All the routes we guide are cross-country dayhikes. Our intermediate routes are 4 to 6 hours hiking time. Our advanced routes are 6 to 8 hours hiking time. Some of our routes are water walks that entail hiking in creeks. Hiking time, of course, depends entirely on your fitness level and hiking experience.
Why don't we guide overnight backpack trips? Because you can enjoy much greater scenic variety by dayhiking different routes. And, when carrying only a light daypack instead of a heavy backpack, you can stride farther, faster, easier, more comfortably, with less chance of injury.
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Many of our routes are known only to us. You won’t find them indicated on maps or chronicled online. A few of our routes are best described as "arcane"—known to a handful of explorers, but beyond the scope of guidebooks, including ours: Hiking from Here to WOW — Utah Canyon Country. So when you hike with us, solitude is likely.
The scenery you’ll witness with us ranges from sublime to bizarre, from intimate to immense. The physical challenge you’ll face with us depends on your experience and ability, as well as your interests, preferences and goals.
When we guide, it’s not about setting a pace and pushing people to keep up. We can hightail it, and you’re welcome to do so with us. But we don’t expect you to. We believe guiding is about creating the optimal experience for our guests.
If you want to hike at a leisurely pace, we can and will. If you want to stop frequently for photography, we’ll do so, and we’ll help you find optimal vantage points and lighting opportunities. If you want to gaze, absorb, meditate, we’ll do it with you.
Guiding entails leading, of course. But that shouldn’t mean you’re relegated only to following. Before setting out, we’ll ask you questions and listen to your answers. Then we’ll do our best to ensure our day together unfolds according to your expectations as well as ours.
Enjoy perusing the menu below. And, just as you’d ask a server at a restaurant to elaborate on dishes that interest you, tell us what routes you’re considering and we’ll help you choose.
Scroll down to read about each route and see photos.
You can view our entire website only on a large screen: laptop or desktop.
Details about the specific routes we guide are not visible on small screens: phones and most tablets.
Intermediate Routes: 4 to 6 hours
Revelation
ROUTE: circuit LENGTH: 5 hours
VERTICAL: 460-ft loss & gain CHALLENGE: 2
Want as much awesome scenery as it's possible to experience in a half-day hike? Follow us on Revelation. Most of the way, you'll have a falcon's perspective of the serpentine Escalante River canyon. Hoodoos and dwarf arches will momentarily distract you from the colorful vastness. And you'll often be hiking on slickrock: a flowing expanse of white Navajo sandstone that's retina-burn brilliant beneath our always-reliable sun. A few, short passages are steep (exciting!) but walkable; the rest is a cruise. Midway, we'll surmount a small butte granting us a fire-lookout view of all the canyon-country wilderness between the town of Escalante and Boulder Mountain. Want to swoop into all that scenery? Revelation can be a full day if we continue to the canyon floor, wade in the river, then probe a tributary gorge to an idyllic oasis: a fresh-water spring garlanded by wild mint. Hiking time: 6 to 7 hours. Elevation loss & gain: 900 feet. Challenge level: 2 to 3.
The Glacier
ROUTE: circuit LENGTH: 4 or 5 hours
VERTICAL: 660-ft or 820-ft gain & loss CHALLENGE: 2
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A great, pale dome is conspicuous among the surrounding, brown-yellow slickrock. From a distance, an imaginative observer might say it resembles a glacier in the desert. The top of the Glacier affords a dazzling yet easy-to-reach canyon-country panorama. From there, we can either loop back along the slickrock tongue of the Glacier, to complete a four-hour hike. Or we can continue along the flank of the Glacier, overlook a deep chasm spilling into a hidden canyon, then "slickwalk" back along the Glacier tongue. Whether you choose the shorter or longer option, we'll stop to admire an ancient pictograph panel along the way. The Glacier is an ideal first or last hike with us, because you'll overlook the routes we’ll soon explore, or the ones we’ve just completed.
Power of Now
ROUTE: circuit LENGTH: 3.5 hours
VERTICAL: 400-ft loss & gain CHALLENGE: 2
Begin hiking NOW, within a few-minutes of Boulder. Step onto slickrock NOW, just a few strides from the car. Enter a secluded, tranquil canyon NOW, and forget other hikers exist. Immerse yourself NOW in scenery so bizarrely beautiful it pins your attention to the present, liberating you from past and future. Power-of-Now Canyon, as we call it, is your invitation to instant, slickrock rapture. A short, fun slot and a deep-slice chasm punctuate our explorations. This route accommodates all skill levels—if you have a steady head for the initial, sharp, tricky descent, and if you have sufficient oomph for the final, steep ascent. You're hesitant but intrigued? Let's talk it over. Best time of year? The narrow canyon and south-facing walls make this route oven-like when the sun is strong. Even May or October are too hot here. Think early spring or late fall. March and November tend to be ideal for Power of Now. That's also when the lighting is oblique: optimal for photography.
Extreme Picnicking
ROUTE: round trip LENGTH: 4 hours
VERTICAL: 250-ft gain & loss CHALLENGE: 2
Extreme Picnicking is a new sport. We just invented it. It's easy. If you can walk for a few hours and, along the way, manage just one steep ascent and one steep descent, then you're an extreme picnicker. You compete only with yourself: If you can briefly forget about worldly troubles and marvel at the sensuous, bizarre beauty of a classic Utah redrock canyon, then you win. Our walk begins on a streamside path among cottonwoods. You'll soon be looking up, through the forest canopy, at the trippy canyon walls. Then we'll reach a route granting easy access to our destination: a secret, sculpted, slickrock enclave atop the canyon rim. Here you can gaze, wander, play, meditate, and of course picnic. Until humans can nosh al fresco on Mars, this is as exotic as it gets.
Pondering Pools
ROUTE: round trip LENGTH: 4 to 4.5 hours
VERTICAL: 650-ft gain & loss CHALLENGE: 2
After completing this hike, you might describe it like this to a friend back home: "We walked up a wall. Yes, up a wall. A huge canyon wall. And it was easy! Like we were gekos! Then we popped over it, and entered another realm, another world. We were totally alone in… well… it was like we were in a giant, abstract sculpture—a gorgeous work of art made of smooth, sensuous, rippling sandstone. We ended up at a string of deep pools carved by water flowing over the rock for centuries. We just sat there in awe, pondering the magic of nature. It was incredible to be in such a beautiful, tranquil place that almost nobody else has ever visited." The Pondering Pools is one of our shortest, gentlest routes. It's an ideal introduction to what we call "slick walking"—the unique experience of hiking on slickrock.
The Rose Bowl
ROUTE: loop LENGTH: 4 hours
VERTICAL: 500-ft gain & loss CHALLENGE: 2
The Escalante River canyon has countless tributaries ranging from gullies to gulches. One of them begins in a great, pink-and-red-hued amphitheater. We call it The Rose Bowl. It's complex, trail-less, little visited. So hiking in this rosy basin feels venturesome. Yet it's easy, because you're mostly on gently-angled slickrock. We'll start by cruising the headwall. Staying above the sandy arroyos but below the sheer clifftops, we'll investigate The Rose Bowl's inner sanctums. Where a stately ponderosa says "stop for lunch in my shade," we'll accept the invitation. Then we'll drop into and cross The Rose Bowl to reach a solitary butte. Want to scramble up for a 360° vista? Let's do it. From there, it's a short hike back to our trailhead.
Witchcraft Caldron
ROUTE: circuit LENGTH: 5 hours
VERTICAL: 900-ft gain & loss CHALLENGE: 2
When you clap eyes on this route’s scenic climax you might call it “incredible,” “amazing,” “awesome,” “bizarre,” “crazy,” “out of this world.” An “anomaly” is the simplest, accurate way to describe it. It’s the result of an intense mix of geologic forces. But what ignites the projectile adjectives rocketing from your brain is the initial reaction—irresistible to all but a resolute scientist—that you’re witnessing a supernatural phenomenon. Hence the name Witchcraft Caldron. This hike, however, isn’t a one-view wonder. Our slickrock route to and from the caldron is a joyous romp.
All You Can Eat
ROUTE: loop LENGTH: 5 to 6 hours
VERTICAL: 800-ft loss & gain CHALLENGE: 3
Feast on a buffet of canyon-country wonders. Soon after starting, we’ll pause for reverent admiration of a fascinating, 2000-year old Archaic rock-art panel. Then we’ll work our way to the riparian floor of a steep-walled canyon where the world feels much farther away than it actually is. After switchbacking up to a colossal arch, we’ll explore a side canyon and walk on wide ledges to circle a peninsula that offers striking vistas of Escalante River Canyon.
Cirque of the Towers
ROUTE: circuit LENGTH: 4.5 to 6 hours
VERTICAL: 600-ft loss & gain CHALLENGE: 2 to 3
While mass-migration-like crowds overwhelm Zion National Park, you can witness similar grandeur with us—in solitude—very near Boulder, Utah. We'll be on slickrock 90% of the time as we contour beneath the ever-vigilant eyes of The Watching Wall, bow to The Grand Serpent, marvel at the Cirque of the Towers, wander among the Improbable Balancing Boulders, and summit Badge of Courage Dome to overlook a headwater basin of the distant Colorado River. If runoff from Boulder Mountain is strong, we might rest beside a musical creek. Extracurricular scrambling opportunities will entice the nimble and ambitious.
Monastery Canyon
ROUTE: round trip or loop LENGTH: 6 to 7 hours
VERTICAL: 800- to 1000-ft gain & loss CHALLENGE: 3 overall, briefly 4
The high desert of southern Utah is a kind of national retreat center for those seeking a break from incessant busyness, information overload, and noisy city-life. Canyons in particular, because they're walled-in, have a profoundly soothing "world apart" atmosphere. We call this one Monastery Canyon because it's a natural sanctuary. Deep, beautiful, silent, it elicits calmness, awareness—even reverence—among those who seek refuge with us here. Yet this monastery does not require a long pilgrimage. It's surprisingly easy to reach. The final entry entails a steep friction walk where good balance and a head for heights are necessary. The inner sanctum asks that you descend a short, steep chute cluttered with loose rock, but any mountain scrambler has done this many times. Other than those two obstacles, visiting Monastery Canyon is a straightforward hike. Typically we combine our monastery visit with a detour to an easy summit granting a panoramic view of red-rock wilderness. For high-endurance striders, we turn this out-and-back hike into a loop by swooping around a colossal slickrock dome.
Cowboy Up
ROUTE: Circuit LENGTH: 5 hours
VERTICAL: 600-ft gain & loss CHALLENGE: 3
Ledge-walking above a sheer-walled canyon is a thrill. Here, we'll cruise above two canyons, following a comfortably broad, ever intriguing, Kayenta-sandstone ledge system above Wingate cliffs. Views are constant: into the depths below, across to the opposite cliffs, and out to the horizon. We'll begin by hiking streamside, through a cottonwood grove. As we probe the canyon, you'll glance upward, seeking the well-concealed passage that will convey us to the rim above. Cowboys once used it to herd cattle to a mesa-top pasture, hence the name Cowboy Up. Though we've hiked it many times, this historic "escalator" always strikes us as miraculous.
Manifest Destiny
ROUTE: one way (short, easy vehicle shuttle) LENGTH: 4.5 to 5 hours
VERTICAL: 1420-ft loss / 1100-ft gain CHALLENGE: 3
We’ll begin on a long-abandoned pioneer route that provides insight into local history as well as an elegant descent into an impressive canyon. Then we’ll veer onto our own, untracked course. Linking prominent, geographic features, we’ll complete an engaging, one-way hike. Eventually we’ll rise through a sensuous, slickrock ravine punctuated by what we call “the Pondering Pools.” Then we’ll cross a slender mesa and descend a slickrock escarpment to arrive at our shuttle vehicle.
Tribal Dance
ROUTE: loop LENGTH: 6 to 8 hours
VERTICAL: 750-ft loss & gain CHALLENGE: 2 to 3
This constantly-scenic loop is evocative of Canyonlands National Park. But there, crowds dilute the experience. Here, solitude intensifies it. We’ll begin with a ledge-walk midway up a red-orange Kayenta-sandstone canyon wall. It’s nearly level, wonderfully panoramic, and remains so for a surprisingly long distance. After turning into a tributary gulch, we’ll admire the native rock-art that inspired us to name this route Tribal Dance. Deeper in the gulch, we’ll pass perennial pools and see a well-concealed arch. A short thrash through riparian thickets heightens the sense that we’ve entered another dimension and traded artificial anxieties for genuine challenge. Then we’ll tag onto an ancient stock-trail climbing up and out of the gulch. Resuming on slickrock, we’ll intersect an historic, wilderness road—now just a path—and follow it over a climactic saddle. After we gaze at the encircling chaos of domes and buttes, the meandering path gently descends into the canyon where we began our hike. In the above statistics, you'll see our estimated hiking time for Tribal Dance spans a wide range. How long it takes you depends on your speed and endurance.
