Wander the West: Grand Staircase - Glen Canyon Adventure - Wander the West

To celebrate three glorious years of owning our Four Wheel Camper this month, we rewarded ourselves with a 4 day trip to southern Utah. We wanted to explore some 'new-to-us' areas around the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. While Moab and Canyonlands National Park get all of the notoriety (and rightfully so), the areas around Capitol Reef NP and the town of Escalante, are my personal favorites.



It's about an 8 hour drive from our home but well worth it. We left on Thursday evening around 8pm, and with a short nap in the truck at 2:30am, somewhere near the town of Price, we eventually made it to the tiny outpost of Hanksville, by first light on Friday. It was a quite morning at the Hollow Mountain gas station. The winds were steady, the temps were crisp and the clouds were consistent. It was going to be a good day.

Our first destination was to head south on 95 to 276, where I had hoped to cross the Henry Mtns over Bull Creek Pass, before joining up with the northern portion of the Bullfrog-Notom Road. A stop at the BLM office before leaving Hanksville, revealed the conditions over the 10K ft pass were not yet favorable. We formulated Plan B - keep going south to the village of Bullfrog on Lake Powell.

Route 276 to Bullfrog -



On this stretch of road it's clear we're on the right path. Every vehicle we pass is either towing a boat or hauling a slide-in camper, or both. At Bullfrog we show our national park pass and are waved in without paying a fee. There is a remote 4wd accessible primitive campground on the lake shore called Stanton Creek. While the turn-off is a bugger to find, we get on course and soon find ourselves bouncing down a nice red dirt trail.


The trail into Stanton Creek campground -






Once near the shore the trail fragments into numerous smaller trails. Tire tracks and rock cairns are your only guides. Pick a set of tracks to follow and make your way down to the water. That's what we did.


On the shores of Lake Powell -






We popped the top on the FWC, made lunch and finally were able to relax after our long night's drive down. We listened as the houseboats chugged along on the lake and a few faster boats raced nearby. This was a good spot and an unexpected surprise. The only pic I could find online of this area before we came didn't show anything like we'd found. I was thrilled at the scenery and solitude. I had seen a few other campers on the way in, but from our little beach we couldn't hear or see anyone.

Perfect.

I put my chair in the bright sunshine, cracked open a cold one, leaned back and smiled a genuine grin before nodding off in the warm breeze....

.

KC, thanks for sharing your trip with us. :thumb:

Alex said:

+1. I assume (hope) this is only the first installment since it was a 4 day trip?

KC I just love your pix. Thanks

Do you know the problem with napping out in the afternoon sun? Sunburn...:o


So my poor Irish complexion took a roasting under the bright Utah sun. Fortunately the wind woke me up before I entered the second degree burn phase. But now the wind was blowing and kicking up the red dirt beach. Time to make a decision, and I'm reminded of a favorite quote I once read on the wall of an outhouse in northern Montana,

"The injustice of travel is having to choose to stay or go."

We opt to call it a good day on the lake, but continue on our way. So we head north on the Bullfrog-Notom Road, a scenic dirt track through the Waterpocket Fold and on to Capitol Reef National Park. Half way up this scenic beauty, we veer west onto the Burr Trail that leads into the small hamlet of Boulder. Remote and scenic and the diverse topography keeps us mumbling, "Wow.... wow.... wow..." over and over.


Bullfrog-Notom Road -



The turnoff for the Burr Trail - a long way from anywhere



Switchbacks on the Burr Trail -



At the top of the switchbacks, just about when the gravel road becomes a paved road, we turn south onto the Wolverine Loop Road for something new. It was a 28 mile track that eventually tied back into the Burr Trail. Having done the full Burr Trail, we choose to take this lost path through a petrified forest with even more scenic vistas. The trail is rough in several places, 4wd definitely required. We didn't see another vehicle for the entire loop. Had we broken down out there, I would have needed a bailout package from the federal government to pay the tow bill back to civilization...

We did what we do best. Rolled down the windows, turned up the XM, grabbed a snack and gawked out the windows like people from another planet.





With little daylight left, we rejoin the Burr Trail and begin to scout out a campsite for the evening. There is a formal campground nearby at the Deer Creek rec area, but I'm interested in camping along the top of the trail in a more remote location but out of the steady wind. On some BLM land, we pull off onto a sandy trail and follow some old tracks into a cluster of Juniper trees. We'll have a decent view in the morning but more importantly, we'll have some natural windblocks through the night.

We make some spaghetti for dinner inside and settle in for the evening. The Engle fridge is keeping the drinks cold and the FWC's heater is keeping us toasty. We're in the middle of a scenic nowhere with more to come the following day. We have everything we need and so far had a great first full day on our trip. I killed the lights, crawled into my bag content and grateful for Utah, and just a little anxious about driving on Highway 12 and rolling into funky little Escalante, in the morning.


Camp on the Burr Trail -

Thanks kcowyo, for the turn-by-turn deail and the photos.

kcowyo:

Man, you do the coolest trips. I love reading about them. Keep it up. One day, those of us from the far Northwest will have to meet up with you. It would be fun just to read the trip reports!!!

cool.

Dave in Seattle

KC,

as always outstanding pics and write-up :thumb:. Every time I look @ your pics and some others on this site makes me want to get a new camera and work on my photo skills. Truely inspirational.

marc

Marc said:

Exactly! Let's see solar panel or camera? Oh!

He does do the best trips. I have a new (to me) camera on the way. Now it just needs to stop raining and I can head on out myself.