Waking up in a calm mood. Breathing in the fresh air of pine trees and herbs. Testing the echo of the surrounding walls. Watching the sun tint the mountain tops orange. This feels good!
Driving closer and closer towards „Grand Staircase Escalante – National Monument“ with good music on (Latest Albums of Fakear and The Blaze, in case you wanna know 🙃).
To get to the hiking destinations of today (Peek-A-Boo & Spooky Slot Canyons), I had to take „Hole-in-the-Rock“ road close to Escalante, which is full of red sand and stone bumps – quite a test for my rental car, but it made it. A nice couple offered me an extra ride to the trailhead.
After hiking in I found Dry Fork of Coyote Gulch, it was to be my first slot canyon to explore! It was quite large and required no squeezing through. Exciting nevertheless! Trying to get back on the original way required a bit of extra orientation as I like to hike loops rather than in-and-out tours.
The entrances of Peek-a-Boo & Spooky Canyon were easy to find and both were super fun to do, although I liked Spooky a bit better as it required lots of squeezing and scrambling.
It took me around four hours as I had to take a million photos – I‘ve been admiring this creation of nature on the computer screen since a long time but now I was in the middle – and getting stuck with my backpack 😅
After taking a nap, I went to Devils‘ Garden – a fantastic place full of rock towers, arches and more hoodoos made of yellow and white slickrock.
I set up camp close to tomorrow‘s trailhead and listened to podcasts about mental health. There was a fire ring next to my camp and it was one of these moments were company would have been good. But I knew that before I left on this trip. I knew that there were going to be moments where I wish someone would cuddle and watch stars with me.
Finn Goes West - Hiking & Climbing in the South-Western USA 