Crack in the Cosmic Egg
ROUTE: circuit (mostly a loop, with a brief entry/exit)
LENGTH: 3.5 to 4.5 hours VERTICAL: 500-ft loss & gain CHALLENGE: 2
After a short drive from Boulder, and a quick approach on foot, we'll roam an enticing Navajo-sandstone slickrock basin. This is freelance "slick walking" at its best: flowing with the sensuously sculpted terrain like surfers on a wave. The color palette ranges from biscuit dough, to gold leaf. Weird formations abound, including many curious turrets. The climax of our walk is a cleft so deep and vertical we call it the Crack in the Cosmic Egg. We'll sit here for a while, contemplating what could be the navel of the universe. To and from the crack, we can safely test our ability to imitate lizards on a wall, because slickrock isn't "slick." It's smooth, gritty, like having velcro on your bootsoles. When dry, slickrock feels like "grip rock." Hike with us here the afternoon you arrive in Boulder, or the morning you leave. If you've never probed slickrock, this is the place to try it.
Photo by Utah Slickrock Guides' guest Ake Almgren
Advanced Routes: 6 to 8 hours
Marvelous Mountain
ROUTE: circuit LENGTH: 8 hours
VERTICAL: 1700-ft gain & loss CHALLENGE: 4
The gently-rolling hike to and from Marvelous Mountain is mostly on slickrock and engagingly scenic. But once you set boot on the fringe of the mountain, you've begun a sublime experience: Summiting a prominent, massive, free-standing, slickrock peak whose architecture is dramatically complex, and whose location—in the heart of canyon country—grants a marvelous, 360° panorama of a seductively bewildering vastness. If well known, this route would be a Utah classic—in every guidebook, and on every hiker’s to-do list. Yet it’s not, because (a) the mountain is isolated, (b) its visage is forbiddingly steep, and (c) most hikers never actually explore, they simply follow. So, for now, you and we will almost certainly pay homage to the Big M in marvelous solitude and serenity. The Marvelous Mountain route is remote, and completing it entails an exceptionally long day, so it requires two guides and costs slightly more than our other advanced routes: $600 for two hikers, $750 for three, $925 for four.
Whirling Dervish Reef
ROUTE: round trip LENGTH: 6.5 to 7.5 hours
VERTICAL: 1600-ft to1800-ft gain & loss CHALLENGE: 3 to 4
Follow your bliss on a freelancing “slickwalk” over and around a mini-mountain range of whirling, sandstone peaks. Want to ascend? Up we’ll go. Curious about that intriguing cleft below? Down we’ll go. We’ll mostly be friction-walking, sometimes on steep grades, so you must be sure-footed. But we can avoid exposure, adjusting our route to avoid vertigo-inducing perches. A European couple who'd hiked all over the world and completed more than 50 of the hikes in our "WOW Utah" guidebook told us—while only midway through our Whirling Dervish day together—"This is one of the most spectacular hikes the two of us have ever done."
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Jedi Slots
ROUTE: circuit LENGTH: 6 to 8 hours
VERTICAL: 800-ft loss & gain CHALLENGE: 3
If well known, this slot-canyon route would be a classic: in every guidebook, and on every Utah hiker’s to-do list. Yet it’s not. So solitude is probable here. We usually make it a ten-mile circuit, but we can shorten or lengthen it, as you prefer. Aside from brief ups and downs, it feels level. And it's scenically engaging the entire way. It comprises four, distinct, slot canyons: Han Solo Slot, Wookie Slot, Skywalker Slot, and Yoda Slot. Each differs in color, texture, depth and length, but all are non-technical. In other words, no equipment is necessary to negotiate these slot canyons. They're hiker friendly. Short spurts of fun scrambling is possible but never required. And, after wending through the secret, sinuous recesses of the Jedi Slots, we'll loop back above them. While striding, we'll peer down at where we just slithered. And we'll appreciate the larger context: the canyon harboring the Jedi Slots. A chaotic amalgam of colors and textures makes it kaleidoscopic. The entire galaxy of high-desert hues ripples through the serpentine layers of sandstone. It's a feast for photographers, and a dazzling, refreshing twist on the nonstop claustrophobia of the typical slot-canyon experience. In the above statistics, you'll see our estimated hiking time for Jedi Slots spans a wide range. How long it takes you depends on many factors: your speed and endurance, your desire to play in the slots, your level of interest in photography, etc. Jedi typically takes most hikers closer to a full day, so our fee for this route is $525 for two hikers, $800 for four. When do we guide Jedi Slots? Only from late February through March, and from late October through November. Between those windows, the Jedi hike is too hot for comfort and safety.
