Paria Badlands

We stopped to view the Paria Badlands, about 4 miles down a dirt road between Page, Arizona and Kanab, Utah. This is near the old Paria Township. The colors of the badlands here a gorgeous!

Pano from west to north

Pano from north to east

 

Upper Calf Creek Falls

In the afternoon, we continued a few miles east on Hwy 12 to the trailhead of Upper Calf Creek Falls. This is a 2+ mile round trip hike with 600 ft elevation loss/gain.  The trail immediately descends down slick rock.

 We made sure to make note of the cairns and how we would return on the way back

Before long, we could see the canyon below us, the falls are to the right.

 As we neared the falls, the trail splits in to: to the left, the trail descends down to the bottom of the falls; to the right, the trail heads to where Calf Creek drops down to the falls. We choose to first hike down to the left.

 View of Upper Calf Creek Falls, as we dropped down the trail. We had to watch our step as there was lots of poison ivy here.

Wide angle view of 88 ft Upper Calf Creek Falls:

 We then returned to the trail split and continued to where Calf Creek drops into the falls:

There creek forms some shallow pools on its way to the falls

Some of the wildflowers and cacti we saw in bloom along this trail today:

     

Lower Calf Creek Falls

In the morning we drove out on Hwy 12 past Escalante to hike to Lower Calf Creek Falls. We were told that is a popular hike, so we went early in the morning. It is a 6 mile round trip hike through a luscious canyon floor with 250 ft of elevation gain. We heard birds singing throughout our hike. There are lots of interesting rock formations all along this trail.

This is a fairly level trail with very gentle ups and downs

The canyon walls get higher as the trail continues

Wide angle view:

Lots of color in the rocks

Panoramic view:

About halfway down the trail, pictographs can be seen on the canyon wall across the creek.













Soon, the creek and trail go around a bend, here there are many beaver dams in the creek












I loved the various coloration on the rocks and the  varied rocky features

This canyon seemed like a miniature Zion Canyon, with the greenery at the bottom and the high colorful canyon walls. We saw trout swimming in the creek, lots of butterflies flittering about and hawks soaring overhead, all the while, a myriad of bird songs accompanying our walk.

We could see we were nearing the falls.

Wide angle shot of the end of the trail and the 126 ft Lower Calf Creek Falls:

another view of the falls:

With the sun higher in the sky, I was able to get some other photos of the canyon on our hike back towards the trailhead:

We found a shady ledge under an overhang, where we could sit and enjoy our lunch, wide angle view:

Some of the wildflowers and other blooms we saw along the trail today: