Coyote Gulch is a classic backpacking trip in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Here is my  trip report of an ~28 mile loop I did there over Thanksgiving Weekend.

Ask for the ancient paths where the good way is and walk in it and find rest for your souls.

–From an ancient text by a nomadic desert tribe

Ask a multitude of  outdoors people some favorite places and invariably certain names always come up.  Places like The Winds.  Or the High Sierra. Glacier. The San Juans. The Whites.

And one place that always seems to be named with an almost sound of awe and reverence in their voice? The red rock and canyon country of the Colorado Plateau.

When talking about this place, many people get a glow to their eyes.

Stark red hoodoos are remembered.  Memories are recalled of walking along an  arid plain above and then discovering a lush world below the canyon rim.

Continue reading Solo in the Desert Pt 1 – Coyote Gulch at PMags.com.