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Boulder Jazz Festival
ROUTE: loop LENGTH: 7 to 8 hours
VERTICAL: 1200-ft gain & loss CHALLENGE: 3
The essence of jazz is improvisation. And this grand, looping, slickrock hike allows countless, brief, improvisational forays. The sculpted, Navajo sandstone underfoot is the color of golden-edged biscuits ready to be lifted from the oven. Sweeping, aerial views of surrounding wilderness reveal why Boulder, Utah is the epicenter of canyon-country hiking, and will likely fire your desire to stay longer and explore further.
Never-Speak-Of-It Gulch
ROUTE: round trip LENGTH: 8 to 8.5 hours
VERTICAL: 1300-ft loss & gain CHALLENGE: 4
“Show, but don’t tell” is the desert-rat protocol. Guardians of arcane knowledge, they don’t want precious secrets publicized, because it quickly attracts crowds, which inevitably cause degradation, which ultimately leads to restrictions. So we’ll lead you into Never-Speak-Of-It-Gulch only if you agree not to spread word of its entrancing beauty and secluded location. After a steep, scrambling descent on loose rock, we’ll cruise down the gulch, then ascend slickrock slopes to an airy perch where we can overlook the gulch’s impenetrable lower reaches. At that point, we have options. We can linger there before turning around. Or we can roam farther, perhaps ascending the spine of a soaring, sandstone fin; maybe probing
a deep, narrow joint; possibly navigating to an outfitter’s hand-built steps dropping to a shady, cool copse on the bank of the Escalante River. Ideally, we'll loop back across a sea of slickrock and probe an arroyo that compares favorably with "The Wave"—that off-the-charts-famous destination in Coyote Buttes, on the Utah/Arizona border. The Never-Speak-of-It route is remote, and completing all of it entails an exceptionally long day, so it requires two guides and costs slightly more than our other advanced routes: $600 for two hikers, $750 for three, $925 for four.
Escalante Alchemy
ROUTE: loop LENGTH: 7 to 8 hours
VERTICAL: 2200-ft loss & gain CHALLENGE: 4
All-day endurance is necessary here. And, for one, short, descent pitch, you’ll want self-assurance born of scrambling experience. If you meet those requirements, this extraordinary, slickrock trek has the power to remain your most vivid canyon-country memory. Twice we’ll drop into and rise out of the Escalante River Canyon, both times crossing the river. For a long stretch, we’ll follow—and marvel at—an historic, wagon “road.” Throughout, we’ll enjoy vast views and revel in the unique joy we call “slickwalking.”
Buckle Up
ROUTE: circuit LENGTH: 9 to 10 hours
VERTICAL: 2100-ft loss / 2500-ft gain. CHALLENGE: 5
A great dome is the panoramic climax of one of our intermediate routes described above. On Buckle Up, however, we'll bounce off that dome like pinballs as we zing far beyond on an ambitious, arduous, lonely, sensational, cross-country circuit. Much of the way we'll be on slickrock. We'll descend three, deep, gorgeous canyons. Twice we'll de-boot and ford streams. Significant ups and downs are numerous, scrambly (hands-on), and exciting because each minor summit reveals a new vista. Bending back toward our trailhead, we'll pound ever-skyward on the steep, slickrock nose of a mesa. Cruising atop that mesa, we'll peer into a startling chasm, resplendent with all the fiery colors in the high-desert palette. By the time we reach our vehicle, expect to feel tired but ecstatic. Very few hikers could navigate Buckle Up on their own. Most would insist it requires at least a one-night backpack trip. If you're a mile-crushing dayhiker with a huge appetite for wondrous scenery and total tranquility, talk to us about flashing Buckle Up in a single, unforgettable day. Our preference is to attempt it only with guests we've previously guided, so we can be confident they're up to the task. Also, the route is remote, and completing all of it entails an exceptionally long day, so it requires two guides and costs more than our other advanced routes: $700 for two hikers, $850 for three, $1000 for four.
