This morning M and I drove a couple miles to the Escalante Airport where I flew post-training flight #49. At 5,700 above sea level, the paramotor provided quite a bit less thrust than at sea level:
B photographed me flying over the RV:
Cleaning up after the landing:
There were plenty of interesting planes at the airport:
I had spotted this pond under an overhang near the RV from the air, so the kids and I hiked out to find it:
We hitched up the RV and drove north to the village of Boulder, then south and east on the Burr Trail. We dropped off the RV in a dispersed camping area along the road, then drove to the end of the pavement, leaving Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and entering Capitol Reef National Park. We turned north on Upper Muley Twist Canyon Road to drive through a wash towards a trailhead:
Careful aim was necessary in a couple places:
We passed Cheerios Double Arch:
Hiking on the trail, we spotted this interesting lizard:
After a half mile or so we reached the Strike Valley Overlook, where we could see the Waterpocket Fold, the largest monocline in North America
The Waterpocket Fold extends for over 100 miles, and we could see it stretch to the horizon to the left and right:
A panorama of the Waterpocket Fold:
M caught me working my inner park ranger:
On the way back to the RV, we stopped at the trailhead for Little Death Hollow Canyon:
The canyon doesn’t get narrow until four miles from the trailhead, but we figured it would make a nice hike anyway:
The sign at the trailhead warned against scaring grazing cows deep into the canyon:
We found some pictographs along the way:
Deeper into the canyon, we found quite a bit of petrified wood:
B found cow remains:
Little Death Hollow is one of a handful of slot canyons in Wingate Sandstone, which is usually too hard to form slot canyons, as opposed to the softer Navajo Sandstone where slot canyons are common. The stones have interesting patterns up close:
Heading back out:
We saw other interesting formations as we drove back to the RV:
We got back to the RV just a bit after sunset. Even with the cellular booster, we have neither Verizon nor AT&T signal here:
See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.