Backpacking Coyote Gulch in Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument has been used as a political football for the better part of a generation. It earned federal protected status as a National Monument back in 1996 and was later doubled in size to over 1.8 million acres, only for it to be halved by presidential decree in 2017.

It was later restored to its expanded 1.8 million acres on the first day Joe Biden took office, and that’s where it stands as of today.

What Grand Staircase-Escalante (GSE) has is destinations. Narrow canyons, long-ago formed arches that now tower above the water that once created them, oasis-like springs, and the nearly 80-mile Escalante River – the last mapped river in the continental United States. As former Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings once noted for Conde Nast, the Escalante hid quietly as it flowed southwest through the rugged Utah red rock for years despite some of the first white explorers repeatedly criss-crossing the region, as they routinely missed it (or failed to identify its independence) while mapping the larger Colorado River.

That’s indicative of the experience in GSE. There are destinations galore, from Death Hollow to Neon Canyon to Fence Canyon and the Golden Cathedral. What there is not, though, is a network of clearly marked, well-worn trails leading you precisely to your destination. Most every route in the region takes you over rolling sandstone, the Kaiparowits Plateau the horizon line under which you’ll eventually dip when you come across the next weak point and drainage, a canyon eroded out from under you that you hope is the one you targeted when you left. Always on your western shoulder sit the Straight Cliffs of Fiftymile Bench, the closest of the series of shelf-like cliffs and plateaus that gave rise to the name Grand Staircase in the first place.

Such is the nature of hiking in canyon country: all of your destinations lie below your feet when you start, and unlike with most alpine treks you can’t simply get eyes on your prize and hike towards it.

Roads, for the most part there are not. There is Hole-in-the-Rock Road running diagonally northwest to southeast, its washboard rock and rainy-season mud puddles the kind of car-shaking platform that has, quite literally, shaken two of the glass plates in my car’s side mirrors completely out of their casings over the years. It will get you to most every trailhead along the plateau, the entrypoints to the Escalante River and its tributaries on the eastern edge of the monument, but it won’t be a swift process – if it’s been awhile since they’ve ‘smoothed’ out the road itself, you may find yourself shaking your car along at 10-12 mph for hours at a time to reach the point where you park your car and do the dirty work on-foot.

Hurricane Wash Trailhead, for instance, sits some 38.8 miles down Hole-in-the-Rock from the town of Escalante. That’s a lot of bumpin’ and grindin’ before you ever put foot on the ground.

Trails there also are not. Routes, though, there are, and route-finding is paramount when you explore the region. You’ll find occasional cairns that lead you to weaknesses (drainages) in the rock shelves and that’s about it. Water is scarce in that arid portion of Utah, and the assumption that each next drainage will have water within it is folly. There are precious few canyons of the Escalante that hold water in them year-round, and even in the snowmelt season of March and April there’s no guarantee gravity will bail you out.

Such is the case for reaching Coyote Gulch, though – one of the absolute gems of GSE. It not only has water flowing through it year-round, but the water that’s been there for eons has produced a unique oasis of erosion and vegetation that makes it one of the most beautiful destinations to which your feet can deliver you. It flows mostly west-east off of Fiftymile Bench before teeing into the Escalante River just after milemarker 75, just north of where the Escalante slams into Lake Powell.

That Coyote Gulch has water year-round makes it a popular destination for the obvious reasons – you can hang out there indefinitely with a dependable water source in an area where that’s otherwise undependable. That Coyote Gulch has long had water year-round makes it a dream to behold, as the steady erosion of non-stop water has left it with arches and sheer-carved rock that you can’t find in the average high desert, geologic evidence of just how powerful fresh water and gravity can be when tag-teaming.

There is Jacob Hamblin Arch, as pictured above. There’s Stevens Arch, which spans over 220 feet, perched high above the Escalante on the north side of the confluence of it and Coyote Gulch. There’s Coyote Natural Bridge, which you get to just watch right under, with a handful of other arches jutting out from the canyon walls on either side.

It’s a walk that keeps you cool under the lush vegetation at the bottom of the canyon, one that also features walking through a lot of ankle-deep water. There are numerous spots to set up camp alongside both shores throughout, meaning you’ve got the option to casually stroll and stick around for days or battle your way through it in a two-day hurry.

It’s a hike that’s got a bit of everything – elevation change, rock scrambling, trudging through sand and water, camping under huge shelves, waterfalls, and the like. It even spoils you into thinking you’re anywhere but the middle of a giant, arid desert, as the canyon walls sock you into your own little oasis.

If You Go…

• Hole-in-the-Rock Road is your one way entrance to the Coyote Gulch hiking options, but from whence you begin has nuance. Each of the Red Well, Hurricane Wash, Water Tank, and Fortymile Ridge Trailheads can be used as entry/exit points – it pretty much just comes down to how much hiking you want to do. From Hurricane Wash, perhaps the most popular entry point, it’s around 12-13 miles one-way to get to the confluence of Coyote Gulch and the Escalante River, so to hike it in/out means a 24-26 mile trip.
• There are three main entry/exit points – Big Hollow Wash near Red Well Trailhead at the western end of the canyon, Crack-in-the-Wall above the Escalante south of milemarker 76, and the steep rock face just west of Jacob Hamblin Arch along Hurricane Wash. As I mentioned previously, there are no ‘trails’ to speak of, so you can pretty much make your way in and out of each and hike the rest of the time on the shelf above Coyote Gulch, but those are the three ways down (and back up).
• There are no dogs allowed in Coyote Gulch, so plan accordingly.
• There is also no burying your poo in cat holes in Coyote Gulch. You’ll need to bring wag bags and pack it all out, and rangers patrol the area regularly to make sure you’re packing properly. It’s a tight canyon down in there – don’t ruin it for everyone else!
• For a map, I’ve leaned on Trails Illustrated #710 (Canyons of the Escalante) for multiple trips into GSE, and generally trust its topography and mileage.
• While water in Coyote Gulch is dependable throughout the year, varying snowpack/snowmelt and rainy season conditions in that part of Utah can render very different water situations in the washes that drain into it. Always check with rangers before embarking on a trip to make sure you know where water is, since it’s a long, exposed journey from both the Trailheads to the Gulch and back.
• Always practice Leave No Trace principles while in the backcountry.