Coyote Gulch Hike April 18-19, 2022
Subtitle – Where’s Mack?
Last week Mack (Jerry) called and said he was going to St. George for a week. Kaye had decided not to go and he asked if I would like to go with him. He mentioned he was thinking of taking a hike and may have mentioned Coyote Gulch. I am not sure. I didn’t think I should go because I had so many plants to keep watered and I had about 300 little Red Japanese tree seedlings that had just sprouted and I couldn’t leave them that long. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to spend time with Mack, but I couldn’t leave the plants. I was going to tell him I couldn’t go, but when Diane came home I mentioned it to her. She said for me to go and she would take care of the plants. I had recently spent a week in California with Emily and her family and left Diane to care for the plants and I didn’t want to do that to her again. She kept insisting that I don’t pass up this opportunity to spend time with my family so I called Macik and told him I would go.
We drove to St. George and spent a day or two with Debby and Jim who are living there for the winter. They had hiked the Coyote Gulch last year with three other couples and could not hike out at the Hamblin Arch like they had planned at the end of the day because it was too steep. They spent the night lying on the ground freezing to death, then hiked out to the next exit which was Hurricane Wash the next morning.
Jim spent a lot of time with Mack telling him about their experience in the canyon and sharing several pin drops he had for the hike. I didn’t pay much attention to him and didn’t get the pin drops on my Avenza map program on my phone. Sunday afternoon we took off to Escalante, then on to the trailhead for Coyote Gulch. We spent the night in Mack’s new car-top tent which he was using for the first time. The next morning we got up rather late and leisurely ate some boiled eggs and other cold food we brought for breakfast. We headed out about 10:00 that morning for the hike. It was a beautiful day and we leisurely hiked the two and a half miles to the entrance to the canyon. We hiked along with a couple and their two young kids who were planning to spend four nights in the canyon. We learned they had hiked the Coyote Gulch two years earlier with the kids who would have been about 6 and 8 years old. They mentioned the hike out at Hamblin Arch was pretty steep but very doable. I thought then that if they could do it, certainly, we could.
The picture to the left was taken before we entered the crack in the wall. You can see Stevens Arch in the background.
We began the descent into the canyon at what is called the Crack in the Wall which is a very narrow place where the wall of the canyon had split away leaving a narrow crack you could hike down into the canyon. The video below shows what the crack was like.
Once you get down to the bottom of the canyon there is a small stream running about ankle deep we crossed back and forth across it many times and sometimes the trail required you to walk in the stream. It was a nice, sunny day, and walking in the stream was refreshing.
We ran into several other hiking groups along the way and enjoyed talking to them about their experiences on the trail. We passed a few waterfalls we had to negotiate.
After several hours I started to wonder how much progress we were making and Mack checked on his phone on the “All Trails” map and saw that we were not even halfway. We knew then that we needed to speed up or we would not make the exit at Jacob Hamblin Arch by dark. That was where we were planning to exit the canyon.
We started moving up the canyon a little faster so we could get out before dark. We made it to the scramble where we were going to exit at about 7:00 pm. When we got to the take-out point we still had enough daylight to hike up a little farther to see Jacob Hamblin Arch which was beautiful.
Then our troubles started. Debby and Jim were not able to scramble up the wall but I thought Mack and I should be able to make it. We had talked to several people who said it was doable. Mack tried to get up the first part of the climb and he couldn’t make it so I tried and I couldn’t make it either. Mack said he wanted to try it without his pack and he took a ¼ inch rope with him. He barely made it up with a little assistance from me below.
He found that the first climb was the easy one. There were other climbs on the way to the top that were more difficult. Once he got to the top it was dark. I was sitting at the bottom waiting for him to drop the rope so he could pull up the 2 packs. After waiting about an hour it was completely dark. He kept yelling something to me but because of the echo in the canyon and my hearing aids I had no idea what he was saying. I considered my options were:
- Sit there at the bottom of the exit for the night where it would be freezing cold..
- Hike back to the crack where we entered the canyon that morning.
- Hike to Hurricane Wash which was another 4-5 miles upstream.
I decided I would hike up to Hurricane Wash and wait for Mack to pick me up the next morning. I thought he could easily walk the 2 1⁄2 miles back to the jeep and spend the night in the tent. What I didn’t realize at the time was his headlamp, flashlight, satellite phone, battery back up with a light, car keys, flashlight, jacket, and water, all of which he would need were in his backpack. I knew he had his GoPro camera but was not sure what else he had. I didn’t know if he could hear me or understand me but I yelled, “I am walking out Hurricane Wash ” two times. Hoping he heard me, I put both backpacks on my back and started upstream.
