We needed to meet some other painters and photographers at Calf Creek on Saturday, so we drove over to the east side on Friday afternoon. I was planning to camp somewhere between Head of the Rocks and New Home Bench. I didn't turn down Spencer Flat because I figured that would be too popular. Well, I may have made a mistake. New Home Bench was crowded and we had to go half way to Salt Gulch before we could find a place. In the end, it was too close to the road and the traffic kept us up half the night. What the . . . ? This is Garfield County, Utah . . . where is there to drive to at 11:30p?Of course, it was worse in the morning. When we lived in Escalante, I wouldn't go near Calf Creek because I couldn't stand the mayhem. Well, it was our planned meeting place, so we had to ignore the yuppies, hippies, and euros for a change, and deal with the carnival. V came up with a couple of nice little paintings and E got to wade in the creek, plus we had a good time talking with Irene and some other painters. By 2p we were worn out and we went back up to Salt Gulch for a nap. The nap was followed by a hike in Big Gulch and a spaghetti dinner.
On Sunday morning, I took a run down the Escalante River to Phipps Wash while the girls went upstream to the natural bridge. Even the lower end of Phipps was full of tourists, so I never did have an hour of silence, but I guess that is the price one pays for visiting the Calf Creek area in early October. I messed around in one of the side canyons and missed Phipps Arch, but I did find the Maverick Natural Bridge. By about 1p we were all at the bridge and loaded up for another hundred mile drive back to Parowan.
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