Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument – Day 4

The Hole in the Rock road is within the Grand Staircase-Escalante Monument. You can see a winding ribbon of the road in this view from Fifty Mile Bench.

This was the route taken by Mormon pioneers intent on settling southern Utah. At the end of the road, they reach a 45 degree dropoff to the Colorado River. In order to get down, they spent weeks moving rocks and carving out a path for men, stock, and wagons. The wagons had to be lowered by ropes.

Years ago, while camping on Lake Powell, we hiked from the lake up to the ridge the pioneers descended. The path was steep even for hearty hikers.

This time, though, we weren't going to river or lake, but attempting to reach Fifty Mile Mountain. We rode our horses up a jeep road to Fifty Mile Bench.

Much of the path was sandy. We were able to trot and canter there, making good time.

After a particularly arduous stretch, the horses got a much-deserved snow cone break.
The view from Fifty Mile Bench was vast.
But just above the bench, the track narrowed and most of it was slick or covered with snow. We'll have to come back and reach the mountaintop another day.
On the way down, we saw this window rock, a testament to the power of water and wind acting on sandstone. Amazing, isn't it?

A jackrabbit stood absolutely still in the blackbrush, hoping we wouldn’t notice him.

When we stopped to take his picture, the little guy spooked and raced away. Lucky for him, Daisy didn’t notice him. She was probably too tired by then to have made a respectable chase anyway.
By early afternoon, we were back at our trailer.

We decided to make part of the long drive back home that day. The reasonable stopping place was Hans Flat Road near Canyonlands, where we’d camped earlier in the week.

We arrived just as twilight descended.

And later, Steve took this photo:

As it turned out, returning for another night at Hans Flat led to an unexpected and happy consequence the next day.
For more Skywatch, click here.