Escalante was a lot different from Hatch. Both small villages, Escalante had a more artsy feel to it, imo. The owner of our hotel was super chill, and one of his employees, a Utah native who has traveled quite a bit, took her time to tell me some places to check out for the day. On the itinerary was the Escalante River Trail to a natural bridge, and the Singing Canyon on the Burr Trail. Our first stop was the river trail which offered shade, wading into the river itself to continue on, and walking on sand at times. It was an easy hike, but we couldn’t find the natural bridge. As a matter of fact, 2 couples we bumped into couldn’t find it either. The river trail was nice because it still had an impressive background of rock formations, trees, vegetation, and the river itself. My parents didn’t like it because they found the trail confusing, which it was, but for me, it's usually always about the journey and not always the final destination. The trail was easy and beautiful, which worked for me.
After the river trail, we headed towards the village of Boulder, which was close to the Burr Trail. We found it easily, but when my dad started looking at the directions that the employee at the hotel gave me, my dad started tripping because he thought it was almost 2 hours away. The employee told me that we could do both the river trail and Singing Canyon with the amount of time we had. My dad wasn’t convinced. Instead of arguing, I agreed to head back to Escalante. As we left the Burr Trail, my dad got wifi again and punched in coords. It turned out the Singing Canyon was only 20 or so minutes away, so we headed back down the Burr Trail.
The Burr Trail was another incredible drive, unfortunately we didn’t drive all the way through. The towering red cliffs of Long Canyon on either side as you drive through below, seem to have been crafted by mighty Titans dwelling in the outer planes. Wifi did not work here, but Google Maps was set before we lost it. There was no sign for the Singing Canyon, but there was a small turn out on the left side, if you start from Boulder. I was told there was a small parking lot. I didn’t think the turn out was it, so we drove another 10 minutes or so before heading back. The turn out was easy to find, and my dad got out first and spotted a trail descending into the Juniper laden dry river bed. The Singing Canyon was spotted immediately, and was one of the most impressive natural structures I saw during the whole trip. The best part is it's super easy to reach, if you can find it, it's a mere 20 yards away from the road. The Singing Canyon is a massive slot canyon, but doesn’t extend deeply. The acoustics there are absolutely amazing! We stayed here for about an hour. When we finished with the canyon, we walked about the dry river bed and took photos.
We drove back to Escalante and arrived at 8pm. We were ravenous for food, but most places were closed. We stopped by a burger joint called Nemo’s. They were closing and didn’t have gluten free bread. I pulled a G move and drove back to the hotel, grabbed my gluten free bun, dropped my dad off, and proceeded back to Nemo’s with my mom. We arrived at 8:02pm. I asked if they were still open, and they said yes. I bought burgers for everyone and we enjoyed a night of burgers in the hotel room.
Day 4- We left Escalante to head to our next destination; Capitol Reef National Park. We would be staying in a place called Torrey. The drive down Bi Way 12, was still mind blowing and continued to change up in scenery, which kept it fresh. We stopped by Kiva’s Koffee House, which is a coffee shop nestled on a rock with impressive views! Kiva’s also has really nice rooms that are quite expensive, for me at least, but to wake up there would be magical! Kiva’s also has some gluten free options, so I grabbed a brownie! Scrumptious!
We finally reached Torrey and they were doing construction work which caused several delays that were annoying, but it happens. The RV park was a small cabin with public bathrooms called Wonderland RV Park. Before arriving, I was irked about this, but when seeing how clean the facilities were, I didn’t mind this issue. There was also a fenced off field with horses right outside our window.
Driving to Capitol Reef National Park was impressive, and the park itself more so. Like Zion, you could drive through Capitol Reef and hit turn outs for photos and trail heads. Capitol Reef is filled with canyons, cliffs, towers, domes, and arches of Navajo Sandstone among others. We drove to the end, and decided to walk through canyons. This was fairly easy. We hiked to the "Tanks", which were tanks of water. I was taking too much time photographing here, so my dad went back down to where my mom was.
When I finished I descended and continued on the path my dad said he would take. I hiked for a long time and I’m fast, so I expected to catch them, but I didn’t. Then, I got worried. Did I get my dad's meaning before, and go down the correct trail? Did they decide to head back to the car? Did they continue beyond, but I just couldn’t catch them? I did not know. I continued walking. I called out for my mom, no response. I continued on for about another 10 minutes and called out again. Nothing! I decided to head back. They couldn’t have traveled farther than me. I saw a woman and asked if they saw my parents after I gave a description. She said no. It was then that I realized that they were still on the trail. About 10 minutes later I hear my mom calling my name and it turns out they were not that far behind me. I felt bad for making them go back, but I thought heading back to the car was the best choice. My dad hiked back up to the tanks, because he thought I was hurt. Reunited, and it felt good, we headed back to the car. The ride back was majestic with the lights and darks of the Golden Hour, we made many stops. We even saw deer and a wild turkey!
My dad wanted to continue down the highway to look for another canyon and he found the one he was looking for. We walked a ways and it started to light weight rain. We turned back and were eventually greeted with an impressive rainbow strong in its colors. After that we stopped by a place that had some native American petroglyphs. By this time the sun was almost set, and we decided to head back to Torrey.
Torrey might be the smallest village I ever visited that was so gluten free friendly! That night we went to Rim Rock Patio because they had gluten free pizza. The place was nice! It had a big fireplace outside where we ate, with good views. My parents ate the pasta which they say was good but not gluten free, along with garlic bread and salad. The total cost per plate was like 8.50. They also tried some of the local ale which they enjoyed. It was kind of funny, because a group of young Europeans came in, and they all ordered Budweiser, which if I remember correctly, is a pretty shitty beer. I also want to add, at least in my experience, Europeans are pretty good when it comes to beers. Not in this case, out of all the options, these knuckleheads chose Bud, and it was a dollar cheaper than the real shit. Oh well. Even the sun can shine on a dog's ass every now and then. I got the Good, the Bad, Minus the Ugly, which was pepperoni, mushroom, minus the jalapeno. My pizza was a bit small, but they didn’t have large sizes that were gluten free. My price was 16 bucks, I believe, pricy for its size. It was 18 for a large size, but for whatever reason, gluten free pizza didn’t come in a large size.
Stay tuned for the next stop! MOABBBBB!!!
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