Hike to Lower Calf Creek Falls

Our hike today was 6.5 miles, with only a mild elevation gain (700 feet).  It was along a well maintained trail through a valley of towering sheer rocks.  The huge rocks looked as if someone had taken a giant chisel and with a mighty blow had sheered them off.  The surfaces hundreds of feet tall. 

We went through a lot of underbrush along the side of Calf Creek to reach the waterfall.  Some of the hike was through woods, some through swamp, some over rocks.  A little of everything.  It is a popular hike, especially with photographers.  There were a lot of big cameras and tripods. 

The waterfall is 125 feet, and it was quite lovely. 

Look at this chunk that fell.  Looks like masons were out chiseling away at it to make it perfectly square.  Never seen anything like this.

The camp hosts drove by a few minutes ago, so we grabbed them to ask a question about a rock wall that was just above us.   They said that it was the old road, the one that was used until the 1980s when Highway 12 was rebuilt several feet above it.  It used to be gravel.  They also said that until that time (1980s) mail was delivered by mule. 




Hike Report:  Calf Creek Falls, lower, by Grand Escalante Staircase, UT

(Note that the elevation gain changes a bit when one disables the elevation correction.  Note also that, as is typical with both my hiking and biking Garmins, elevation gain does not always equal elevation loss, even though we always start and stop in the same exact location;  I basically take an average of all of these figures to arrive at what I believe to be the best estimate of elevation gain.  I also use data from two different Garmin computer programs, which usually provide slightly different estimates (one Garmin uses Google Maps and the other uses barometric pressure to estimate elevation).  The figure I arrive at is probably accurate to within 50 feet or so, which is pretty good.  Also, usually it is within a few feet of elevation gains provided on the occasional trail map that reports elevation gains of hikes, which makes us feel confident in what we estimate when this information is not provided by trail maps.)