to think the experience made us stronger. This was back in Thanksgiving 2011, and we have since improved leaps and bounds. Whistle, compass, flint, water purification tablets, emergency aluminum blanket among others have become permanent fixtures in my hiking bag for wilderness hikes. 

I have three backpacking hikes on my list – Coyote Gulch, Buckskin Gulch and Paria Canyon that I am zealously looking forward to. Hopefully, after this lockdown eases, I will be able to head back to the amazing Coyote Gulch and experience its beauty and solitude all over again.

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