Photo Tips USA – The Scenic Route 12 – Escalante Petrified Forest, Calf Creek Canyon

Escalante Petrified Forest SP

This small state park is located at 1770 m (5,807 ft) elevation, 1 mi west of Escalante at mile 60, on a slight rise above Wide Hollow Reservoir. It receives about 70,000 visitors per year. Multicolored pieces of petrified wood evoke memories from several million years ago, when dense forests covered this area, which later submerged into a wide lake. The largest fossils are more than 3.3 ft (1 meter) in diameter, but in terms of quantity, the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona is much better. The only service in the year-round open area is a modern, well-equipped campground with sites for RVs and tents.

The Petrified Forest Trail (1.6 km / 1 mi) and the Trail of Sleeping Rainbows (1 km / 0.6 mi) lead through the terrain where the multicolored pieces of petrified wood are scattered. In the bright midday light, the colors shine most vividly and make you think of a macro study. Experimentally, you can brighten shadowed areas with colored flash or a reflector sheet. The Wide Hollow Trail (1.6 km / 1 mi) first crosses the landscape covered with photogenic juniper trees and ends at an overlook with a good view over the village of Escalante. You can complete all the worthwhile motifs within a maximum of 2 hours.

Continuing on Scenic Route 12, the overlook at mile 70 heralds the most spectacular section of the route and offers a beautiful panorama from the Kaiparowits Plateau to Boulder Mountain to Capitol Reef. The smoothly polished red, beige, and white rock surfaces along the winding roadway make excellent wide-angle subjects. The next viewpoint between mile 73 and 74 looks down into narrow Box-Death-Hollow Canyon and onto the Escalante River. After the following curve, you can pull over to the right on the shoulder and take in the green eastern part of the canyon. From mile 75, you can already see the view down Calf Creek, and the Calf Creek Recreation Area is not far away.

Calf Creek Recreation Area

The small Calf Creek Recreation Area is located at 4921 ft (1,500 m) elevation at mile 76, 15 mi east of Escalante on Rt-12 in Calf Creek Canyon. Services offered are a small campground (no RVs), showers and restrooms, and access to Calf Creek. But most visitors come just for the hike to scenic Lower Calf Creek Falls. The red rocks enclose the gorge on a 2.7 mi (4.4 km) hiking trail that leads to the 131 ft (40 m) high cascade. A more difficult 1 mi (1.6 km) trail from Rt-12, about 5.5 mi north of the campground, leads to the 98 ft (30 m) high Upper Falls. Both falls carry water year-round, and the river collects in small, fine swimming pools above and below.

The canyon walls, sandstone of the Navajo Formation, that you pass on the trail are patterned by the water running down them in myriad shades of light to dark brown that make good black-and-white subjects. As you begin the trail, take one of the notepads with information about the numbered stops. For instance, at stop #9, you’ll discover some petroglyphs, featuring three large figures on the underside of the rock wall on the opposite side of the canyon. Along the way, cacti, cork oaks, and, in May, wildflowers thrive. In some places, you can see the Rt-12 winding through the red rock high up on the other side of the canyon.

Anything around 28 mm focal length, alternatively a telephoto for detail, captures the Lower Falls quite decently. Except in the early morning and late afternoon, there is always enough light falling into the canyon to effectively illuminate the basin and the rock wall rising behind it. If you stay here longer than just for two pictures in spring and fall, it is advisable to bring a sweatshirt, because even though you sweat on the sometimes never-ending trail, it gets noticeably cool around the water.

Behind the Recreation Area, a few more parking bays follow on Rt-12 from mile 76, giving you a good view of the canyon and the river. At mile 79, you can see the final stretch of the trail and one of the narrowest parts of the canyon from The Hogback, a very narrow rock bridge. From the parking bay at mile 85, there is a nice view of Boulder Valley. At mile 91, the scenery changes, and the ascent to Boulder Mountain begins: wide green meadows and alpine conifers dominate the picture. From mile 95, already above 8,530 ft (2600 m), white birch trees can be found. Of the six viewpoints that follow, the Homestead Overlook just before mile 99 has the most spectacular view of the Waterpocket Fold, the Circle Cliffs, the Henry Mountains, Navajo Mountain, and the Kaiparowits Plateau. It’s a magnificent spectacle of light and shadow, shape, and color. After that, the descent almost goes by itself, and all too soon, the end of the route is reached in Torrey.

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