Daily Didactic
We rose at a reasonable hour and packed up camp. We needed to get on the road by noon to get to a trailhead in Escalante National Monument for Coyote Gulch. We wanted the squeeze a quick morning hike and settled on the Queens Garden/Navajo Loop combination, which our little visitors newspaper identified as the "Best Three Mile Hike in the World". As with yesterday's hike, this one was down in the hoodoos and was spectacular. It was also a little busy, as three mile hikes with no humility are likely to be. We're still not sure if we took the hike we intended to as, in an effort to navigate around a crowd, we made a quick trail fork decision toward the end. Any which way it was absolutely beautiful.

We climbed in the bus and headed out of the park toward the small town of Escalante, about 60 miles east. We slowed down in the odd community just outside Bryce where everything seems to be named after someone named Ruby (gas stations, RV Parks, stores, Best Westerns) to get some gas and make a few work week phone calls. From there we powered on over another pass through the town of Tropic east.

We got to Escalanate a little before two, feeling on course and on time. We stopped at the stellar Escalanate Outfitters gear shop, where they wisely also serve awesome pizza and beverages. Brian finished up a didactic and used their free wireless, while Theresa hit what Brian now understands to be the lamest grocery store in the west for some camping food. A little later than we intended we headed the five miles east to the "Hole In The Rock Road", thirty two miles down which was our trailhead. An hour and a half later, down arguably the worst washboard road any of us has ever seen, we found the Red Well trailhead. It took us an hour or so to get the packs off the roof and extract overnighting gear from the crannies of the bus.

We hit the trail far later than we expected at 6:30 and made it in about three and half miles before pitching our tent on top of a plateau surrounded by red rock.

Campsite 78, we love it		Looking down from Sunset Point into Bryce Amphitheater
A piece of The Best Three Mile Hike In The World		The colors seem fake
Hiking in the hoodoos		Us in a one person tunnel, from the vantage of a kind stranger
Queen's Garden		CCC steps just before the switchbacks back up the rim
Toward the south end of the park		It was only us
The road to Escalante		Us
Theresa and the biggest lizard we've seen, at the Escalante Visitor's Center		That is a business plan, and it rhymes
Theresa and our new friend Lilly		Another pretty place
We were heading the deceptively short 31 miles to Red Well		This cow required driving around
A gypsum wash, no doubt really bad in the rain		Hiking down into Coyote Gulch
A little lizard doing pushups on a old barrel		The high debris mark from the last flash flood, a little spooky
Easy hiking before the stream starts		A cool waterfall and the beginning of Coyote Stream
Cutting it's way through the red rock		A beautiful red rock wall at sunset
About midway in, calling it a night

---

Road Trip YesterdayRoad Trip HomeRoad Trip Tomorrow