Backpacking Escalante: Harris Wash / Silver Falls / Choprock Canyon / Fence Canyon

[@martinforrester8249]

I love this whole area. In 2003, me and a pal drove the whole of hole in the rock road. On the way, we hiked some canyons down to the escalante river. We camped at dancehall in the rock, three quarters of the way to Colorado. I always visit the US in mid September. Kids back at school, marginally cooler temps too. If I was not restricted by time limits, I would have loved to cover more grown such as you. Lucky to live where you do. I love the Southwest.

[@tonyb2760]

Great hike and tag along video, and the best part, no annoying music to ruin the whole thing.

[@inneswilliamc]

Been there three times, but only about a mile or so past the gate on day hikes. Love it, but at 75 won't go past the gate again. Thanks for taking me beyond where I can any longer go.

[@victorschepers6286]

Sooo nice!!!!👍😉🇳🇱🇪🇺

[@ewokinthewoods]

Nice hike, lots of water sloshing.

[@WildlandExplorer]

For sure, lots of happy little streams. Thank you for the kind comment as always!

[@sierrashere8197]

Joey # 2 , that's a compliment, your presentation and voice , thumbs up : )

[@tangenttrails]

I was thinking the same thing while watching.

[@zimmerfraugudrun]

great trip, thanks for sharing. We hiked Coyote Gulch in 2012 and it was so awesome and this reminds me so much. To do all this filming must be exhausting with all that backpack. Very good job.

[@WildlandExplorer]

Ah lucky you got to coyote before it got overrun! The filming is less exhausting than you might think. Each time setting up the camera is like taking a short break. The main challenge is logistically fitting the hiking and filming into available daylight.

[@11Airshow11]

Great trip. I enjoy your content

[@SummitSeeker546]

Very cool section of trail with all he sheer off boulders littering the canyon floor… Great colors too!

[@WildlandExplorer]

Really one of the more stunning places anywhere! Thanks for checking it out!

[@tangenttrails]

What a wonderful trip. Really enjoyed watching.👍👍

[@MojaveZach]

Finally catching up on your vids, this one was definitely an epic and beautiful trip!

[@potatothorn]

absolutely unreal scenery. ive been through Escalante area etc but not likely i will ever get to backpack this far in, so nice that you take us out there this way... just non stop awesome amazing sights thanks so much for taking us with you

[@WildlandExplorer]

Thanks man! It's not too difficult to get that far in; a lot of people do all of Harris Wash to the river in one day. I just have a penchant for starting hikes the same day I arrive after an 8+ hr drive and the filming slows it down of course.

[@oldguyinthewoods486]

Always a pleasure to watch. A lot different terrain than here in the southeast. Thanks for taking the time and effort to share.

[@WildlandExplorer]

I would love to eventually travel out east to explore Red River Gorge for example and the Smokies. The west never really gets old for me, but it's a totally different vibe from the wet/humid (and green!) East. Like a totally different world from what I'm used to.

[@oldguyinthewoods486]

Yes indeed it is. The areas you want to hold are good but surprisingly there is so much more. Big South Fork, South Cumberland State Park, and Frozen Head State Park in Tennessee to make a few. Summers are a very challenging time to hike because of the humidity, lack of water and green obscuring the views. Fall, Winter and Spring, for me are best with less people and better weather. If you decide to head this way give me a shout, maybe I can point you in a good direction of two. Thanks again for the great videos.

[@HomelinkST]

Sweet! I'm headed up to Grand Gulch from Phoenix next week after watching your video there so will probably have to add this to my list of to-do trips

[@WildlandExplorer]

Hope you have an awesome time! Cedar Mesa is one of my favorite places.

[@maxbliss6069]

The second video of yours I am watching, and I'm already really loving it all. Your style and demeanor reminds me heavily of MyOwnFrontier and I'm feeling beyond excited to watch all of your videos for inspiration over the next few weeks. Seriously thank you for such great content.

[@WildlandExplorer]

Thank you! Yes I get this a lot, seems a coincidence us having a similar video style. Hoping to get to that area of Utah this fall; currently editing a handful of trip videos from this year.

[@troymckaskle]

Great job on this! The bird at 1:16:34 is a Spotted Towhee, so pretty! The walking in the water would wear me down, but it seems like it's part of hiking in the Escalante.

[@WildlandExplorer]

Thanks Troy! I recently subscribed to your channel as well. You're doing some pretty cool hikes dude. Please keep it up with the content. Good info about the bird. In Escalante water walking is pretty much a requirement. Great place to field test water hiking shoes. River miles out there are slow going.

