Our chosen stopping point in the Escalante Staircase area was Lower Calf Creek Falls, which we'd found online and thought sounded absolutely beautiful. Interestingly, Kathy, a woman who was helping with the cooking at the inn in Moab recommended this very hike to us this morning as we checked out! Lower Calf Creek Falls is a breathtaking waterfall with a 130' drop over a sandstone cliff; the water is as clear as glass, and swimming in the pool below is allowed, but it was a bit too chilly for that today (in the water, anyway!) During the hike, it got fairly warm, with a high temperature of around 78, but when we got to the falls, that fell to 68 as the cooling water made such a huge difference. The falls really did take our breath away; they were such a surprise to see in a desert area where water is so rare and precious a commodity.
We took a picture of the two of us in front of the falls using the self-timer on our camera, and a guy saw us and asked if we'd like our picture taken together vertically to fit the entire waterfall in, so we said sure. He asked where we were from and told us he was from outside Salt Lake City. I noticed that he bore a striking resemblance to my old childhood idol, Donny Osmond (but a bit younger) and wondered if he might be related to the Osmond clan, as they are indeed from Ogden, Utah! He took the picture and wished us well, and we moved on. We had to keep up a very brisk pace on this hike in order to check in at our hotel in Bryce, unload the car, eat dinner, and make it to Bryce Canyon to see the sunset, so we did a lot of "race hiking" (our trekking poles really helped with this), and finished the slightly over 6 mile hike in just under 2 hours. The trail was moderate terrain (lots of deep sand was slow-going), rolling to flat rather than steep, but the pace we were going definitely made this an aerobic hike!
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In the last mile or so of our return hike, we ran into a woman hiking alone taking lots of pictures. She was going from park to park to hike out here as well, but in a much more spontaneous fashion than us, checking in at motels whenever she found a good place to stop (without advance reservations). Interestingly, her last few days would be here at Bryce, then Zion, then visiting a friend in Vegas on Saturday, just like us. She was from Snohomish, Washington, and had driven down in a van all by herself. Brave gal! We guessed she was an artist or photographer (or retired) without a formal job to get back to as she seemed to have no specific deadline to get home, other than wanting to take in a Blues Festival back home on the 18th. She was impressed with our fast hiking and was especially amazed to hear of our Grand Canyon hike. She was kind enough to snap this photo of us after we finished our hike....
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