Location: About 32 miles southeast of Escalante are two impressive slot canyons known as Spooky Gulch and Peek-A-Boo Gulch. To reach the canyons, take BLM200/Hole in the Rock Rd. (a few miles east of the city off of HWY 12) southeast for 26 miles. Take a slight left onto BLM252/Dry Fork Road. A few hundred yards later, it branches again. Stay left for another 1.6 miles to the trailhead at Dry Fork overlook parking lot. The drive to the overlook will take about 2 hours one way.
Cost: a tank of gas
Time: 6-8 hours round trip (including drive time to and from Escalante). Or you could camp in the Coyote Gulch area. The canyons themselves will take about 2 hours to explore.
Description: The Hole in the Rock Road is sometimes closed due to inclement weather. The road, which goes all the way down to Hole-in-the-Rock at the edge of Lake Powell, is a rough, washboard dirt road (with several potholes, sand traps and ruts) and may be closed due to inclement weather. A four-wheel-drive vehicles is recommended, but not required.
From the Dry Fork overlook parking lot, a winding trail goes north down the slope into the sandy bottom of the Dry Fork creek bed. From there, you can head to either Dry Fork Narrows, Peek-A-Boo Gulch or Spooky Gulch. We combined Peek-A-Boo and Spooky gulches into a 3.5 mile loop hike, starting in Peek-A-Boo Gulch.
To get to the entrance of Peek-A-Boo Gulch, turn right (east) and walk about 100 yards. The entrance to the gulch is a series of footholds up a 15+ foot rock wall. Smaller hikers may need a boost. The bench at the top has several small pools of stagnant water. There are several cool rock formations inside the canyon including a pair of natural bridges. As you continue deeper into the canyon, the walls will tighten until it becomes impossible to proceed. At this point, you climb up out of the canyon and along the crevice until you can drop back inside. The canyon ends in a sandy wash. From there, you can either go back the way you came, or head east for about ten minutes to Spooky Gulch.
To reach Spooky Gulch, you can either enter the back side (via Peek-A-Boo Gulch), or enter the front side by continuing east along Dry Fork stream bed. Although the entrances are fairly wide, once inside the canyon walls quickly close in. The slot canyon winds through the colorful Navajo Sandstone, forcing visitors to twist and turn their bodies as they wend their way around protruding rock fins and climb over boulders that dot the Narrows, where visibility is limited to only a few feet ahead. The canyon floor can be either sandy or rocky, and may have small pools of water after a rain storm. Once arriving back to the canyon entrance, hikers can turn west and return to the parking area, or head east another thirty minutes to Brimstone Canyon.
Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)
Things You Should Know: - If there is any sign of rain, do not enter the canyons! The canyons were formed by flash floods, and if you are caught inside when a flash flood hits, you will have nowhere to go. As a flash flood survivor, I know just how dangerous a flash flood can be; so don't take any chances.
- If you are claustrophobic, this hike isn't for you. Spooky Gulch in particular gets really narrow (under 18 inches wide) in one section. I am six feet tall and under 200 lbs. I got through (but it was a tight squeeze).
- Make sure you bring plenty of water. Summer temperatures can get well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and even though it will be shady inside the canyons, you still need to drink plenty of water. Also, there will be little relief from the hot sun as you make the trudge through the sandy bottom of Dry Fork to and from the canyons.
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Nearby: Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Hole-in-the-Rock, Escalante Petrified Forest State Park, Calf Creek Falls
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