Slot Safari
ROUTE: round trip LENGTH: 6.5 to 7.5 hours
VERTICAL: 500-ft loss & gain CHALLENGE: 3 for distance
We describe this one in our guidebook Hiking From Here to WOW: Utah Canyon Country. It's Little Death Hollow, Trip 33. But it's such a long hike, you might want us to accompany you. We'd love to—if you're confident you have the endurance to stride 14 miles. The canyon walls close in on us about one hour from the trailhead. Soon, we enter a true slot: deep, slender, fantastically sculpted. And, for such a sinuous corridor, it's long. We'll explore it for a full hour in one direction, then we'll turn around and appreciate it with fresh eyes for a full hour in the other direction. All told, our round trip will comprise two hours in the slot, plus four hours in the tightly constricted canyon. And the entire distance is non-technical. No climbing skills or equipment required. We'll simply be walking on level ground, with sand and gravel underfoot. In a region famous for slot canyons, this one is the easiest that's also thrilling yet little visited. We call it a Safari because it's remote, requiring a long drive from Boulder (three hours round trip, including 80 minutes off pavement); because the hike itself is very long; and because the heart of the venture is an extraordinarily-long slot. When do we lead Slot Safari? Only from March through mid-April, and from late October through November. Between those windows, this hike is too hot for comfort and safety. Slot Safari is remote, and the drive to/from is long, so the guide fee is $600 for two hikers, $750 for three, and $925 for four.
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Rock Whisperer
ROUTE: loop LENGTH: 7 to 8 hours
VERTICAL: 1180-ft loss & gain CHALLENGE: 5
“No way we can hike down this,” you think. So you turn around, expecting to see us nodding our heads, solemnly confirming your assessment. But we’ll be smiling, and you’ll realize: “OMG! We are gonna hike down this!” And together, we’ll do it without drama—assuming you’re an experienced, competent scrambler and strong hiker. Our route slowly, sanely unlocks the puzzle, granting us passage into the Escalante River Canyon. After de-booting and crossing the river, we’ll ascend an old, stock trail to the base of a gigantic sandstone dome. From there we’ll work our way to another creek crossing, then ascend through a hidden passage—a canyon-country version of Diagon Alley. Beyond, we’ll see swirling, red, pink and white cross-bedded sandstone, and visit an historic cabin. We’ll cross the Escalante River yet again. On the far bank, we’ll admire an entrancing rock-art site before snaking along
an ingenious route back to our trailhead. The Rock Whisperer route is remote, and completing all of it entails an exceptionally long day, so it requires two guides and costs slightly more than our other advanced routes: $600 for two hikers, $800 for three, $975 for four.
Water Walks
Perennial creeks in a desert? Yes. It's another unique appeal of Boulder, Utah. And with us as your guides, you can take full advantage of it. The routes described below are largely in water. They’re ideal for summer when the weather's hot. But they're sometimes possible and enjoyable in spring or fall—if the conditions are right. Typically, we begin a water-walk early in the day, hike overland, enter the creek canyon and follow it, then hike out later, when it's cooler. The water will generally range from ankle to knee deep, and it’s usually chilly (even in summer), so we urge you to bring neoprene socks. The ideal footwear is synthetic (non-absorbent) hiking boots. And trekking poles are particularly helpful in the rocky streambeds.
Where Dinosaurs Drink
ROUTE: one way (short, easy vehicle shuttle) LENGTH: 5 to 7 hours
VERTICAL: 500-ft loss / 150-ft gain CHALLENGE: 2 to 3
Giant, sandstone fins arcing toward the Escalante River can—to an inventive mind—resemble dinosaurs gracefully bending their long necks to drink in the canyon. On this hike, we’ll initially follow remnants of an abandoned, historic road where it contours toward those dinosaur-like fins. Below the fins, we’ll descend sharply on rough terrain, to reach the river. Then we’ll splash downstream—occasionally shortcutting sandy banks—to end up near where we began hiking. En route, we’ll see ruins and rock art. Warm weather sometimes enables us to do this walk from March through October.
