Bighorn Canyon | Escalante, Utah Slot Canyon Adventure

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument might just be the coolest area of southern Utah. The hikes here are out of this world and today we're taking you along with us as we hike Bighorn Canyon, a relatively easy hike that gives you incredible views and narrow slot canyons to walk through. And the best part is is that this hike is dog friendly and it's only a 15 minute drive from town where any car can make it to the trailhead. Bree and I left Denver yesterday and made the eight and a half hour drive to Escalante, so we're gearing up for an epic few days here and this is our first stop. Good morning. We just woke up. This is our first full day here in Escalante. We are about to head out. Maybe not quite as much sleep as we would like because it was a long day of driving yesterday, but we have an awesome day planned in Bighorn Canyon and I'm going to show you the whole hike. Here we are. We made it. It's beautiful out. The sunrise is nice. We're a little late and behind schedule, but oh well. We're the only car here, so we wanted to get an early start, kind of one that's going to get a little bit hot later. So you know me as Paul, it's always something to consider what these temperatures will have later. Her being hot and yeah just to beat the crowds, but looks like we did that. So we have a six mile hike with 400 feet of elevation gain, but I did read that you can go further because you actually can hike Bighorn Canyon from the other side, but I think from the other side it's much longer and more technical. So we're going this way. This is I think the standard route and then we'll just go as far as we can. So it could be up to eight, eight and a half miles and then we will make our way back. Yeah, it should be a great day though. So far we are smooth sailing. You kind of go in and out of the wash, in and out of kind of deep sand, and then in the beginning there was, it's not bushwhacking, but it was kind of narrow and there was kind of bushes sticking out onto the trail and some water crossings. The water was only like an inch or two deep, so you could get across without getting wet and just find some rocks to go along, but I think pretty soon we're going to reach the mouth of the actual canyon. So we just reached a fork in the trail, so we're going to go to the left canyon first. It is the shorter one. Make our way back to this fork and then go down the canyon to the right. This looks like a nest. I don't want to look up there, but I can't see. For context on all trails, we saw two different photos from two different people of a nest with four eggs. We didn't know what kind it was. That was not it. So we reached the end of the first canyon. It got super narrow, which I wasn't expecting, honestly. We are going to do Pickaboo, Spooky, Zebra, Willis Creek, all the slot canyons this week that are known for being super narrow. This one I think is super under the radar, so it's been awesome so far and we have one more canyon to go, but we're going to turn around and film with some of the 360. We just finished the first canyon offshoot back to the fork, and now we're going to head into the second slot canyon area. It's pretty narrow. I think the first canyon that we went into photographed like it was more narrow than it was, and it was really dark in there, whereas this is wide open. That section back there had to get as close together as possible, and it was not easy to get through, especially with my massive camera bag that you guys have probably seen in the videos. And this is not one of the famously narrow ones, so I think later this week I might need to consolidate and not bring this on the hikes. We made turkey sandwiches last night. So there's turkey, cheese, and some arugula on here, and then mayonnaise and mustard. Pretty good. I'm hungry. My stomach's growling. Kev doesn't eat until like 2 p.m., but I eat all day. So I was pretty stoked when I saw the specs for this hike. It was like eight miles and only 400 feet of elevation gain, so in other words, relatively flat. But man, the sand is so so deep that it is hard to walk in. It's like a serious workout, so keep that in mind that you might be going a little slower than you otherwise think you would on a flat hike. Coming? Oh! Holy s**t! Girl, you did it! Oh my gosh! Holy s**t! I'm gonna give this to Kev to show you for scale how tall this rock is. Oh my gosh. Hold on. Look at this. There's plenty room for her to go under. We just assumed that's what she would do. That's so funny because when we're at home, we have our not short dining room chairs, but like not high, and sometimes she needs a boost to that. Well, needs a boost. Mia, you're freaking crazy. Like we said, on all trails, this is a six mile hike, but there is another hike on the other side of Bighorn Canyon, and they do meet together. We went past where this all trails ended. My Strava says we've done over four miles. I don't think that that's true, but we're going to turn around here, make our way back. I think we have three miles to the car, but this has been amazing. There was that one really narrow section. The first canyon we went in was awesome. Supposedly, there's some technical stuff, but I think it's maybe one or two miles up, so we're just going to turn around here, but it's been a great day so far. A little cloudy, but we've had the entire place to ourselves. Just to reiterate, that is a tiring hike for I think only probably like six to seven miles that we did. The sand is no joke. I'm sure there's so much sand in my shoes. Awesome, obviously worth it. Very cool slot canyon that is underrated and definitely not as busy. While you're here, make sure to check out some of the other videos on the channel from Utah, some other hikes here in Escalante, have a bunch of top 10s and all that good stuff, but see you guys later.