A little way upstream I passed a camper standing by his tent and told him that if anyone came looking for me, I was hiking out Hurricane Wash. He just said, “You are crazy”. I didn’t know how long it would take me to hike 5 more miles with 2 packs on my back. I also didn’t know how long my headlamp would last and when it was gone I would have to stop for the rest of the night. What I didn’t know was I had Mack’s headlamp, flashlight, and battery backup in his pack. I kept a good pace walking upstream and following the trail along the stream when I could find it. I don’t know why, but I thought the stream was coming through Hurricane Wash and if I just continued upstream I would eventually come to the trailhead. Well, that was faulty thinking because I remembered much later that we had crossed the trailhead to Hurricane Wash in the car and it was completely dry. So where was this canyon taking me? I had no idea.
At about 2:30 AM I finally concluded I was lost and had probably passed the Hurricane Wash. I stopped and looked at my map but couldn’t tell if I had passed it or not. Jim had shared a pin drop for Hurricane Wash and I had asked Mack to share the pin drop with me, but for some reason, he didn’t. I continued to walk upstream looking for a way out of the canyon. I would leave the stream and walk a long way up a side canyon, but it would be a dead-end with 100-foot walls on each side. I tried this several times, then would return to the stream. More than once I returned to the stream and started walking. I had been walking upstream and a few times when I returned to the stream I realized I was walking downstream and had to turn around and go the other way. It was very confusing in the dark.
At one point I saw two very large eyes in the distance. Then I could see two sets of eyes. They were far apart and I knew it had to be a large animal. What could it be? I stood perfectly still for a little while to see if they would start toward me but they didn’t so I continued on up the trail finally seeing it was two black cows. At one point while walking on the trail beside the stream I almost stepped on a coiled rattlesnake. Without my headlight, I would have stepped right on him. I knew there was a snakebite kit in Mack’s backpack but I am glad I didn’t have to use it.
I could no longer find any evidence of footprints along the banks and decided the cows knew how to get out of this canyon so I started following cow trails away from the stream. Unfortunately, the ones I followed always lead to a dead end. Looking at the Avenza map on my phone I could see some roads that came toward the canyon. I thought they were probably farmers’ trails where they would provide feed or water for their cows. I thought I would try to find my way to one of those roads so I started dropping pins on the map to see if I was getting closer or farther away from where the road ended. Several times I concluded I was going in the opposite direction I needed to go. Of course, when you are in a canyon with 100-foot walls you have few options.
I knew Mack had a satellite phone in his pack so I got it out to see if I could contact someone with it. I had no idea how it worked and it was not very intuitive. I messed with it for a while and tried to send a message. Frustrated with my inability to get it to work I finally put it back in the pack and continued on up the canyon.
You can see on the map the junction at the bottom right pin is where I should have left the stream. As you can see from all the other pin drops I had no idea where I was going. They are labeled lost(1) to lost(12). I would drop a pin, walk for a little while and drop another pin. I found several times that I had left the stream and headed in the wrong direction. I finally found a canyon going to the left which was the way I needed to go to get to road 254 on the map. The draw had a wide gravel-covered bottom where lots of water must have flowed down at one time. I had been praying all the way that my headlight would not fail until I could find my way out. As I hiked up this wide ravine it started getting daylight and I realized my headlight had lasted all night. I decided right then that I was going to buy another one of them. Soon I saw a footpath where cows or people had climbed out of the canyon. I figured it was where ranchers came down the canyon to check on their cows. I followed it up a steep climb and eventually came to a sign that said, “Red Well TrailHead”. About this time my phone dinged with a message and I knew I had cell coverage. I immediately called Mack and tried texting him, but there was no response. I then called Debby and told her where I was and that I had no idea where Mack was.
I didn’t know why Mack wouldn’t answer his phone. I was afraid he had gone looking for me at Hurricane Wash and would never find me. I knew it would take Debby and Jim 5 1⁄2 hours to get to me. She asked if Mack’s Jeep keys were in his backpack. I looked through everything and didn’t see them so I thought he would be able to get in the Jeep. Debby called a friend who knew the canyon and told him what had happened. He immediately called the ranger’s office in Escalante and reported us missing. I had drunk all of my water and all of Mack’s water and was very thirsty. I had been out of water for about 5 hours. There was a young couple camping close to the trailhead and I walked over and asked if they could spare any water. They filled my water bottle. I had some of my peanut butter and jelly sandwich left and tried to eat it, but my mouth was so dry I couldn’t swallow it even with the water.
Debby told me the rangers had been informed that Mack was missing. The ranger station in Escalante is 2 ½ hours away so I sat down by the trailhead sign trying to stay awake after hiking all night to wait for them. To my surprise, two rangers drove up about an hour later. They were already on their way to the Red Well TrailHead where I was to search for another group that was missing. One of the rangers immediately took off down the trail with his pack to see if he could find the missing group and Mack.
