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Trip Report - October, November, 2007 - New Hance, Escalante and Beamer to Little Colorado River

This trip was originally supposed to use the Tanner Trail, Beamer Trail, Escalante Route and the New Hance Trail but a rock slide in the Coconino on the Tanner Trail a few days before I was supposed to start closed that trail and forced me to change the itinerary. I still made it to the Little Colorado River and completed that last mile or so of the Beamer Trail that I needed but it did not go off exactly as planned.

The trip as originally planned was much easier as far as miles per day, at least for the first few days. My second day was supposed to be an easy one, just Tanner Rapid to Palisades Creek. With the change in itinerary it ended up being a very long day. I was supposed to go from Papago Canyon to Palisades Creek and that didn't happen---it was just too far for one day. I barely made it to Tanner Rapid before daylight started to fade.

The third day was supposed to be a day hike from Palisades Creek to the Little Colorado River and back, about 14 miles, but that was contingent on being camped at Palisades which I now was not. I decided to attempt the day hike from Tanner anyway, even though I failed at this once before back in December of 1994. The days are a little longer in late October than late December so I decided to start early, take my headlamp and give it a shot. I made it there... I did not make it back.

The last few days of the trip were not so bad as I had three days to do going out what it took two days to do going in. It was also nice to have the car waiting for me near the trailhead and to not have to walk back to Lipan Point.

Trip Highlights


Day 1 - New Hance Trail to Escalante Route to Papago Canyon
Day 2 - Papago Canyon to Tanner Rapid
Day 3 : Day hike on Beamer Trail to Little Colorado River
Day 4 : Tanner Rapid to Escalante Beach via Escalante Route
Day 5 : Escalante Beach to Red Canyon Redwall camp
Day 6 : Red Canyon Redwall camp to New Hance trailhead


Trip maps

Southern portion : New Hance Trail and Escalante Route

Larger version (2000x2291) camera Photo map

Northern portion : Beamer Trail

Larger version (862x1600) camera Photo map

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