Escalante Canyon

Difficulty rating: 1. We drove it in a stock Subaru Tribeca, but I would have taken my Toyota Corolla down the road. My one caveat is that we only drove the first half due to time constraints, so the second half may be more rough.

Update: The last part of the trail, when it starts climbing out of the canyon, will increase the rating to a 2. There are some ruts and washed out ares that would make it difficult in a passenger car. If it is dry, low-range is not required.

Location: Near Delta, CO in the Uncompahgre Plateau area.

Trail head: 11.9 miles north of Delta, CO from the Maverick gas station downtown. Traveling from Delta, the road will be on your left when heading north from Delta on highway 50. The dirt road is to the south-west of the highway. Watch for signs for Escalante Canyon.

GPS coordinates for trail head: N38° 47.08' W108° 14.81'

Description:
Easy graded road through the desert of Western Colorado. Red rock cliffs are in the canyon making it a fun drive. You don't notice the canyon from the highway and I was surprised that the canyon was so close. There are three old cabins you can see just off the road. The first cabin is the Henry Walker cabin. It was a quaint little cabin nestled in the cottonwood trees. A few miles further you come to the Palmer Smith cabin. There are two cabins at this next site. one of which has a rock that they used for one of the walls and Smith carved his bed into that rock. You can also see hiss initials on the cliff wall above the two cabins.

The first few miles are on private land, so I doubt that camping is allowed. This is an open range and there will likely be cattle in or near the road. Once you leave the private land, there are many areas that could be used for camping.

According to Peter Massey's book (Backcounty Adveentures: Colorado), the last few miles are sometimes washed out and may require some higher clearance and so he rates the trail a 2. The part we went on was a graded road and could have been done easily with a typical passenger car which is why I gave it a 1.

Update: I finally finished the last portion of the trail. It was dark so I wasn't able to see the scenery very well, but there is a fun climb out of the canyon onto the Uncompahgre Plateau. Once on top the scenery changes to Ponderosa Pine forests and some Aspen forests. This area can get pretty wet in rain and there may be quite a few mud holes. I did it the day after a heavy rainstorm and the mudholes were moderately deep and it would have had a rating of 3. When you reach the end of the trail there are some spectacular views of the La Sal Mountains.

Here are the GPX file and KML files for the portion of the trail we did.

Update: Here are the GPX and KML files for the entire road.

Update 2/27/2016: We did part of the trail again today. I haven't done this trail in the winter before. It has been warm for a little while so there isn't any snow at the beginning of the road. I noticed this trip that there is a sign a few miles after the Smith cabin that says "end winter maintenance." I guess they clear the road during the winter for the ranches at the first portion of the trail. That is nice for me since that means I can at least get out during the winter!

We were able to make it quite a ways, but we didn't get far enough to climb out of the bottom of the canyon. The further we traveled, the more snow and mud we ran into since much of the road doesn't get much sun. We could have gone further, but it was getting late and our girls were sick.

We DID find a fun little place to eat lunch. It is along some "potholes" that are formed in the small river in the area. I have heard a few of the locals talk about them but I finally found them. This is a small area where there are cascades and pools formed in the river, which is pretty neat. It is easy to find. They are on the left about 1 mile past the Smith Cabin. There are bathrooms and some parking areas at these potholes. From reading online, these are Class IV rapids for kayakers when the water level is high.

I added some more pictures from our trip at the bottom of the post.

Beginning of Escalante Canyon

Beginning of canyon

Walker Cabin

Smith Cabin. Note the rock used as one of the walls. 

Smith Cabin and the red rock cliff

Close-up of Smith Cabin

Second cabin behind the first Smith cabin

Update: Here are some pictures from the second trip down Escalante Canyon as well as a map of the complete trip.

 This is the Ponderosa and Aspen forest on top of the Uncompahgre Plateau. 

 This is the view of the La Sal Mountains that are about 35 miles away. This view is right before you get to Divide Road on the South end. Divide Road runs the length of the Uncompahgre Plateau, and one of these days I'm going to drive it. 

 I started my day on Dry Mesa Jeep Road. I didn't start until late afternoon. When I drove back on Escalante Canyon it was getting dark. It sure made for fun pictures!

Here are the pictures of the trip on 2/27/16:

This picture is actually the Escalante Rim trail, but we did that today as well.

I love this canyon...

I'm so proud of Tiona for driving her pretty 4Runner fast through the stream!

I believe that teaching kids to drive at a young age makes it easier to teach good habits...

These are the "potholes"

My little diva that keeps pulling out her pig tails...

She loves posing for the camera...

We were hiking and I sat Molly down on a rock and told her to stay there while I helped Tiona up a ledge. I didn't want her running off, so I gave her my phone. This is what she did...

Tiona is looking good!

Our lunch spots always have a great view!

This is the parking area at the potholes.

Below is the map of the entire road.