Ranger Royce took me back to our campsite and we could see that Mack had not been there. He was very positive and assured me they would find Mack and that he would be fine. I wasn’t so sure. I could think of a few possible scenarios. He could have climbed back down the wall with his rope tied off and tried to catch me since I had his pack. If he had done this I was afraid he may have fallen and was lying at the bottom of the canyon. He could have gone to the car, taken down the tent, and driven to Hurricane Wash to find me, but I would not be there. When we saw that the jeep was still there and there were no footprints around it I knew that had not happened.
Ranger Royce told me he was going to enter the canyon, hike up the way we had hiked, and meet the other ranger halfway up the canyon. He told me he would be back in five and a half hours and for me to wait there. I was to call 911 if I thought of anything else that would help in the search. The Jeep with the tent on top was down the hill about 50 yards from the trailhead. My phone would only work on top of the hill so I stayed on the hill so I would not miss any calls. I was very tired but didn’t want to miss any calls. Some hikers headed up or down the trail shared some of their water and snacks which was very nice of them. Three times I was sure I saw Mack and grabbed the bottle of water someone gave me and took off through the sagebrush, sand, and cactus in my flip flops only to find it was not him. I guess I was seeing things.
About 5 hours later the two rangers drove up in the truck and said Mack was not in the canyon. About this time Debby called and said she had gotten a short call from Mack and he said he was on top and I think she said he was going to the water tank. I passed this information on to the ranger and he started scanning the area with his small single eyepiece. After another hour or so he finally decided to call in a helicopter to search for him. He let me sit in his truck as he continued to scan the terrain. The wind was picking up and blowing sand everywhere. About an hour later Ranger Royce yelled, “I see him!”. He drove the truck up the road and grabbed his backpack and water and took off running across the desert sand toward him. He told me to stay in the truck. My feet were so sore and in flip-flops, it would have taken me a long time to get to him.
At about this same time the helicopter flew over and landed close to where Mack was sitting on the ground. Debby and Jim also showed up at the same time and they took off running toward Mack. Ranger Royce ran back to the truck to report he had found Mack on his radio. He told me he must be ok because he was cracking jokes. I told him he would be cracking jokes if it was his last breath. They would not let Debby and Jim get close to Mack because of the helicopter and they told them not to take any pictures for some reason. I had already taken some pictures from where I was as you can see below.
Mack has told me what happened from the time we got separated but I cannot remember the details. I hope he will share the story from his point of view. I do know that he was planning to spend the night on top of the ridge but when I told him I was hiking out of the canyon he decided he needed to get to the Jeep so he could drive to Hurricane Wash and start down the trail to meet me. Unfortunately, he tripped and hit his knee on a rock in the dark and was in tremendous pain and could hardly walk. The only light he had was his cell phone and it didn’t provide much light. The battery finally died leaving him in total darkness. I don’t know if it is true or not, but he swears that there was a second moon that came up and provided him with enough light to walk again, but he was lost and could not find the trail back to the Jeep.
By daylight, he was still a long way from the Jeep. He could see it in the distance but the key was in his backpack that I had. He could have opened the door with his phone or Apple watch, but both batteries were dead. He was so dehydrated and in so much pain he could hardly walk. He was headed to the water tank for the cows to get some water to drink. He knew it would probably make him sick, but he didn’t care. He had to have some water. He had been without water since we got separated. He had fallen again trying to cross over a fence and lay there on the ground for a long time. He had just gotten up to head for the water tank when Ranger Royce reached him.
Just as the ranger reached him, the helicopter arrived and landed close by. After giving him some water and getting him back on his feet they planned to take him to the nearest hospital, but he refused to go. He told them the only place they could take him was back to the Jeep which they did.
I thought we should leave right then and drive to a hospital but he wanted to spend the night in the tent which we did even though he had to climb the ladder which was very painful. The wind was blowing 50 miles an hour that night and it was very noisy in the tent but we were both so exhausted we fell asleep. The next morning we started taking down the tent which was full of sand from the blowing wind during the night. As I was following Mack’s directions my fingers started going stiff and locking up. I had never had this happen before. It would be one or two fingers on one hand then my thumb would lock up on my other hand. It made it very difficult to get the tent ready to travel.
We finally got the tent secured and he drove back to St. George, stopping in Escalante for something to eat. I went into a little restaurant but Mack stayed in the car and said he didn’t want anything. I wanted pancakes, eggs, and bacon, but they were not serving breakfast so I had a bbq brisket sandwich. We spent that night in St. George with Debby and Jim then I drove us to my house. Debby and Jim were coming to their grandson Daric’s graduation and were going to spend the night with us. We got Mack up the steps into the house and Diane served us her new, delicious soup. I offered to drive Mack home but he wanted to drive himself.