[@TheWatchmen001]

Some of those rock walls look like ancient trees. Some look like ancient steaks.. Some just look like ancient dirt. I heard an old old geologist one time say that the Grand canyon and all those bad lands out west were made in hours or days/weeks from the giant lake that was once west of the Great lakes. They showed fly over views where large amounts of water made ripples in the land similar to the way the ocean makes sand dunes...

[@Gryffin1319]

Enjoying it with chicken gravy Sitting comfortably in my sofa ❤️ 😇

[@WildlandExplorer]

Haha, that sounds amazing. Thanks for watching!

[@maximbudnick]

Been watching a bunch of your videos Awesome work! Heading down to the Utah and Arizona next spring from Canada giving me lots of ideas. What are you using for image stabilization? Software like catalyst or in lens/ in camera stabilization or perhaps even a gimbal? All the best

[@WildlandExplorer]

Thanks! A gimbal isn't necessary for hiking videos as cameras can be kept reasonably upright by hand. Gimbals have poor battery life and are quite heavy and usually not waterproof. What I use is a GoPro with built-in software stabilization for walking shots. I don't even use the max-stabilization available on it because it won't go that high in 4k60p. My main camera is a Panasonic Lumix G9 on a tripod (which doubles as a hiking pole), with decent Leica glass in the 12-60mm range; that provides all the static, zoom and panning shots. It has both IBIS based and lens based stabilization which works well but not good enough for walking shots, hence the GoPro. I do frequently apply additional stabilization in post in Final Cut for that camera - but that can only be done on shots that were reasonably stable to begin with. Hope that helps.

[@maximbudnick]

@@WildlandExplorer Thanks a lot!

[@NorwegianXplorer]

This is great, glad I found your channel, what are you using to film? I noticed some gopro stabilization in your walking shots, but. The color and quality of shots seem way too good for just being gopro:-) edit: I saw the camera now😊

[@WildlandExplorer]

Thanks man! Highly enjoyed your video work, in particular the Utah stuff from a few years ago and have been blown away with the content you've shown of your home in Norway, what a spectacular place.

[@NorwegianXplorer]

@@WildlandExplorer Looks amazing, just watched the kanab Creek video, looks fantastic!

[@susannenerad9851]

Love watching your videos, the places you explore are amazing, we have done some slot canyon exploring in the past, just to bad all the cattle doing some devastation to the landscape, just my opinion, they shouldn't be there, do you see much wildlife?

[@ahbenjamin2889]

As usual great video. One question, in one of your videos you were making your way to some water hole, and you came across a rattle snake and you remarked that you would not go to that particular water source. Do you remember which video that was ? Thanks/

[@HomelinkST]

Got you: Backpacking Superstition Wilderness - Peters LaBarge Hoolie Bacon Loop - 3 Days... was talking about LaBarge spring

[@WildlandExplorer]

@@HomelinkST That's the one. regarding AH Benjamin's question - that spot (LaBarge spring) is probably the most reliable water source in the entirety of the Superstitions. There used to be a clear path up to it across the LaBarge drainage but on that specific trip, a flood had taken out the path. Now it's about an 8ft nearly vertical scramble up a mud slope to get to the spring. Still easily do-able by most.

[@HomelinkST]

@@WildlandExplorer Yeh, that slope is a bit of a pain now but easy enough with trekking poles. A bit fun sliding down, though, so there's that?

[@JustinMcKinneyhiker]

Another amazing trip , the scenery is unbelievable !! I see you've got a new tent . What happened to your Zpacks tent ? Did your Anker solar charger work out ? Which one is that ? Thanks for sharing !!

[@WildlandExplorer]

Thank you Justin! I like to bring at least a semi-freestanding tent for hikes where I might camp on slickrock. Which is funny because I didn't camp on slickrock at all on that trip. I still use the zpacks tent for most of my hikes, but it's not the best tool for the job in canyon country imo. I believe the Anker charger is 15W. I usually take a large 27k maH dual-input battery bank to fully utilize it using two USB input/output at once. A full sunny hiking day I can usually get a couple bars charged. I don't love carrying solar due to weight, but it's not that heavy and is necessary for the type of video I shoot.

[@Hillbilly_Hopper]

Great video, thanks for the share!!! We are getting ready to do this trail in a couple of days. One question I had was gear related, what did you have on your feet? Were you using wetsuit socks? Or just like trail runners and socks? Hope you see this so I don’t have to carry extra gear lol. Thanks man!

[@WildlandExplorer]

Thanks! I just use trail runners & wool hiking socks for all hikes. Neoprene is only useful in extreme cold water. You'll note I had a bad blister develop on this one. Due to that, I switched from Darn Tough to Injini toe socks and couldn't be happier. Enjoy the hike!

