On the whole it was a pretty easy trip. No damage or losses, no real scares. I wouldn't want to have been there in any less water, though. The only thing I really would have liked would be a more knowledgeable guide with better info on the ruins and pictographs. I found two wonderful panels but I'm sure I missed a lot, too.

The river does make you work hard. The first half is constant gravel bars and brush problems, the second half is unremitting small, technical rapids. There are not a lot of stretches where you can just float along. That said, camping and general desert skills are as important as boating skills. The Escalante is lovely but not at all tame. Once you are in, you are committed, so don’t go without the attitude and skills to spend a week enduring whatever it throws at you. It’s definitely not a good place for newcomers to back-country camping or to paddling.

My only map were a National Geographic topo, “Canyons of the Escalante,” which was adequate for navigation, and a poorly printed handout from the visitor center. 7.5 quadrangles would have been nice but I deemed them unnecessary and too expensive at the visitor center. I took a hiking guide that described routes in and out on foot in case I had to bail out.

Scenic? Absolutely. Challenging? Yes. However, if I go back it will be with a little more flow and someone who can give me more details on the petroglyph sites. Otherwise, it’s just another gorgeous canyon in southern Utah.

4429.

4479.

A nice place to camp. Looking east at Steven’s arch as the sun sinks behind me. The clouds were building so I had my paddle out to rig a lean-to, but didn’t need it. Later when the nearly full moon rose, it shone through the arch against the cliffs behind me like a giant spotlight.

Stevens Arch from the other side of the gooseneck.

The depressing end to any river draining into Lake Powell is massive silt banks, sand bars, and drowned brush. With the exception of a few oasis areas above the full pool line that are fed by springs, only invasive species – tamarisk and Russian thistle (aka tumbleweeds) live in the silted region.

End of the line at Willow Gulch. The lake looks good on postcards but is essentially sterile, inhabited only by machines.

Happy paddling,

Bryan Burke - bryantburke@hotmail.com