Grand Staircase-Escalant National Monument

[Alex]

Wasn't that canyon a great camping spot!? Did you pass the little indian ruins back before you entered the canyon?

Yes, Maria pointed them out to me otherwise I would have missed them.

I think we camped further down canyon from where you did. We set up the tent right next to the cattle guard, almost at the bottom of the canyon.

Next time I think we'll camp right below the dino tracks in this alcove...

It looks very sheltered from the wind and gives the possiblity of getting better photos of the tracks at sunrise/sunset.

 

[SOAZ]

Yes, Maria pointed them out to me otherwise I would have missed them.

I think we camped further down canyon from where you did. We set up the tent right next to the cattle guard, almost at the bottom of the canyon.

Next time I think we'll camp right below the dino tracks in this alcove...

It looks very sheltered from the wind and gives the possiblity of getting better photos of the tracks at sunrise/sunset.

Very cool. That shot doesn't even look familiar. It shows how you can go to the same area and see different things!

 

[travel dodge]

SO. does this mean Left Hand Collet canyon is open and not very difficult or technical. I was planning to drive it this weekend solo then I have read it isa hard trail then washed out and do to a rock slide impassible.. I looks like in this thread it is not only back open but a fairly relaxed drive.. Please if anyone knows please let me know.
thanks

 

[Alex]

I looks like in this thread it is not only back open but a fairly relaxed drive.. Please if anyone knows please let me know.
thanks

This was the case last May... but a lot can change in a year. Give the Interagency Visitor Center in Escalante a call: (435)826-5499

 

[cruiseroutfit]

SO. does this mean Left Hand Collet canyon is open and not very difficult or technical. I was planning to drive it this weekend solo then I have read it isa hard trail then washed out and do to a rock slide impassible.. I looks like in this thread it is not only back open but a fairly relaxed drive.. Please if anyone knows please let me know.
thanks

It really does vary. When we ran it in Dec 06', it was literally borderline impassible. Had the county? or the park service not run a dozer through a couple of spots, we would have been seeking an alternative route. Assuming nothing majorly has changed, its likely a well beaten path now... but we have had a wet winter all over the state. Gonna be a wet spring too!

 

[travel dodge]

thanks guys,, and again I am amazed at all the info one can get from expo.
I will call the number

 

[Beowulf]

Please keep us posted on what they say the road condition is currently.

 

[Hltoppr]

Ok...I've been putting it off...but now I'm going!!

Those pics are fantastic!!!

-H-

 

[travel dodge]

I left a measage today. I will be driving through I belive on friday. If I see any waving and smiling built rigs I will stop and talk I will be in a white dodge with blacktoper and rack.
If I find I out the canyon is not open to me (solo) I will be on smokey mountian road. I plan to be in Page on sat. night. Anyone driving this area should stop at the Blue Budda Sushi resturant on the strip in Page behind the Dam Bar. :beer: They are both great palces run be great people.
Looks like Rec Rd 230 is where I want to be to for some driving with a view. Anything else I need to know. thanks again.
now back to packing, fixing, cleaning.. first spring trip:arabia: :arabia:

 

[highlandercj-7]

Incredable pics! I so can't wait to get out west to wheel. I got to get the new Heep finished first. Looks like your trip was a couple hundered miles to the scale?

 

[Willman]

Great trip!

Adding this area to the list!

 

[fearghal]

alex, what an amazing trip. i'm planning a run out from san francisco to do the WRT mid-may. planning on coming through vegas, zion and bryce.. my hope was to do some lake powell exploring but i'm not too familiar with the area. would you share your GPS tracks?

cheers!

 

[Alex]

Sure, check this out:

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=949232

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

Somehow I missed this thread, great pics and great writeup! I did a similar route last year spring mostly staying on th Burr trail in our '77 Ford Camper Van, "Brown Sugar." I had gotten a ride down with Kurt Williams for Cruise Moab... When we first got there, we rolled up upon a beautiful little house that housed some surfers that lived in Moab but took it and beached it in Baja every summer, rode their bkes, lived off a solar panel, then moved on and back to Moab when the heat cooled down and the school year started again. Definitely a well travelled machine. In the paper for $1300, I called before and they said, "we are flexible" so I said, "well just for ****s and giggles I'll start really low, $500" and they replied, "OK, but that is about the lowest I think we can go." Brown Sugar more than met our expectations, in fact she is in near perfect mechanical condition. So for $500 I got "Brown Sugar" and felt so confident in her mechanical abilities that I decided to clear out a little early and take "the long way" home via that route and Escalante.

I camped on Lake Powell on the side where you saw the "BMW," maybe just two miles away. I have been meaning to write it up myself for some time though very little "off road"... Again, excellent write up!

 

[fearghal]

alex, i registered with that forum but still don't have permission to download the tracks - do you need to be a paying member of the forum to do that?