[@dr.maturin4648]

@@WildlandExplorer When hiking the Gila River , with dozens of stream crossings, I use waterproof, breathable, SUBMEREGE-able (water can't come in over the top) socks by Hanz, over my regular socks. My regular socks and feet stay dry. If you use non-Gore tex boots, the water can escape your boots as you hike.

[@WildlandExplorer]

I've heard of this strategy and always hear mixed results from people as to whether feet stay dry or end up clammy and kind of wet still. Good to know it works ok for you, I might try to experiment down the road.

[@renevelez9444]

It would be great if you could post your route. Nice video!

[@WildlandExplorer]

Good idea! I need to do this more often. I went ahead and added a Caltopo link in the video description showing basically my route (along with some disclaimers... mainly I want people to do their own research so they don't get themselves in trouble out there... hope you understand). Thanks for watching!

[@renevelez9444]

@@WildlandExplorer I'll be in Utah end of April. Spent many, many hours planning already but it ads a comfort level at begginers stage to follow in someone else's footsteps. Mainly will do BLM tailgate camping to explore area. Thanks for the Caltopo!

[@sageengberg1744]

How reasonable would it be to do a mid- to late-March backpack along a long stretch of the Escalante in this section? Do you think the water would be too swift/deep to be manageable for a long stretch?

[@WildlandExplorer]

I think this section would be ok, but I can only speak for the one time I've been there in March. I know Joey / MyOwnfrontier has a now ancient video where him and Bob did a similar trip to this one in March, probably 2015 I'd guess - and the conditions were very similar to what I encountered. The river crossings were no big deal - no boulders, no rapids. Not swift enough to be a concern, except for maybe small children. Water got up to mid-thigh. The biggest challenge is quick sand, so use a stick or trekking pole to probe ahead of you. Snowmelt on Boulder Mountain & Bryce Canyon will affect the river level a lot and it's hard to say what the conditions will be until you get there. I normally check Snowtel site readings of both areas and also look at recent Sentinel Satellite imagery to deduce if snowpack is stable or melting rapidly. There's also a USGS gauge for the river near the town of Escalante, but it's not a great indicator of what it will be like down-canyon... They really need a gauging station below the canyons that drain boulder mountain... Anyway, I pay for a yearly CalTopo pro subscription to be able to see all this data in one place, but you might be able to find them elsewhere for free.

[@cliffdwelling3807]

32:00 😊

[@victorschepers6286]

No dwellings???

[@davidf1712]

Dude! I camped near the beginning of Harris wash road in the back of a Tacoma with a cab height shell in a wind vulnerable area with my rig into the wind and went through a wind storm that lasted from 4pm to 4AM! and my truck almost got knocked on its side about 7 times that night! DO NOT camp in wind vulnerable areas when there is anything more than 25 mph winds in the forecast. The forecast at that time was for only 35 mph winds which meant sustained 85 mph winds for about 12 hours!!. Never again.

[@WildlandExplorer]

That's crazy I wouldn't guess that area would get high winds like that being down low. I suppose you get the tunnel effect / canyon winds but that's EF1 territory! I've been in 60 mph before which shredded my tent at the foot of Mt. Nebo. Not the most fun way to be reminded why I usually camp below treeline haha.

[@SummitSeeker546]

So you just wear wool socks…. Hmmm! Feet get cold? How many lairs do you bring? Any reason you don’t use neoprene socks?

[@WildlandExplorer]

I've brought neoprene sock so many times and all they do is sit in my pack taking up space; I never have issues with cold feet hiking in streams, even early season. I've since switched to wool toe socks (Injinji) and blisters seem to be a problem of the past now.

[@SummitSeeker546]

@@WildlandExplorer love Injinji socks!

[@joeharoutunian1805]

You pick great scenic places and photo them well. Others do this as well. But most of them feel they must add music. I am very thankful that you do not follow that practice. I don’t think it’s necessary to show you actually hiking so much. It’s something of a distraction. And it must be more tiring and time consuming. Having said that I really do enjoy your videos of these beautiful places I can no longer get to myself. Thank you.

[@primarytrainer1]

5:35 "internet expert" and former geologist, it looks like you're referring to conchoidal fracturing of the exposed sandstone face :) if you google sandstone conchoidal fractures you will find lots of great info! sorry that this is three years late lol

[@WildlandExplorer]

This is really cool to know, thank you for sharing your knowledge and teaching us something about geology!

[@shanefanon]

Easy place to get lost and turned around. Bring a compass .

[@WildlandExplorer]

You aren't wrong. Every time I step off trail and change directions I take a back bearing.

[@victorschepers6286]

Put some read nail polish on the conn (this way up)