"It is going to be hard to top one of the most fiery, beautiful sunsets in Utah history," I thought to myself as we set off early one April morning for a place I had only seen images from while searching Google Images.   We began our 12-hour trek with a nice stroll through deep, beautiful sand.  The sun beat down on us, even at such an early hour.  The only signs of life were crickets and the occasional lizard.

After a couple miles of hiking through sand and rocks, guided only by rocks piled on top of each other, we came to a giant cliff.  We had arrived a crack-in-the-wall.  At this point we decided if we didn't look now, we would never get to see the Escalante River.  A quick detour over flat sandstone took us to one of the most amazing sights I had ever seen.

After a quick glance into the Escalante we decided we'd better move on if we wanted to see anything of the gulch.  We hurried back to crack-in-the-wall.  Looking over the cliff was breathtaking, and frightening.  Were we really going to descend this massive cliff?   We turned to see the infamous crack.  It was literally a piece of wall that had fallen a little from the rest of the cliff, revealing an 18-inch gap in the wall.  We lowered our packs down with a rope and climbed and scooted on through.  By the end of the 50-foot crack we were all laughing at what an amazing thing it was to literally climb THROUGH a wall and end up at the bottom of a giant cliff.  We continued our descent through more sand until we came to the gulch.   In view was Steven's Arch, one of the 3 largest natural arches in the United States.  

"Don't be afraid to step in the water, it's going to happen a lot."  Words of wisdom from a very astute father.  We marched right in and got our feet wet.  The rest of the hike was spent in and out of the pristine water.

Every step was more spectacular than the one before.  We climbed small waterfalls,  forged streams, saw remarkable sandstone walls,  and crevices.  The terrain was lush and beautiful and I could hardly believe I was in a fairly untouched environment.  

We stopped near a waterfall for lunch and while we were sitting down made an AWESOME discovery!  A few hundred feet above us there was a building.  We had heard there was some sort of outhouse somewhere along the hike, so we decided to venture further.  Knowing the outhouse had to have an incredible stench, we proceeded with caution.  Oh contraire!  This was the most amazing outhouse I have ever seen in my life.   When you hike the gulch, you'll see what I mean.  There is another one of these outhouses near Jacob Hamblin Arch (see below).

After a few miles of hiking we came to some very exciting things including cliff arch and a natural bridge.  Dad taught us the difference between a natural bridge and an arch was that a bridge had water running underneath it.  We passed through places that I could hardly believe I was allowed to behold.  Hiking through the gulch truly became a sacred experience. 

Soon we came upon Jacob Hamblin Arch, which was to be our stopping point. 

We dawdled around for awhile and decided we'd better begin our ascent up the rib and out of the gulch.  (For any wanting to do this hike, it's the rib just before you come to Jacob Hamblin Arch...and you scramble up just past Amazing Outhouse #2).  We had read that the climb out of the gulch was a crazy climb and not to be taken lightly, but we had no idea what we were in for.  It is a class 5 climb and the craziest climb I've ever done.  My brother and I started scrambling up the face of the rock and soon discovered it wasn't going to be as easy as we'd anticipated.  Luckily, the early inhabitants of the gulch had carved in some faint foot holds, but they were not enough for this climb.  All the reviews we read in preparation for our hike had told us to bring some climbing rope "just in case" and after the first 20 feet it would be cake walk.  LIES!!  All of them!!!  We got up most of the mountain by rope and muscle of everyone in our party.  The first 20 feet was definitely the hardest, but the rest of the scramble up the rock was no where near cake walk.  After all was said and done, this was definitely one of the most incredible experiences of my life!  It is such an amazing feeling to look down from the top and realize that you just did such an amazing feat (Disclaimer: Not everyone felt that way, I think some people thought "please, just let me die!"  This way out of the gulch should not be attempted by people who are not in good shape.  Multiple members of our party said they would never have done this if they knew what it would be like, and would definitely NEVER do it again.)

After almost an hour we finally got all 5 of us out of the canyon, only to show up in a windy, rocky area, with no clue as to how far away our campsite was.  We set our compasses and trekked through more rocks, which soon turned into the thick sand we had at the beginning.  On our hike back we found bleached cow bones and lots of cacti.  We braved a barbed wire fence and finally made it back to our campsite.

I am convinced that Coyote Gulch is one of the hidden treasures in Utah.  A place I had never heard of became a place of serenity that I will visit time and time again, and not just in my memory.