Day 6 - Hole in the Tire Road

Woke up, made oatmeal and coffee with a French press (we fancy) and after a leisurely breakfast, we packed everything up and made the drive to Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, where we plan to spend the next few days exploring slot canyons.  Our first hike today was the Willis Creek Slot Canyon.  The drive in was on a dirt/gravel/sand road – Damon loves these because he thinks it is not fair to have a 4Runner in the city and sometimes they need to have fun, so Richard (our car), got to play in the dirt on our way to the trail-head. 

We had the option to hike 2.5 miles or 4.5 miles.  Given that we were still a little beat up from yesterday AND the fact that it was a balmy 90+ degrees, we did the shorter hike.

If you’ve never hiked a slot canyon, they are my favorite – usually following a current or former riverbed, they tend to get really narrow and windy and the colors and patterns left behind are just amazing to look at.  Plus, they are usually narrow enough to have shade and a nice breeze.  This hike had a tiny stream that you just hopped over back and forth as the path followed alongside. 

The slot canyons were short, but there were maybe 4-5 different ones offering some nice reprieve from the sun.  Overall an easy hike.  After the hike, we made the hour drive to the town of Escalante where we were going to go on another 2 mile hike in the Escalante Petrified Forest, but we got super lazy and decided to find a campsite and just relax.  That didn’t happen.

Random Scenery Shot in Escalante

There is a road out of Escalante called “The Hole in the Rock Road” – it is about 55 miles long and is all gravel – and it is in Grand Staircase Escalante, so in theory, we can camp anywhere.  We found the trail-head for our first hike tomorrow and started looking for a place nearby to set up for the night.  And that is where we got the flat tire.  We have no clue what we rolled over or how it happened, but that sucker was flat as a pancake.  

Temperature reading – 97 degrees, no shade, stuck in the middle of a dusty road.  Damon said I could sit in the car with the AC on and I very forcefully offered to assist and do my part.  Ha ha, no I didn’t.  I sat in the car until I was bored (3 minutes) and then took pictures for posterity.  I tried to help, but reality is that I have no clue how to change a tire.  I unloaded every single thing (we do not travel light) from the back of the car to access the spare tire, which, of course, turned out to be underneath the car meaning literally nothing had to be removed.  Oops.  I think Damon just wanted to keep me busy. 

Everything out of the car for no reason :(

My next assigned job was to read the manual and look up YouTube videos because we couldn’t figure out how to unlock the spare.  Again, for what little internet we’ve had the past two days, we lucked out with enough service to watch the perfect video.  It took nearly 2 hours, but for once, everything worked in our favor and we (Damon) got it done. 

Big shout out to the 10 our so cars that slowed down to check on us and make sure we were okay.  And may two cars that sped by us almost running over Damon while kicking up a massive plume of dust that covered everything be hexed with their own flat tire one day.

By the time we repacked everything, it was after 7pm and neither of us wanted to set up camp.  So, back to the town of Escalante for dinner.  We tried to find an actual campground so Damon could shower – 2 hours laying in dirt and sweat makes one a dirty unhappy camper.  We found a place that had campsites and little cabins but when we looked at the campsites, we quickly realized they would not work as you could not drive a car to them.  So, we are now laying in a nice comfy bed in an air-conditioned cabin.  We are, however, roughing it because the toilet and showers are a solid 20’ away.  Not sure how I’ve managed to stay indoors for 4 of our 6 “camping nights” so far, but lets hope this trend continues!

Escalante Outfitters - Cozy Cabin