Crossing the Escalante at the Mouth of 25 Mile Wash
Day 4: Camp 3 Near Neon Canyon to mouth of 25 Mile Wash
Heading out from our crap camp we visited a pictograph panel, made side trips to Neon and Ringtail canyons.
Troop 24 Kickass Trekkers: "The High Adventure Troop" Alumni Backpacking Trip
-Cascade Bill Mooseker
Date(s): March 2003. Album by Cascade Bill. Photos by WHM. 1 - 64 of 64 Total. 435 Visits.
enlarge 85KB, 800x553 1 ut03112 Camp 3 is in the books - here Kyle is packing up.
enlarge 88KB, 800x582 2 ut03113 In their haste to find the campsite, Danny and Shelby had walked past this petroglyph panel which was a couple of hundred yards back up the trail from our camp. Here kyle and Bill are looking at the panel.
enlarge 100KB, 800x566 3 ut03114r Shelby & Kyle.
enlarge 115KB, 602x800 4 ut03115 Roger, Kevin, Shelby, and Kyle.
enlarge 135KB, 800x602 5 ut03116 Petroglyphs - more "bearpaws" here.
enlarge 140KB, 800x602 6 ut03117 Kyle getting his shot.
enlarge 159KB, 800x602 7 ut03118 View of Panel.
enlarge 132KB, 602x800 8 ut03119 View of Panel - there had been some historical vandalism of this panel similar to the Choprock Canyon panel.
enlarge 120KB, 800x602 9 ut03120 These were on a boulder a tthe Panel site.
enlarge 130KB, 800x602 10 ut03121 Fiugres cut into a boulder at the site.
enlarge 121KB, 800x602 11 ut03122 Shelby getting a close up of a panel detail.
enlarge 142KB, 800x602 12 ut03123 Close up of Panel figure.
enlarge 101KB, 519x800 13 ut03133r Guys at the mouth of Neon Canyon - getting ready to head up the canyon to the Golden Cathedral.
enlarge 107KB, 602x800 14 ut03124 Near the mouth of Neon Canyon. This is a beautiful canyon that culminates in the Golden Cathedral. The close in walls, green vegeation, cottonwoods, boulders make it a very scenic sidetrip.
enlarge 87KB, 539x800 15 ut03125r Roger, Kevin, and Gary at the Golden Cathedral.
enlarge 84KB, 598x800 16 ut03126 Roger and Kevin - you can see the pool of water below the two circular openings worn into the dome above.
enlarge 83KB, 598x800 17 ut03127 Bill at the Golden Cathedral- this is a very special place.
enlarge 109KB, 573x800 18 ut03128 Stepping back a bit you can see how the canyon walls come together and over time worn the dome above the pool.
enlarge 93KB, 598x800 19 ut03129 The light streams through the openings in the ceiling.
enlarge 90KB, 800x530 20 ut03130r Roger
enlarge 80KB, 527x800 21 ut03131r Roger at the Golden Cathedral.
enlarge 86KB, 518x800 22 ut03132r Looking up through the roof openings. it would really be something to see the water cascading down through these openings.
enlarge 93KB, 573x800 23 ut03135 Looking back down Neon Canyon from the Golden Cathedral - you make your way between the canyon wall and that house sized boulder.
enlarge 96KB, 578x800 24 ut03136 Kyle, Shelby, and Kevin - looking back up to the Golden Cathedral thourgh the opening between a house sized rock and the canyon wall.
enlarge 124KB, 578x800 25 ut03137 The morning light and shadows here show the magic of Neon Canyon.
enlarge 153KB, 800x600 26 ut03134r At the mouth of Neon Canyon after our side trip up to the Golden Cathedral -Getting ready to head down the river.
enlarge 108KB, 800x578 27 ut03138 Just beyond the mouth of Neon Canyon the trail goes across a wide bench and another petroglyph panel comes into view.
enlarge 118KB, 800x578 28 ut03139 Detail of Petroglyph Panel
enlarge 123KB, 800x578 29 ut03140 Petroglyphs
enlarge 111KB, 578x800 30 ut03141 Shelby - these vertical designs were eye catching.
enlarge 123KB, 800x578 31 ut03142 A series of bighorn sheep figures.
enlarge 112KB, 800x600 32 ut03145r A shortways downriver from Neon Canyon lies Ringtail canyon. At its mouth you have to do some boulder hopping and climbing to get into the canyon.
enlarge 95KB, 578x800 33 ut03146 After climbing a bit, the canyon walls close in forming a slot .
