Today was a revisit of Escalante’s greatest hits. Steve and I first visited Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument over fifteen years ago and wow, has it changed (mainly a ton more people and parking lots and trails that didn’t exist before). What hasn’t changed though is the beauty of the place and today we got to visit a waterfall oasis in the desert, scramble around an arch and hoodoos, and make our way through two slot canyons (some of us easier than others, lol).

We started the day with a visit to Lower Calf Creek Falls, easily accessible from a developed parking area/campground off of Scenic Byway 12 that requires a small fee. The hike is six miles round trip with minimal elevation gain (although some sandy sections to walk through). It’s a pretty hike along the creek and we even had some fall colors this time of year. It’s a wonderful moment when you emerge from the trail into the tree surrounded alcove of the falls (even more so if you are Norah who somehow didn’t realize we were hiking to a waterfall and was especially surprised to see the falls - even she admitted it was a cool spot - high praise from the teenager). The falls themselves drop 126 feet over desert varnished sandstone and it is a lovely spot to enjoy some time.

We stopped in Escalante to eat lunch and pick up some groceries from the market then made our way to Hole in the Rock Road. We found the road to be in pretty good condition to the main attractions at the beginning of the road, then there were some significantly more bumpy and washboarded sections later on. We stopped at Devil’s Garden to see Metate Arch and the hoodoos eroded in the Navajo sandstone and continued on to Peekaboo and Spooky Canyons. This was the biggest change from our last visit - a huge parking lot and a marked trail that didn’t exist before. Because we were later in the day, there weren’t as many cars in the parking lot as we would see in a few days when we returned down Hole in the Rock Road. We mostly encountered hikers finishing their hike and the canyons themselves were empty. Which was good because Peekaboo in particular took some effort to get through - I certainly didn’t need an audience while I hauled my sorry ass up the obstacles!

We hiked through Peekaboo first and thankfully had Steve to help us through the canyon. He effortlessly climbed and scrambled and could help us with a hand. Even entering the canyon required some work to get up the sandstone. Once in the canyon it’s a scenic slot with some great photo opportunities. At the end we exited Peekaboo and walked across the slickrock to access Spooky. A sign in the parking lot warns of the narrow confines of this canyon and it certainly required some positioning, squeezing, and breath holding. When it was narrow and dark, it definitely lived up to its name. After exploring the slot canyons we returned to the parking lot and found a spot to camp for the night.