The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

by Robert Hitchman

Highway 12, between Escalante and Boulder, Utah, is one of the most scenic highways in America. This section of highway was built in 1935 by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Before then, mules and horses carried supplies and mail to Boulder over the Hells Backbone Road or over the Boulder Mail Trail across the rugged landscape east of Escalante. There are several large overlooks along the highway. Any of them are especially great at sunrise for panoramic photographs.

Melting winter snows covering the forested mountains of the Aquarius Plateau flow down Pine Creek and Sand Creek, through the Box-Death Hollow Wilderness Area to form the Escalante River. The Escalante flows east, through Calf Creek Canyon, then winds southeast to Lake Powell. About fifteen miles east of the town of Escalante, Highway 12 takes a dip and crosses the Escalante River in Calf Creek Canyon. Only recently, drivers had to ford the stream. There is now a two-lane bridge over Calf Creek. Less than a mile up the north side of the canyon, there is a side road marked Calf Creek Campground. This BLM facility has a campground, picnic tables, and the trailhead to Lower Calf Creek Falls.

This hundred-and-twenty-six-foot high waterfall is definitely worth the hike. There are actually two falls. The stream first drops about thirty feet onto a ledge, then spills over in two falls-a wide stream and a smaller stream. Both streams drop about fifty feet, striking an inclined wall covered with bright green moss, then drop into a large, circular pool. On a warm summer day, there may be other visitors and hikers swimming or sunbathing on the sandy edge of the pool when you arrive. If you don't want them in your photographs, you can ask them to move, crop them out of your compositions, or move right up to the edge of the pool and use a shorter focal length lens to eliminate the shoreline completely. My favorite photographs of Lower Calf Creek Falls included some of the box elders growing at the base of the falls. A 28mm lens was perfect for this location. If you arrive on a really hot day, you might want to wade out in the pool beneath the falls. Put a wide-angle lens on your backup camera body and shoot straight up.

The trail guides rate this hike as "moderate" at five-and-a-half miles, round trip. The trail follows the bottom of Calf Creek Canyon with only a few ups and downs. On my recent trip to Utah, it took me an hour-and-twenty-minutes to walk from the parking area near the Calf Creek Campground, to the falls. Including the time it took to shoot a roll of film at the falls, it took me three-and-a-half hours for the round-trip to the falls and back to my car. I recommend that you start in the morning and allow at least a half day for this hike. The trail is in full sunlight in the morning and in shade in the afternoon. The falls face the south and receive direct sunlight from about mid-morning until about 2 p.m.

There are several ancient Indian ruins and some pictograph panels along the Calf Creek Trail-evidence of the occupancy by Indians of the Basketmaker II period (about 500 A.D.) The pictographs and the ruins are all too far from the trail to photograph. You can barely see them across the stream. Beavers have gnawed through a grove of small oak trees along the trail to Lower Calf Creek Falls.

Except for restrooms, there are no services or supplies available at the BLM campground in Calf Creek Canyon. Carry plenty of water for your hike but be sure to have a cooler filled with ice water, cold drinks, and snacks waiting in your car for your return. It makes your return hike much easier.

Late October is a great time to plan a trip to southern Utah when the cottonwoods along the Escalante River are bright yellow. To learn more about photographing the new Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, order a copy of Photograph America Newsletter - issue #52 - for detailed information on isolated slot canyons, red rock formations, petrified forests, and some of the most remote desert landscapes in America.