enlarge 62KB, 574x800 34 ut03147 Once you get used to the mucky bottom of the slot it is a lot of fun - here Roger and Kevin going around a bend.
enlarge 67KB, 601x800 35 ut03148 Kyle and Shelby make their way up the slot.
enlarge 56KB, 595x800 36 ut03149 The chokestone in the bottom of the picture stopped my progress - I couldn't get under it and it looked too difficult to climb over so I took this picture of Shelby as he countiued up the slot.
enlarge 55KB, 567x800 37 ut03150 Looking back the way we had come.
enlarge 63KB, 900x497 38 ut03151r Kevin, Kyle, and Shelby going up Ringtail Canyon. (Enlarge Picture!)
enlarge 53KB, 467x800 39 ut03152r Shelby tries a little bridging.
enlarge 69KB, 600x800 40 ut03153 This is looking back at the entrance to the slot.
enlarge 196KB, 800x600 41 ut03143r After our side trip up Ringtail, we had lunch- Bill's shoes tell the tail of the slot - mud, mud, and more mud.
enlarge 182KB, 800x600 42 ut03144r Guys having lunch at the mouth of Ringtail Canyon - you can see the wash from Ringtail here.
enlarge 89KB, 800x600 43 ut03154 A little bit of trail here as we come to the end of a bench for another river crossing.
enlarge 101KB, 600x800 44 ut03155 Another "Double" crossing - at one of these we caught up to a group of college kids from California. One of the kids asked Shelby where we were going. Shelby said he didn't know. The kid replied, "Yeah, it's my first trip too." Shelby said, "No, you don't understand - we've been doing this for 10 years. None of us know where we are going - we just follow that old guy in the back" - About then I tumbled out of the brush and made the river crossing. I kind of wondered why I got a lot of funny looks.
enlarge 83KB, 900x502 45 ut03156r Shelby say's the hell with climbing up on the bench I'm just going to hike down the river for a while. Below Ringtail canyon, the river has a lot more bends
enlarge 108KB, 563x800 46 ut03157 In the background is the mouth of Baker Canyon wihch comes in at a sharp bend in the Escalante. The trail climbs a bit above the river at this point. Danny with his usual late start after a break has caught up to me at this point.
enlarge 113KB, 800x600 47 ut03158 Opposite the mouth of 25 mile Wash, we cross the river for the last time for that day - Here Gary and Roger are crossing. The sun was sinking fast so we were looking for a camp site.
enlarge 92KB, 563x800 48 ut03159 We decided to camp on this sand bar just below the mouth of 25 mile wash - not a good place to camp if you are expecting flash floods.
enlarge 177KB, 800x600 49 ut03160r Bill clearing a space for his tent on the sand bar. As you can see it got pretty cold when the sun went down so out comes the pile sweater and hat.
enlarge 162KB, 800x600 50 ut03161r No sweat for Danny - get out the book and the tape player.
enlarge 160KB, 800x600 51 ut03162r While we were setting up camp, a couple of strong wind gusts played havoc with our tents so Roger and Kyle went overboard guying there tent.
enlarge 188KB, 800x600 52 ut03163r Kyle in the general disorder of the camp.
enlarge 156KB, 800x600 53 ut03164r Another view of the tent guys.
enlarge 172KB, 800x600 54 ut03165r The canyon wall next to our camp was scalloped with these depresions made by the everpresent wind.
enlarge 136KB, 800x600 55 ut03166r Kevin finds a catacomb to take a rest in.
enlarge 156KB, 800x600 56 ut03167r Roger and Kevin.
enlarge 89KB, 525x800 57 ut03168r Shelby - just hangin' around.
enlarge 141KB, 800x600 58 ut03169r Having desert - One of the problems with camping along the Escalante is that most camps have no sitting logs. We were lucky in this camp with this log. - Kevin, Bill, Gary, Kyle, and Shelby. You can see the narrow mouth of 25 mile wash at top right (if you look carefully).
enlarge 79KB, 800x600 59 ut03170r Roger's photo project - get close ups of trip participants - This is Danny.
enlarge 117KB, 800x600 60 ut03171r Roger's Close up.
enlarge 78KB, 800x600 61 ut03172r Kyle
enlarge 94KB, 800x600 62 ut03173r Shelby
enlarge 93KB, 600x800 63 ut03174r Kevin
enlarge 117KB, 800x600 64 ut03175r Looking down river from our camp - The college group came by quite some time after we had pitched camp. They finally found a camp aways downriver. We never saw them again.
