Escalante River - May 13, 2011 - Calf Creek to Lake Powell - Part 5

The scenery is gorgeous for the entire trip. My personal pick for most beautiful spot is Neon Canyon. At the end of this mile long side hike, you find this:

The Golden Cathedral.

Looking up from below, the light reflected off the pool sparkles on the ceiling.

The pool in the Golden Cathedral.

Neon Canyon. Just part of a spectacular panel.

The glyphs in the Escalante have an unusually high ratio of anthropormorphic figures and what may be Hopi clan symbols.

Another site. Both sites were heavily marred by 20th century cowboy graffiti.

Below Scorpion Gulch the river changes character completely, hardly any brush but constant small, technical rapids through giant rockfall sieves.

Typical rapid in the lower half. The river goes from a steady gradient with gravel bars and rock gardens to a pool and drop situation where massive rock falls have created obstructions.

I portaged the major rapid below Scorpion, and lined a second one not far below that. The mandatory portage at the impassible sieve was very straight forward. I lined a couple other short rapids and one sweeper just because I'm good at lining and prefer it over beating through a tree or banging off rocks when I can just walk along shore and tease the boat through with a couple of lines.

Looking back at the Rockfall Portage. The widest gap is about two feet!
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