Hole In The Rock Road

Bade, his sister, brother-in-law, niece, and myself took an early summer road trip down Hole In The Rock Road near Escalante, UT. We had great weather and enjoyable, summer-style hikes.  We even managed to have chocolate covered strawberries to celebrate Valentines Day while we were there.

We hiked to Zebra and Tunnel Canyon (about 5 miles), but weren’t able to go in them due to the amount of freezing cold water (Bade tested this for us).  But we were able to enjoy Peek-a-boo and Spooky canyon (about 2 miles).  We also drove all the way out to Broken Bow arch to enjoy that 5 mile hike in a stream bed and 94 foot arch.

I definitely recommend taking a road trip down Hole In The Rock Road if you get the chance.

Getting To Hole-In-The-Rock Road

If you are planning on making a trip out of hole in the rock road, here’s what you need to know.  Hole-in-the-Rock road is 5 miles East of Escalante, UT on UT-12 (it’s hard to miss since there really aren’t any other roads).  Getting to Escalante is really pretty, especially when you get to the ‘fin’ part of the freeway and you have to slow down to 20-35 miles per hour.  Enjoy the view at that point.  Make sure you travel in this area with a little bit of day light either going to, or coming from Escalante. Plan for 5-6 hours from Salt Lake City down to Escalante…it isn’t a short drive, but you drive through some really gorgeous country.

Points Of Interest

Hole-in-the-Rock Road is a long, long dirt road.  The road goes for around 60 miles.  Most people only go on the first 15 miles, so those miles of dirt road are well maintained (especially if you go early in the season, spring-ish, when the road is freshly graded). I would suggest that you go 26.5 miles in so that you can hit up Peek-A-Book and Spooky Canyons.  Before I get ahead of myself, here are my suggested stops.  Make sure you balance them out so that you hit some on the way out, and some on the way back (if you have time).

mile 0.0 Reset Odometer – you want to make sure you reset your odometer since most side roads aren’t labeled.

mile 8.0 Zebra & Tunnel Slots – Go 8 miles until just after a cattle guard. The trailhead is on the south side of the road. If you hit Halfway Hollow, you’ve gone about a 1/4 a mile too far. Zebra is a must see in the fall (too much water in the spring), but if you are pressed for time, you can skip Tunnel.  The hike out takes a while since it is around 2.5 miles out, then 2.5 miles straight back.  Zebra slot itself is really short but SO picturesque!  There is almost always some water to wade through, but you can just go out and back, so wade as far as you’d like.  If you want to go to Tunnel as well, it is about 1/4-1/2 a mile in a sandy wash away from Zebra.  Tunnel slot also often has water, but again, much less water if you go in the fall.  Here are the details you might want to print out, or at least look at the map since it gives you a much better sense of the route you will be taking.  The trail is very exposed so sunscreen up and bring plenty of water and snacks.
http://www.roadtripryan.com/go/t/utah/escalante/zebratunnel#overview

mile 12.0 Devils Garden – this is a picnic-style spot with rock formations to play on, as well as picnic tables, and the turn off is labeled so it is easy to find, or just reset your odometer if you hadn’t reset it when you started up the road.  It can get pretty windy here, but this is a great stop if you have kids.  No hiking needed, just walk around through this giant rock garden.  I like to hit this up for lunch, or hit it up on my way back from Peek-a-Book and Spooky since you can spend lots, or a little time here and be completely content.

mile 15-20 ish – this is where the dirt road starts getting less ‘nice’.  Most cars are still fine up until this point.

mile 26.5 Peek-A-Boo & Spooky – These are the best slot canyons for families with young kids.  They have enough technical aspects that they are fun, but they are short enough that they don’t tire kids out.  I last hiked these canyons (they are done as a loop) with my 2 year old niece who loved them. Two things to be aware of… first, the road after turning off the main Hole-in-the-Rock Road and heading towards these slots is really bad.  You ought to have a four-wheel drive vehicle and be comfortable in a really slant-y car in order to drive this. Second, the loop for Peek-A-Boo and Spooky is best if taken by starting at Peek-A-Boo even though the entrance to Pee-A-Boo looks daunting. You may have to just lift your kids up the first part. You will recognize the start of Peek-A-Boo by the ‘steps’ carved out in the rock for your feet and hands to scramble up. Here are the hiking details for Peek-A-Boo and Spooky.  Again, these are two of my favorite canyons and are great for families, as long as you don’t mind the long dirt road to get here.
http://www.roadtripryan.com/go/t/utah/escalante/peekaboospookbrimeston#overview

Oh, one other thing to note, about halfway through Spooky you will come to, what seems like, a dead-end of rocks.  Those rocks have been there a long time (at least a decade because they’ve been there ever time I’ve gone).  Just go to the left.  You will duck under/through the tiny gap (my pot-bellied dad fit through so it isn’t TOO bad) in the rocks, and you will be in a mini rock cave.  Once in the cave you will be helping each other get down a 5-6 foot slanted rock, then you are back to smooth sailing.  Kids think this part if fun, adults often think they won’t fit, but there is much more room than you think, and the ‘drop’ is much shorter than it looks.  Don’t try to go up and over, stay low and go through the ‘cave’.

Also at mile 26.5 is Brimstone Canyon.  You will only want to do this if you are an experienced canyoneer-er, and don’t mind freezing and being in a very tight slot.

After you hike Peek-A-Boo and Spooky, you can start heading back towards Escalante, and return down those 26.5 miles of dirt road.

If you haven’t had enough hiking and want some more, I would definitely recommend doing Lower Calf Creek Falls which is just on the South side of Escalante, UT. This hike is decently long, but is often shaded (especially if you go in the second half of the day), and is largely flat. Bring bug spray to the falls.  The hike should be fine, but certain times of year there are bugs galore at the base of the falls.  The coolest thing about the falls, other than the large height of the drop, is the color of the lichen behind the falls.  It creates this almost rainbow effect.  Checkout my blog post from last year when Bade and I did the Lower Calf Creek Falls hike.

Just as a time reference.  This spring when I did this route with my husband, sister-in-law, brother-in-law and niece, we drove to Escalante at night, went about 8.3 miles up the dirt road to a road a little past the Zebra parking area, and camped.  The next morning, we did Zebra (not Tunnel since Zebra had a lot of water, and Tunnel always has more water than Zebra), Devils Garden, Peek-A-Boo and Spooky all in 1 day.  We did take our time at each stop, allowing even the little 2 year old to hike at her own pace a lot of the way. We finished Spooky as the sun was getting ready to set (this was spring, Feb, so the days were shorter).  You can camp on Hole-in-the-Rock road, and we did, just a few miles beyond Peek-A-Boo & Spooky. You’ll want to save Lower Calf Creek for the day before or day after Hole-in-the-Rock road, since you likely won’t have time for both.  If you have older kids with you or you want to make a long weekend out of the road and have a good four-wheel-drive vehicle, you can continue up the road to a bunch of hikes to arches.  We ended up going up to Broken Bow arch, which is around 36 miles on Hole-in-the-Rock road. This guy’s website shows a map of the road, so you can see that there are lots of arches the further you get, but the road and hiking gets much more difficult.