We made our first base in Escalante, UT at a nice little camping/RV park on the edge of town. The local guide shop recommended Willis Creek and Bull River Gorge as fun non-technical slot canyons. We started in Willis Creek, which carves a wide-ish (10-20 feet) slot on and off for about a 1.5 miles from the road until it joins Sheep Creek. The hike was flat and relaxed, with just a bit of water flow, and the rock was gorgeous. All intersecting layers of slanted sandstone.
 |
| One of several narrows on Willis Creek. |
 |
| I love the layered texture in the Utah sandstone. |
 |
| Another textured wall. |
 |
| View from the fire road headed home. |
We had a couple hours of daylight left after Willis Creek so we headed further down the fire road to check out Bull River Gorge. We found the top of the gorge but couldn't figure out how to get down into it. It appears about 100-200 feet deep and maybe 8 feet wide at the top, very cool. I now have the entrance beta and fully intend to go back sometime to hike through it.
On our way home to camp we stopped at Escalante Petrified Forest State Park and did the three mile petrified wood trail. I had previously only seen a handful of petrified logs out in nature, although I am the proud owner of a small chunk of petrified wood. This park was amazing, so many boulders, logs, and piles of petrified wood. The rock took on a whole rainbow of colors. My favorites were a brilliant yellow that commonly formed the outer shell of the logs and a rick pink-purple that sadly did not photograph well. The trail was steep and tiring but very worth it. Five stars, would complain my way up again.
 |
| We got so excited when we came to the first petrified log, not realizing this was 0.1% of the petrified wood on the trail. |
 |
| Rainbow rock with purple and yellow sections. |
 |
| We also saw sandstone with this interesting bb texture. |
