WILLOW GULCH TO BROKEN BOW ARCH

WILLOW GULCH TO BROKEN BOW ARCH,

AND DANCE HALL ROCK, UTAH

October 28, 2024

By Tim Briese

Willow Gulch: 4.8 miles, 700’ elevation gain, 5:30 roundtrip time

Tim and I truck camped in the desert about 16 miles down the Hole in the Rock Road.

dawn at camp

Our adventures today would take us many miles further down this slow road with seemingly endless washboards. We both drove our vehicles a few more miles to the parking area for Peekaboo and Spooky slot canyons, our destination for tomorrow, and I drove us the rest of the way in about an hour to the trailhead for Willow Gulch, at about 40 miles down the road. This road gets worse the further you go, and with possible wet weather moving in tonight, we thought it best to go after this distant and very remote hike today in case the road were impassable tomorrow. This was a new hike for me that had been on my wish list for a while, and I was glad to have a companion to do it with in such a remote place. There was no one else at the trailhead today. A register, primarily used by rangers for rescue and retrieval operations, at least in my imagination, was very sparsely filled. We followed a nice sandy trail that descended down into the canyon to the northeast and proceeded to hike down the canyon.

descending into willow gulch

We felt like real explorers and adventurers in this wild and remote place. The Grand Staircase-Escalante region was the last place to be mapped in the continental US, and it is now said to be the darkest and quietest place in the country. There were several side canyons coming into the main canyon here and there and one had to pay close attention to stay on route, both on the hike in and on the way back out. We stopped to gaze and wonder at a petroglyph panel on a canyon wall.

Yellow cottonwoods stood in pretty contrast to the orange-red sandstone walls.

There was heavy vegetation along the canyon floor, but fortunately a flash flood had recently roared through and flattened much of it which made the hiking a little easier. Water shoes and wading would probably often be needed on this hike but that was not the case today.

some of the vegetation in the bottom of the canyon

After hiking a couple of miles down the canyon we came around a corner and were awed at the sight of massive Broken Bow Arch ahead of us. It is an impressive arch, and would probably be as famous as Rainbow Bridge or other popular arches if it were more accessible.

approaching broken bow arch

We considered trying to hike right up under the arch itself but deemed that to be a difficult undertaking. We found a beautiful alcove by the stream at the base of the arch and sat there for a while enjoying this magical place.

tim gazing up at the canyon wall

The clouds cleared away as we hiked back and the yellow trees glowed in the sunshine. We took our time, photographing the beauty along the way.

an interesting rock with a thin flat cap near the trailhead

After we returned to the trailhead we proceeded back down the road and stopped along the way to see Dance Hall Rock, a giant natural alcove with a huge flat area on the sandstone in front of it, utilized by Mormon pioneers as a place for their musical festivities.

dance hall rock

a big sandstone dance floor

I had read online about some large potholes in the sandstone behind the southeast side of rock that others said were well worth checking out so we hiked up there to see them. We were glad we did, too, because neither of us had seen anything like them – giant holes some 20 or 30 feet deep with water in some and a tree in another. The wind was blowing pretty hard so we were cautious not to get too close and fall in as we peered inside the potholes.