Adventures In Utah:
Escalante Petrified Forest State Park & Kodachrome Basin State Park
8.5 Miles – 4/12/21
This morning we packed up, waved goodbye to our Escalante house, and headed west on (you guessed it) Byway 12. We arrived at our first stop in about five minutes.
Escalante Petrified Forest State Park sits right by the road with no excuse for not checking out remnants of petrified wood that are hundreds of millions of years old – wow! The Visitor Center was closed for COVID-19, but we picked up a brochure and took a little one-mile warmup hike on the Petrified Forest Trail.
layered sandstone cliffs
Petrified tree stumps and limbs are scattered alongside the trail.
The park borders Wide Hollow Reservoir, water source for the town of Escalante. With a campground and water recreation opportunities, if you are the camping or RV type, this would be a fantastic place to base for exploring the many wonders along Byway 12.
Jim and I stayed on the one-mile loop while Cathy and Mike explored the Trail of Sleeping Rainbows. The Eagles View Trail (mountain biking) also passes through the park.
Teased by the unique features and views at Petrified Forest SP, we were excited to visit Kodachrome Basin State Park, known for its unique sandstone spires and features bearing quirky names.
From the park’s brochure: “Kodachrome Basin is a spectacle of towering sandstone chimneys, changing in color and shadow with the day’s mood – from red-tinged spires against a blue sky to soft evening light settling over the desert. This color and contrast prompted the National Geographic Society in 1949, with the consent of Kodak Film Corp., to name the park Kodachrome.”
Most of the park’s trails are short, but we had plenty of time to explore and we hiked the combination Panorama Trail & Big Bear Geyser Trail, what I call an “eyeglasses” hike, two loops linked by a trail in between. Our guidebook describes the hike as a 5.5-mile double loop, but we included some wandering on spur trails and the Secret Passage Loop, for a total of nearly 7 miles.
A great detailed hike report of this hike at Kodachrome Basin is here.
The first feature you see along the Panorama Trail is the Fred Flintstone Spire. Once you know
the name, you can squint from different angles and find the resemblance.
A very short side loop leads to Old Indian Cave, an indentation or alcove in the red sandstone with odd markings as though someone dragged fingers through soft clay. I haven’t found a theory for what caused them, either humans or geology.
Orange-red Entrada sandstone has eroded away, leaving this solitary white sand pipe called the Ballerina Spire. It reaches 30 feet straight up like a ballerina’s leg with a very defined calf and pointed toe. It appears much taller as it stands alone against the backdrop of blue sky and white mountaintops.
The Hat Shop is a collection of hoodoo spires, some capped by sandstone slabs
The trail is generally well marked until you get on the Secret Passage Loop (I guess that’s part of what keeps it secret?) and we lost Jim near there. I kept going around the boulders and he missed a turn. (In his defense, it was unmarked and I had no idea he would turn left where he did, and footprints go in every direction on the sandy trails. I should have waited for him).
It was a little bit scary trying to determine where to find Jim. I spoke to another hiker who had seen him, so I stopped at a big intersection and waited until he came around, not smiling.
When the dust settled, we continued on the hike, turning right onto Big Bear Geyser Trail (the connector between the two loops) and walked along the base of the red rocks. We glimpsed side canyons along the way but stuck to the trail.
A dry wash
Another Ballerina Spire in the making?
At the end of the connector section, we turned to follow the loop counterclockwise to a short spur to Cool Cave, which is pretty cool! Also chilly. The opening at the top of this feature makes it resemble a slot canyon, with natural light emphasizing shades of orange and red.
We completed the Big Bear Geyser loop and retraced our steps on the connector back to the Panorama Loop. Mammoth Geyser loomed large in the distance and we took the side spur to check it out. Like Ballerina Spire, Mammoth Geyser is also a white sand pipe, the largest one in Kodachrome Basin SP.
The elevation gain during the nearly 7-mile hike was a mere 554 feet, and most of that effort was via switchbacks to reach Panorama Point. A moderate breeze whistled in my ears. The views are impossible to capture with a little phone camera, but I tried.
From Panorama Point we had a short walk along the valley floor to complete the loop and return to the parking lot. Today’s hike was great fun, continuing to build the anticipation of the “big parks” coming up.
Our next Airbnb stay was between towns (really small towns!) and the host advised us to visit the grocery store in Panguitch before check-in. We bid farewell (and hope to see you again) to Byway 12 and said howdy to Highway 89.
Utah didn’t have a mask mandate and it seemed that only tourists were wearing masks – not store employees or local folks. We stocked up for the coming four days/nights, food for breakfasts and lunches and a couple of suppers, and headed to our cozy cabin tucked up in the mountains near the junction of Highway 89 and Highway 14 (a convenient and surprisingly quiet and secluded location).
While Cathy prepared a spaghetti dinner, we looked a few days ahead to our plans in Zion National Park. Zion is a hard park to visit! Because of the pandemic and the configuration of the narrow canyon, timed reservations were required for shuttles within the park (a limited number of time slots as well as seats) and many trails were closed due to rockslides. We decided to skip hiking the Narrows due to the cool temps forecast.
But before we get to Zion NP…
Preview for tomorrow: Bryce Canyon National Park on Byway 12“The desert wears… a veil of mystery. Motionless and silent it evokes in us an elusive hint of something unknown, unknowable, about to be revealed. Since the desert does not act it seems to be waiting — but waiting for what?”
~Edward Abbey
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