Arizona Strip / Grand Escalante / Canyonlands / Bear Ears - 15 day Solo Adventure - May 2025
- Thread starter bashinate
- Start date
bashinate
Member
Days 4-5 May 15-16
Total Mileage : 417
By the time the truck was fixed it was mid-day in Hurricane. I weighed my options and decided to head out to Gold Butte Whitney Pockets area for the night as I had never been there.
It was a beautiful area but already too warm for my liking. I started on a hike and quickly backed out from the heat. I ended up poking around and just relaxing at camp for the remainder of the day finding a nice spot just north of the main whitney pockets area.
I got up at sunrise and made my way back over to I-15. In St. George I got breakfast and went to see the Mormon Temple. I am not a mormon but just wanted to see the building.
I headed to Kanab and jumped on a trail headed out into Grand Escalante. It was a fun route and I ended up finding a nice camp up in the paria area with amazing views. I didn't take many pictures these couple days.
I will get all the gps tracks for each day uploaded at the end for anyone that is interested.
Total Mileage : 417
By the time the truck was fixed it was mid-day in Hurricane. I weighed my options and decided to head out to Gold Butte Whitney Pockets area for the night as I had never been there.
It was a beautiful area but already too warm for my liking. I started on a hike and quickly backed out from the heat. I ended up poking around and just relaxing at camp for the remainder of the day finding a nice spot just north of the main whitney pockets area.
I got up at sunrise and made my way back over to I-15. In St. George I got breakfast and went to see the Mormon Temple. I am not a mormon but just wanted to see the building.
I headed to Kanab and jumped on a trail headed out into Grand Escalante. It was a fun route and I ended up finding a nice camp up in the paria area with amazing views. I didn't take many pictures these couple days.
I will get all the gps tracks for each day uploaded at the end for anyone that is interested.
bashinate
Member
I did hole in the rock on this trip. First time I had been to the end. I'll get to that part shortly.
bashinate
Member
Thankfully it was just really bad wheel balancing. They rebalanced everything and I was back on the road.
bashinate
Member
Day 6: May 17
Day Mileage: 133
Total Mileage: 550
Today I had planned to do some hiking. I packed up and headed over to house rock valley road and to the wire pass trailhead. I was hoping to be able to hike a ways into buckskin gulch.
Just doing wire pass to the wash and entrance of bucksin gulch was beautiful however as soon as I got into buckskin gulch it was full of water. I took off my shoes and socks and tied them onto my pack and kept going. Most parts were only about knee deep at worst but still very cold. After crossing several I encountered a big group who said they had gone as far as it getting to chest deep water. After hearing that I decided to turn around and try the other side. Unfortunately after talking to some others the other side was the same with deep water. I would have to return on another trip.
I refueled and grabbed some supplies in Big Water and headed out to Stud Horse Point. I had driven down the highway many times but had never ventured off on the western side of the highway away from Lake Powell.
It was a fun short trail with beautiful views of Lake Powell and surrounding area. It was extremely windy again. I then headed back to the highway and went over to the "new wave" trail or I think as its actually named the beehive trail. I can see why its called both. Very nice easy short hike. I then carried on my planned route and started down Nipple Butte Trail from Big Water. Not very far in a Chinese couple in a rented SUV waved me down. They were trying to find the big white hoodoos trail. They could barely speak english and were clearly very lost. I explained that trail was very remote and rough. It then sounded like they were actually trying to get out to white pocket. They asked where they could rent a SXS. I said I wasn't sure exactly but probably in Big Water or Page. They carried on their way back out to the highway. I was glad to see them turn around since they weren't in a 4x4 vehicle.
I planned to take the Nipple Butte trail and find somewhere to camp as it was getting later in the day. The following day I planned to head towards Croton Road and take it up to Left Hand Collete Canyon Road over to Hole in the Rock Road. I had done Smoky Mountain Road on a previous trip so had planned to take a completely different route. I took a side spur off Nipple Butte over to what looked like would be a nice overlook area to camp.
It was definitely that all the way at the top of the Mesas. It was Haycock Point at the end of Haycock Point Road. Of course it was very windy and supposed to be very windy over night. I found a flat spot about a mile back in away from the ledge that I hoped would be less windy. I was wrong. It was probably the windiest night I have been in a roof top tent. I didn't sleep at all and I was worried it was going to collapse. I survived but I would not want to do that again. Lesson Learned.
Day Mileage: 133
Total Mileage: 550
Today I had planned to do some hiking. I packed up and headed over to house rock valley road and to the wire pass trailhead. I was hoping to be able to hike a ways into buckskin gulch.
Just doing wire pass to the wash and entrance of bucksin gulch was beautiful however as soon as I got into buckskin gulch it was full of water. I took off my shoes and socks and tied them onto my pack and kept going. Most parts were only about knee deep at worst but still very cold. After crossing several I encountered a big group who said they had gone as far as it getting to chest deep water. After hearing that I decided to turn around and try the other side. Unfortunately after talking to some others the other side was the same with deep water. I would have to return on another trip.
I refueled and grabbed some supplies in Big Water and headed out to Stud Horse Point. I had driven down the highway many times but had never ventured off on the western side of the highway away from Lake Powell.
It was a fun short trail with beautiful views of Lake Powell and surrounding area. It was extremely windy again. I then headed back to the highway and went over to the "new wave" trail or I think as its actually named the beehive trail. I can see why its called both. Very nice easy short hike. I then carried on my planned route and started down Nipple Butte Trail from Big Water. Not very far in a Chinese couple in a rented SUV waved me down. They were trying to find the big white hoodoos trail. They could barely speak english and were clearly very lost. I explained that trail was very remote and rough. It then sounded like they were actually trying to get out to white pocket. They asked where they could rent a SXS. I said I wasn't sure exactly but probably in Big Water or Page. They carried on their way back out to the highway. I was glad to see them turn around since they weren't in a 4x4 vehicle.
I planned to take the Nipple Butte trail and find somewhere to camp as it was getting later in the day. The following day I planned to head towards Croton Road and take it up to Left Hand Collete Canyon Road over to Hole in the Rock Road. I had done Smoky Mountain Road on a previous trip so had planned to take a completely different route. I took a side spur off Nipple Butte over to what looked like would be a nice overlook area to camp.
It was definitely that all the way at the top of the Mesas. It was Haycock Point at the end of Haycock Point Road. Of course it was very windy and supposed to be very windy over night. I found a flat spot about a mile back in away from the ledge that I hoped would be less windy. I was wrong. It was probably the windiest night I have been in a roof top tent. I didn't sleep at all and I was worried it was going to collapse. I survived but I would not want to do that again. Lesson Learned.
kmcintyre
Observer
I think he stated it was just the tires/balancing issue.
