Escalante
Highway 12 to Powell Reservoir
| Difficulty | II(III) |
| Length | 74 mi |
| Avg Gradient | 21 fpm |
| Permit | Permits are required by Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. |
| Gauge | Escalante River Near Escalante, Ut |
| Flow Rate as of 1 hour | 0 cfsbelow recommended |
| Reach Info Last Updated | May 25, 2023 |
River Description
This 70 mile run is highly prized because of its incredible beauty and the rarity of decent boatable flows. In most years, flows will not get high enough for standard boating trip. In years when the snowpack provides sufficient spring snowmelt, the window of opportunity may only be a few weeks at best. The highest snowmelt flows are typically sometime in early to mid May to early June. Countering the above wisdom is a growing trend of people enjoying the river canyon at extremely low flows as a hiking and packrafting trip. This also offers more flexibility for alternative put-ins and take-outs that can shorten the actual on-river distance.
Permits:
Backcountry permits are required by Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Stop at the Interagency Visitor Center in Escalante for permit information.
Put in:
Highway 12 crosses the Escalante River about 10 miles east of the town of Escalante. Look for signs for trailhead parking. Parking is not allowed on the side of highway 12 and the trailhead parking areas are small. Elevation at the put in is 5200 feet.
An alternate put in and take out is at Fence Canyon. It is a 4 mile hike down to the river and it is a nice trail and fairly easy to follow. This is around mile 36 from the bridge. There is a spring at Fence Canyon to fill your water before or after your journey.
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Take out:
Paddlers have three main take-out options although packrafts have opened up more options for those who want to hike in or out at one of several side canyons that enter from the south side of the river.
Every option for the take out is difficult once you pass Fence Canyon. If you put in at the road it is tempting to load up the boats with things like tripods, chairs, etc. Don't do it as you will suffer lat
...River Features
Calf Creek- Highway 12
Highway 12 crosses the Escalante at Calf Creek then follows Calf Creek upstream. Unload at the trailhead parking area.
Coyote Gulch - take out
Coyote Gulch comes in on river right. Hike up the creek a short ways then follow the trail up the sand dunes to the rim and the Crack in the Wall escape route. It is a long steep hike carrying gear and boats.
Crack in the Wall trailhead parking area
This is the trailhead parking area for the Crack in the Wall trail. Elevation is 4,678 feet at the parking area. The trail from the Escalante at Coyote Gulch, starts at an elevation of 3,700 feet. Most of that elevation gain is in the first mile from the river. Use a short rope to get your gear up the cliffs at Crack in the Wall. Bulky gear will not fit through the crack.
Lake Powell deep water
The actual location where powerboats can reach you will vary with Lake Powell elevation, but mud flats will usually have to be crossed to get to the deep water.
Trip Reports
Log in to add a reportPut in at fence and took out at Coyote Gultch. Used escape goats for the shuttle and they were great 4358264652. The river really is mellow till you hit scorpion gultch and which point it really picks up in difficulty. I would say its class IV moves with class II consequences because if you fall over you just could stand up and it usually was not more than knee deep. This made the rapids way fun. I was not expecting so many fun punchy rapids. When paddleing at these levels we were making 4 miles an hour.
Camping is much more difficult to find than i thought. The few nice places alreay had nice people in them who did not want to see us. The river double one night for us and that means be careful about camping right next to the water. Many unlucky boaters were trapped for the day until the flash flood stopped.
Just after the first mandatory portage there is a spring flowing out of the rock that you can fill your water with without filtering. It is much better than the spring in scorpion. When we were there it was super manky. But we also filtered river water and other than cleaning the filter often it tasted great. The filtered river water tasted better than filtered fence canyon water.
The hike out was way hotter than i thought and climbing up the cliff to get to the sand hill was an adventure all by itself. Nobody tells you about that. You scramble up a rock face with a heavy pack and wet shoes, what could go wrong? My advice for your trip pack lite, dont bring a duckie, and bring more water for the hike out than you think. That last hike across the desert goes on forever.
2011 Update: Log jam on Choprock Bench. Portage river right.
The mud flats were cleared out during 2005-2006 flooding and no longer impede progress to the deep water at Lake Powell. Also the steep banks between Coyote Gulch and Lake Powell have also been widened and reshaped during flooding. You can find ample spring water and easy camping sites on the river between these 2 locations
2009 Update: I ran this river last year at a fairly low water level using hardshell 10 ft. kayaks. After checking in at the Ranger Station in Escalante my travel companion was all but put off of our trip by the issuing rangers attitude. Be prepared to hear about how foolish your trip is when obtaining your free permit. My permit was marked in bold as 'Not Advised' although we made all 85 miles into Lake Powell without incident.
We were pulled from Lake Powell by a charter boat rented from Bullfrog Marina for a cost of $380 for 2 10 foot boats and gear. Well worth the cost considering alternatives. If you decide to hike out you have 2 viable options, although one will cut your travel miles in half. Crack-in-the-Wall is the most common portage, a boater could also consider hiking out of Fence Canyon at the half way point. This would be a 2.5 mile scramble with the last 1800 feet being almost verticle. Still - that may be easier than Hole in the Rock.
We completed our 2009 trip in 9 days beginning on 6/12. Water levels were low with the cfs flow being 1.8 - well below 'recommended'. This equates to about 1.5 ft of moving water midstream. We used flat bottom kayaks with a large opening, as we were in and out several times a day.
I paid a local $150 plus their cars gas to move the car to Bullfrog - the entire trip was just over $500 or about $250 per person. Keep in mind you can decrease this expense drastically by hiking out.
On the river - we only encountered 1 other group - a single person hiking the length. Other than that our time was spend watching a beaver catch his dinner, scarring up a silver tail fox and watching the numerous fish and birds.
I am planning on a return for 2010, moving the trip forward about 10 days to capitalize on above average snowpack. If you have some energy, are willing to get out and push your boat in a few places and can invest the time and/or money you can easily run this river just about any year with some careful planning.
This is about 2 miles away from parking lot, took us 5
hrs to make the 1.5 miles to canyon rim the night
before.