Secret Knowledge of Water
ROUTE: circuit LENGTH: 5 or 6 hours
VERTICAL: 600-ft gain & loss CHALLENGE: 3
Canyon country is a colossal sculpture in progress. Rivulets channel trickles that merge into gullies that flow into arroyos that incise ravines that feed draws that create gulches that deepen into magnificent chasms. On this route, we’ll literally immerse ourselves in the timeless equation constantly at work throughout southern Utah: sandstone + rain + gravity = canyons. We’ll start by ascending whirling sandstone domes for a 360° view of Grand Staircase—Escalante National Monument. From the summits, we’ll descend into our “secret canyon” until we're splashing through the stream that created it. At its heart is a slot-canyon-slender corridor whose sheer, soaring walls are ooh-and-ahh worthy. Secret Knowledge appeals to you? It's comfortably hikeable only when not choked with vegetation. Big, flash-flood rainstorms are necessary to debride the canyon. So ask us if we’re guiding it this season.
Carved in Stone
ROUTE: circuit LENGTH: 8 to 9 hours
VERTICAL: 800-ft loss & gain CHALLENGE: 5
The Escalante River Canyon is dramatically carved in stone. On this route, we'll admire one of its more impressive sections: where it towers not just vertically, but curves above us, like a pipeline wave arcing over a surfer's head. Also carved in stone is our canyon exit. It's a well-concealed staircase—built with pick axes and dynamite by pioneer cattlemen—where otherwise only a lizard could climb out. As for the start of our day, we'll follow a cunning passage into a marvelous, big-walled tributary canyon. We'll then scramble through numerous arroyos and pierce a saddle affording vast views before we ease down to the riverbank about three hours from our trailhead. Splashing knee-deep downstream in the spectacular canyon will take us about 90 minutes. From our carved-in-stone exit, we'll ascend to a sea of slickrock, we'll overlook the great, serpentine canyon we're now intimate with, then we'll visit our region's version of The Wave— that off-the-charts-famous destination in Coyote Buttes, on the Utah/Arizona border. A long stretch of scenic slickwalking ensues: some of it on what we call "sidewalks." Our final 40 minutes is in unavoidable sand—the same stretch we initially hiked from the trailhead. So our round-trip sand slog will total nearly 1.5 hours. But that's insignificant for an otherwise constantly-alluring hike. The Carved in Stone route is remote, and completing all of it entails an exceptionally long day, so it requires two guides and costs more than our other advanced routes: $700 for two hikers, $850 for three, $1000 for four. If you have a voracious appetite for the wonders of canyon country, ask us about Carved In Stone.
Water Master
ROUTE: loop LENGTH: 7 to 8 hours
VERTICAL: 1000-ft loss & gain CHALLENGE: 5
Boulder has a water master—a local resident entrusted by the community to oversee the distribution of the most precious of all resources. Named in honor of this vital job, our hike descends a usually-dry slickrock tributary drainage to arrive at a canyon carved by a perennial creek. Here we’ll step into the flow and splash upstream into and through the remarkable, tubular, canyon narrows. We’ll hike often in the water, sometimes on slickrock benches beside the creek, occasionally through dense brush. After savoring the canyon’s tranquility, we’ll exit the water and face a short, exposed scramble before cruising back to the trailhead. Our preference is to hike Water Master only with guests we've previously guided, so we can be confident they're up to the task.
Boulder Baptism
ROUTE: round trip LENGTH: 7 to 9 hours
VERTICAL: 1130-ft loss & gain CHALLENGE: 2 to 3 overall, briefly 5
If you’ve hiked Utah canyon country, you’ve likely heard of Death Hollow. And if you have our guidebook Hiking from Here to WOW: Utah Canyon Country—maybe you’ve followed our description of the Boulder Mail Trail, which links the towns of Boulder and Escalante, crossing Death Hollow en route. Boulder Baptism, however, probes Death Hollow from its mouth. After descending a little-known route to reach the confluence of Death Hollow and the Escalante River, we’ll hike upstream for nearly three hours in the canyon’s deep, atmospheric, awe-inspiring narrows. You’ll be hiking in the clear creek, usually ankle to knee deep. We’ll swim in pools and lounge beside them for a couple hours. We need hot temps for this hike, which makes it possible only from early May through mid-October. Boulder Baptism requires two guides because it’s exceptionally long and entails an exposed scramble (descent and ascent). So this route costs slightly more than our other advanced routes: $600 for two hikers, $800 for three, $975 for four. Our preference is to hike Boulder Baptism only with guests we've previously guided, so we can be confident they're up to the task.
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