Hole-In-The-Rock

The main purpose for going to Escalante this Memorial Day weekend was to go see Hole-In-The-Rock. Many members of my family including me have read or are reading Gerald Lund's new book The Undaunted.

This book is based on the true story of the Hole in the Rock pioneers who were called by the prophets Brigham Young and John Taylor to settle in the San Juan valley near the four-corners area, creating a "buffer between the established settlements and the growing problem with the Indians and outlaws". The call was issued in 1878 and the trek took place in October 1879 through April 1880. The company included missionary families from all over southern Utah including Cedar City, Parowan, St. George, Paragonah and other surrounding areas. These missionaries were sent out into a land that had not been explored very much. The main party had to build wagon rodes from Escalante to their settlement as they went. Many of the pioneers commented that this was some of the worse and roughest land they had every seen. Now that I have been there, I can understand why.

We began our trip to the Hole Saturday morning. Just outside of Escalante is the turn off to Hole in the Rock. The Hole is a little less than 60 miles from Escalante; about 5 miles of that is paved, 45 miles of that is a rough, washboard dirt road, and the last 10 or so mile is a mixture of sandstone rock, sand, cliffs, etc requiring 4-wheel drive. Along the way is some of the most beautiful desert scenery I have every seen. We drove our trucks about 25 miles down the dirt road before we felt like we had been thrashed enough and then pulled off and unloaded our four-wheelers. From there we rode our four-wheelers the remaining 30 miles, stopping along the way to see the sites. The four-wheelers gave a much smoother ride on that washboard road!!



Our first stop was Dance Hall Rock.

On their way to the Hole, the pioneers camped about a mile from this rock formation at Forty Mile Spring. The rock cliff is concave in shape and has a flat platform at the bottom suitable for a dance floor. Dance Hall Rock became a gathering place for the pioneers for their recreational activities, including dancing. The BLM sign mentioned that while the pioneers camped here their spirits high until they got news of the road conditions ahead of them.

We also camped here on our way to the Hole. Well we stopped for lunch anyway. After eating, we hiked around the area and looked at the many rock formations.

As you can tell from the above picture, there were huge holes in the sandstone. There were two holes that were probably 40 feet deep. They were awesome. My brother, Clay, said he heard troubled youth homes would bring their kids here and lower them into these holes and leave them there to thing about what they had done. (Keep in mind that the walls of the holes are sheer cliff so there is no way out unless someone pulls you out from the top.) I don't know if this is a true story but it reminded me of the book Holes. We liked looking into the holes and we were laughing about how funny it would be to buy a fake skeleton and throw it into the holes and see what kind of reactions we could get from people.

These pictures are of the beautiful scenery and formations we saw as we were riding toward the Hole in the Rock. The landscape was really diverse along the trail. At one point, we would see wild flowers and vegetation, and other parts were pure rock and sand. The trail was great though.

We finally made it to the Hole!! It seemed like we rode all day (because we did) but we made it! The whole way (but especially the last 5 miles) I kept wondering how the pioneers' wagons made it over this rough terrain; then, when I saw the trail through the Hole, I was in even more awe! As you look at the following pictures and video from inside the Hole, you will see what I mean.

We hiked down the Hole and I couldn't believe that the pioneers had take wagons down this! The crevasse was quite narrow, only about 6 feet across in some areas, and quite steep. When the pioneers began working on the Hole, the Hole was only wide enough for a 150 lb man to fit through. They blasted the solid rock out with black powder until it was just barely wide enough for a wagon. At the same time, they had use the blasted rock pieces to fill in the floor of the crevasse in order to smooth out a road. The workers would be lower into the Hole in barrels and drill holes and chisel into the rock in order to insert the blasting powder and blast the rock. Before they began blasting, the top of the cliff looked straight down for about a half mile to the Colorado River. That will just give you an idea of how much work was required to build a way down to the bottom. As you can tell from the pictures, the trail down the Hole is quite steep and quite rocky. The grade of it is probably close to 40%! These pioneer took their wagons down the Hole by leading their teams over the edge, and then tying 6 ropes to the back of the wagon and 6 men held onto the ropes acting as brakes as the wagon went down the chute. The pioneers have been reported to say that it was the scariest thing they had ever done in their lives. After taking the wagon down, the men had to hike back up the steep trail to the top to take another wagon down. Now there were not just a few wagons, there were close to 80! as well and many heads of livestock! Amazingly, no one in this company died and I think only one woman broke her leg because she was not quite ready when the wagon started going down the Hole. The pioneers had to basically beat their teams to make them pull the wagons down the Hole because the horses were also very scared. The first team of horses they took down were actually blind so they could get them down. After going down the Hole, their struggles were not over. While the pioneers said that the Hole was the hardest part of the trek, the trail to San Jaun continued to be very difficult. After the Hole, they crossed the Colorado River, which is now Lake Powell (the lake you see in the pictures).

All I can say is WOW!!!

In this picture you can see the holes that were drilled for the stabilizers. and right below the hole you see a scrape line on the rock which tells you how narrow the crevasse was. These scrapes are from the wagon wheels and they rubbed against the wall as they went down.

As I hiked down this steep rocky cliff, I was in awe at how intense this would have been for these pioneers. I definitely have a greater respect for pioneers and the struggles and sacrifices they had to go through. I don't think I could have done the things they did. This long trip was definitely worth it for us. I am so glad I got to go and see these amazing sites.