Hiking and Backpacking Utah's Coyote Gulch

Welcome to Utah, home to Coyote Gulch – one of the most popular hikes for avid walkers and trekkers in the area. This morning, you’ll take a transfer from your hotel in St. George to the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Your backpacking trip begins at a remote trailhead at the headwaters of Coyote Gulch. From here, take a short hike to an open and dry wash, the upper section of Coyote Gulch. Continue downstream and gradually, the wash begins to resemble a canyon, as short walls of Navajo sandstone appear on either side, and you come to several pour-offs and short waterfalls. Just as the canyon begins to deepen, you’ll find yourself in a beautiful cottonwood grove. This is where you and the group will set up camp for the evening and enjoy your first backcountry dinner.

Enjoy breakfast at the campsite with your group and then continue your hike downstream through stands of cottonwood and willow trees. Here, the gulch deepens and narrows and encloses you in a towering corridor of sandstone. As you cross flowing creeks and trek past deep red sandstone walls, the day’s changing light plays on the canyon in a brilliant show of red, yellow and brown. The imposing walls backdrop beautifully sculpted streambeds and intimate cascades and waterfalls. After a couple of hours, you’ll reach an especially sinuous and narrow part of the gulch by an amazing backcountry arch. Further downstream brings you to a natural bridge. Walk directly underneath this unbelievable natural structure and set up camp for the night. After dinner, explore the amazing Native American ruins nearby. Bands of Fremont people – a pre-Columbian culture that lived with the Anasazi through 1300 AD – used to call Coyote Gulch their home. They farmed plots of land and dwelled beneath the canyon’s walls. Your campsite features a pictograph panel at the base of the Navajo sandstone – an ancient dwelling and small ruin littered with artifacts.

Enjoy a leisurely breakfast this morning before hiking downstream. Today’s trail will take you beneath another wonderful rock feature – a spectacular arch high above the canyon floor. The character of the canyon shifts as you go on, becoming wider with steep vegetated hillsides beneath canyon walls. Large pour-offs accompany more and more streams and sandstone terraces appear above deep overhangs. Later in the day, you’ll use these terraces for easier hiking and ascend above the stream to your dramatic campsite, which overlooks the Escalante River and Coyote Gulch, looking directly through Stevens Arch. Time permitting, you may have the opportunity for a day hike to Escalante River and a remote and spectacular side canyon. Tonight, relax in camp and enjoy the breathtaking views of the stunning Escalante Canyon.

Following breakfast, break camp and begin your ascent up a long sandy slope. It is a strenuous hike in soft sand to the ‘crack in the wall’ – a narrow crevice you’ll use to escape the canyon’s upper-most cliff wall. From the top, take in a brilliant view of the Escalante River and the surrounding canyon system. After your trip leader hauls the group’s backpacks over the rim with a rope, you’ll hike across the desert to your ending trailhead. Celebrate a gorgeous trekking trip with some refreshing drinks with your group and then take a private transfer back to St. George. Your trip now comes to an end.