By DAVE BOEYINK, for The Democrat
A band of 12 adventurers, most from the Brown County Y, spent an April week hiking the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. The hikers are still talking about the magnificent rock formations, some as ancient as 200 million years.
The trip was possible because Roger Grissette, a member of the Men’s Core class at the Y, is an experienced volunteer for the Sierra Club. Grissette leads Sierra Club outings through the western United States. He willingly agreed to guide the Nashville contingent through the Escalante sandstone landscapes.
And each day, the Ute Crew, as they called themselves, saw plenty of both sand and stone: sand to slog through and stone to climb on.
For many, the trip tested their limits. Shelia Dollar said she had never done any “cold” overnight camping. The beginning of the week offered her just that. Temperatures dipped into the 20s, making tents into ice coolers and 3 a.m. trips to the camp latrine into chilling adventures.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Seven-hour hikes also pushed their bodies to the limit. The first full day of hiking featured a climb up Red Breaks, an imposing 5-mile mesa sloping out of the desert. The steep climb over slick rock was the group’s introduction to the challenges of this unforgiving terrain.
But that was only the beginning. Each day featured tough challenges: long hikes through sand, tricky water crossings and steadily warmer weather. The trip was capped by a two-day hike into the aptly named Box Death Hollow. The overnight stay in the canyon required that all their food and gear needed be carried down an old Pony Express trail and back up again.
One section of that trail featured steep drop-offs traversed by narrow switchbacks. Wisely, Grissette had not described that part of the descent before plane tickets were purchased.
But the challenges — whether sleeping in freezing temperatures, hiking with 25 pounds on your back, or staring into a chasm inches from your feet — were outweighed by the amazing sandstone formations the group saw every day. The sandstone, whether it rose above the desert sage or sank into water- and wind-eroded canyons, was layered in infinite shades of red, yellow, white and green.
In one canyon, 250 million years of sandstone sedimentation was exposed. The sediment was deposited when the area was a vast alluvial sea and later thrust up in a massive movement of the earth’s crust.
For another 1 to million years — geological time isn’t always precise — water eroded the sandstone, providing the group with Utah’s version of a Buddhist sand painting or mandala. But unlike the mandala, this painted desert will last for millions of years to come. To stand in the presence of these creations is to travel in time, to imagine a time before humans — and a time when our dust mingles with the sand in this desert.
DeAnne Weaver, fitness instructor at the Y and one of the guiding forces behind the trip, felt the trip was special because “we experienced it on nature’s terms, not ours.”
The trip into Box Death Hollow was the hardest hike, but Weaver’s favorite: “We all survived the 7-mile hike down into the hollow and, surrounded by majestic towering red rock, slept by the creek to the sound of canyon wrens calling and water falling down to the creek.”
But to say that the beauty of the national monument outweighed its challenges isn’t quite accurate. Facing challenges was part of the value of the trip. Many hikers were in their 60s and 70s, an age when some of their peers do their traveling in RVs or on television.
At 79, Doreen St. Clair proved she wasn’t limiting her options. “No way I can bear walk 30 yards up steep, slick rock,” she said. But with help — a hand, a shoulder and shove or two from behind — she could do it. “And I did!”
At one time or another, everyone needed a hand up or a push from behind. Getting in the steep entrance of Spooky Slot Canyon on the first hike, teamwork was required to make it up the slick rock face. And they did it, too!
Cliff Patchin said the visit to Grand Staircase-Escalante was one of the best experiences of his life. He’s already talking about another trip next year.
He may not be the only one.
Editor’s note: Dave Boeyink, the reporter on this story, was one of the Ute Crew making the trip. While he hated the cold nights, he also found them stunning. One night he sat outside and gazed at the Milky Way, counting five comets streaking across the sky. “That alone was worth the trip,” he said. Boeyink noted that Grand Staircase-Escalante is one of the national monuments President Donald Trump is trying to reduce in size to allow coal mining and oil drilling. “This trip helped me understand the importance of preserving landscapes that are millions of years in the making,” Boeyink said.
