Upper Calf Creek Falls in 360 Degrees Escalante, Utah

   

Side View of Upper Calf Creek Falls Escalante, Utah

UPPER CALF CREEK FALLS in 360 Degrees

ESCALANTE, UTAH

Front View of Upper Calf Creek Falls Escalante, Utah

HOW TO GET TO UPPER CALF CREEK FALLS.

This hike is a little tricky to find for it is not well marked on the road. I was lucky and went into Boulder and put it into my Google maps, and even then it said you have arrived and I looked around to see no signs or anything, just a little side road that was easy to miss. You have to take that side road for a little ways and then you see signs for the Upper Calf Creek Falls. I do know it is about 10 miles outside Boulder close by the Hells Backbone road. The hike heads down a steep huge Boulder where the trail is only marked by Cairns. The trail varies from being a very distinctive path, to having to pay very close attention to the Cairns to stay on the path. Pay super close attention to the Cairns for it is so easy to get off the path and in scary situations.  If you loose Cairns turn around quickly until you find those Cairns. The waterfall here is beautiful. I read that the Upper Calf Creek is preferable over the Lower for there is less traffic and less Poison Ivy and  just as pretty of a waterfall. I took this in January, so this waterfall can look more stunning if you visit here in the spring.   The hike is only about a mile in and a mile back, unless you loose those Cairns and then it can add quite a bit of distance on your hike. Stay close together as a group.   I thought I was good at keeping my eye out for those Cairns but many get lost easily so be careful.   I got myself in a scary situation after loosing the trail, and would highly advise others to be cautious and vigilant about making sure they don't loose site of those Cairns.

Below is 360 Trail Close By Upper Calf Creek Waterfall.

TRAIL SIGNS AT UPPER CALF CREEK FALLS

Below is a 360 Degree  Google Earth Street View Trail at the beginning of the hike.  You can see that the hike starts down a pretty steep grade down a slick rock.  I was nervous when I started, but the hint is to make sure you don't lean forward or back. If you slip, you don't want any forward force.  You Can see here why it is so trick to keep your look out for Cairns, for a trail is hard to see when you are just walking over a huge rock mountain. 

In the 360 Google Earth Street View Trail you can see there is this contrast between the white mountain rock, and what looks like black lava stones.  Made me curious if there is a volcano close by.  

360 Trail at Upper Calf Creek Falls

In the 360 Degree Google Earth Trail below, there is a canyon in front of me.  It is hard to see from the above 360, but there is a cool arch or cave forming on the mountain right in front of me.  

Cool Cave or Arch on Upper Cave Creek Falls Trail Escalante

ESCALANTE NATIONAL FOREST STRUGGLES FOR THE COMMUNITY

Before heading into Escalante, I had a real interesting conversation with a local that was very enlightening.  Escalante is a National Forest.  That means they get less money from the government.  The community has struggled, for he said the local government has little to work with and much demands out of such a small amount.  They have to share a machine to fix the dirt roads with somewhere that was a great distance away, and they have to deal with a lot of search and rescue here on the local dime.  I don't understand all the issues here, but I did listen to the locals view that there is a challenge here to keep up such a huge amount of land for the public on such little funds.

First View of Upper Calf Creek Falls in Escalante in the Top Right 

Here is the utah.com website with GPS locations of the hike if you are a GPS coordinates guy.

 Utah.com link for these Falls

And here is the Alltrails info that is great for current conditions of the trail.

All Trails conditions of the trail

  

Above is 360 Trail Going Under a Overhang to Get to Upper Calf Creek Falls.  You Can see the Falls just ahead. 

Coming Around an Overhang and Seeing Upper Calf Creek Falls Escalante

LESSONS I LEARNED FROM CARIN'S  HIKING UPPER CALF CREEK FALLS IN ESCALANTE

Cairns To Lead You Along Calf Creek Falls Trail Escalante National Forest Utah

I have to say that I really enjoy hiking where you have to navigate from Cairn to Cairn.  It is like a scavenger hunt where you have to search from one Cairn to the next to know the path you should follow .  I started this hike with a sense of gratitude for the Cairns ( Holy Ghost) for they gave such great directions of which ways to go.  Of course as I was proudly thinking about how good I was doing listening to the Holy Ghost ( following Cairns) and I was deceived by some fake Cairns.  Being in a definite sense of being lost, I prayed for help.  Thankfully when we find ourselves off the path the Lord has giving us many tools to return to the path.  For me Google was amazing, pulling through and getting me back safely. I had marked my parking spot on my Google Maps, and it was a constant direction of where I needed to end up in the end.  Today I am Thankful for the lesson learned.  I am thankful for the closeness and connection I felt with the Lord and my Dad on this hike.  I am grateful to be alive, for while I was lost I never doubted the general direction I needed to go, so I never felt too scared, but I knew that because I was not on the correct path my chances of hitting danger would increase.  I was doing pretty good when I stepped on a bolder that seemed extremely strong.  It came loose from the mountain and started a little Rock slide with me in the middle.  Luckily we all stopped before the steeper part right below me, but I have to say it took a little while for my heart to slow down to normal.

I went home with a determination to find ways to have more support on a trail.  I discovered an amazing system for me to keep me out of situations like that above.  I first bought me an External GPS Receiver.  I think EVERYONE should have one.  They keep me out of danger like above.  If I remember right, the Global Sat Receiver works for Android.  The Dual Electronics works for Apple.  The Garmin one works for both.  I am currently using the

Garmin GLO 2 Bluetooth GPS Receiver $99 one, and I really like it, but they have been having a harder time keeping them in stock for I tell everyone they really need one of these.   

Then I have 2 apps on my phone.  First a Blue Tooth GPS app, and Second a Gaia GPS app.  These together with some extra External batteries are such amazing tools for the trail.  I also usually download Google Maps and have that also as a back up.  This is such a great resource to have while hiking.

Cairns To Lead You Along Calf Creek Falls Trail Escalante National Forest Utah

If you want to see more of this area, click on the Google Earth Link, then the little dude in the bottom corner, then any blue line or dot where you want to see more.

Google Earth Upper Calf Creek

If you would like to see my favorite hikes in Escalante, here is a GoogleList with all my Escalante Favorites on a map.

GoogleList Favorite Escalante

___________________________________________________

If you liked this hike, you should pair it with some of my other 

FAVORITE HIKES IN ESCALANTE

 TUNNEL SLOT ESCALANTE

Link to Tunnel Slot Canyon

____________________________________________________

WAH WEEP HOO DOOS ESCALANTE

Link to Wah Weep Hoodoos

______________________________________________

DEVILS GARDEN ESCALANTE

Link to Devils Garden Escalante

____________________________________________

ZEBRA SLOT ESCALANTE

Link to Zebra Slot Canyon

_______________________________________

DRY FORK SLOT CANYON ESCALANTE

Link to Dry Fork Slot Canyon

________________________________________

and PEEK A BOO 

Link to Peek A Boo Slot Canyon

and SPOOKY GULCH 

Link to Spooky Gulch

If you are enjoying these posts, please take a minute to consider the sponsor ads to keep more adventures coming your way.  The things I needed the most on this hike, was a good protein energy type bar to get me some more fuel, and hiking shoes with great traction.  I was wearing my Hoka One One hiking boots, and they were so amazing gripping onto the slick rock that I was so thankful they were fighting to always keep me safe.  

]