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calf creek falls

Hiking and Hunting For Treasure in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

April 20, 2011 by Shelli

One of the many highlights of our week-long family camping trip in southwestern Utah was a hike to Calf Creek Falls in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Our sons at the start of the Lower Calf Creek Falls hike.

The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which was set aside as a national monument in 1996, contains 1.9 million acres of land in southern Utah. There are three main regions: the Grand Staircase, Kaiparowits Plateau, and the Canyons of the Escalante.

Family photo in front of Lower Calf Creek Falls.

Our trip started in Goblin Valley State Park. On Day Three of our trip, we were going to be traveling along the north boundary of Grand Staircase-Escalante on our way to Kodachrome State Park. Even though we were only traveling through the Escalante area, we wanted to experience it more intimately than simply driving through it, which is how we experienced it a few years ago.

After only brief investigation it became clear that we would be remiss – nuts, even – if we didn’t hike to Lower Calf Creek Falls. The hike is three miles one-way (6 miles roundtrip), and the reward for hikers is big: a 126-foot, beautiful waterfall, at the head of Lower Calf Creek Canyon, which plunges into a perfectly round green pool. Its upper tier fall, which isn’t visible from the base of Lower Calf Creek Falls, is 88 feet tall, making the waterfall’s total height 214 feet. Hikers who want to see the upper fall can scramble about a mile further up to catch a glimpse.

Lower Calf Creek Falls is glorious. The “ribbon-like” waterfall is outlined with green and yellow colors from algae growing on the sandstone, which thrives on the waterfall’s year-round flow.

My boys, all five of them, enjoying a picnic at the waterfall.

After a wonderful picnic near the waterfall, we had another adventure to tend to: To find a geocache that was reportedly in the vicinity. Our older sons, Wolf, 11 and Hayden, 9, and I scrambled above the trail in search for the treasure. After using our GPS to determine its location, and some fun exploring and mystery, we were successful in our “hunt.” It was very exciting! Finding the geocache marked our first official geocache find. And, I might add, our family is now hooked on geocaching.

We had big expectations for the hike, and our expectations were exceeded. Our almost-four-year-old son hiked the entire six miles with not too many complaints and after only a handful of bribes. His brothers, ages 11 and 9, were great “adventure leaders” on the hike.

Yeehaw! Our older sons, Wolf and Hayden, pose with the geocache they found.

I highly recommend this hike. The trail is wide and mostly packed dirt. It’s level and easy-going, beautiful, and includes 15 interpretive markers. A bonus are the pictographs hikers can glimpse on the massive, tall cliffs while hiking past interpretive marker #9.

Here’s a short video that shows you some of the scenery included in the Lower Calf Creek Falls hike, as well as a little bit of the geocaching adventure:

Stay tuned for upcoming blog posts about Kodachrome State Park and Coral Pink Sand Dunes.

Filed Under: Family, Frontier Life, National Parks, Travel & Tourism Tagged With: calf creek falls, family adventure, geocache, grand staircase-escalante, hiking, pictographs, utah, waterfalls

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About Shelli

Hi. My name is Shelli Johnson. I live on the frontier in Lander, Wyoming. I’m a wife, a mother, an entrepreneur, certified life/leadership coach, wellness coach, keynote presenter and inspired speaker, leadership development facilitator, personal development strategist, writer and adventure guide. This blog mostly includes stories about adventures and travel, but other passions are reading/books, technology, fitness, nutrition, and national parks, so you’ll find a wide range of articles here. I am founder of Yellowstone Journal and YellowstonePark.com, and NationalParkTrips.com, which was my first business. My current company, Epic Life Inc., is in its 7th year, and going gangbusters. If you’re interested in learning more about my current work, I hope you’ll jump over there and learn more about that. I have a more personal blog, more directly related to life and living and leadership, at YourEpicLife.com/blog. I’d love it if you’d also check out that collection of my writings. Thank you for stopping by! Finally, if you’d like to connect with me directly, please email me if you’d like to connect.

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