March 25, 2022

By Tim Briese

3.4 miles, 900’ elevation gain, 3:20 roundtrip time

The hike to Yellow Rock in a remote area of southern Utah turned out to be a hidden gem. Yellow Rock is a massive sandstone dome about a half mile long and 500 feet high, with various swirling colors, patterns, and textures in the rock. Although the predominant color of the sandstone is yellow there are also various shades of beige, white, red, and purple. It is a lightly visited place, and I saw only one other fellow there today.

I left Escalante in the morning and drove west to Cannonville and then headed south on the lengthy dirt Cottonwood Canyon Road. This road is fine when it is dry but can be impassable to all vehicles when wet.

a view along the cottonwood canyon road

Along the way I stopped to see impressive Grosvenor Arch.

grosvenor arch

About 31.7 miles south of Cannonville I parked off the road at a junction where the 4WD Brigham Plains Road heads east. I headed west on foot through the sagebrush and soon waded across Cottonwood Creek, which had a few inches of water in it, and followed a sandy trail west into the mouth of a drainage in the rugged ridge that parallels the west side of the Cottonwood Canyon Road.

i hiked west toward a drainage near the center of the photo

The trail went up a very steep gully to the north and gained about 200 feet of elevation.

the steep trail went up this slope

Once atop the cliffs the nicely cairned trail turned to the west and took me to the base of Yellow Rock.

my first good view of yellow rock, which is more yellow on its south end and white toward the north

My initial goal was to ascend to the summit and then launch a general exploration of interesting features in the area. The eastern slope of the sandstone dome looked a bit steep for a comfortable direct ascent so I made my way toward the top in long sweeping switchbacks, marveling at the interesting colors and patterns in the rock on the way.

starting on my way up yellow rock

i angled toward the right and then back to the left on my ascent

approaching the top of yellow rock

It didn’t take too long to reach the top and I used my mountain climber's eye to try to determine if a reddish rock or a white one a hundred feet to the southwest was the true highpoint, and ended up deciding that it was inconclusive.

the highest point is the reddish rock in the foreground or the white one beyond

a view to the south from the summit

the view to the north. the rugged peak at the left is castle rock.

colorful rocks near the summit

I sat on the top for 45 minutes or more soaking up the profound silence, solitude, and beauty. Then I proceeded to stroll around the top looking down the slopes on each side to see what could be seen. I spotted a broad area of colorful sandstone several hundred feet below to the south that looked well worthy of exploration.

this area down below to the south caught my eye

The descent to the south looked pretty steep so I circled around to the north and made a gradual descent down the east slopes.

view to the east on the descent.  the trailhead is at the upper left below the dark-colored ridge.

a close-up view of patterns in some colorful rock

I worked my way around to the colorful area to the south and took many photos of this fascinating area.

approaching the area south of the summit

the colorful south slopes of yellow rock

some interesting yellow "brain rock"

a closer view of the brain rock

these colorful swirls lured me over for a closer look

Then I turned back to the northeast to hike back and came across the other fellow strolling around on the rock. I bushwhacked back across the rock and soon regained the main trail.

some interesting pinnacles on the hike back

on the trail back down into the drainage

I hiked back down the steep slope into the drainage and soon reached my truck. This was a great hike to a fascinating colorful area that I wouldn’t mind visiting again sometime.