Ron G

Ron G

Golden Cathedral Trail

11/07/23

Completed - with an overnight stay in Fence Canyon, late fall, 2023. Trail was poorly marked from the parking area throughout the entire way to Neon Canyon. There were two issues with markings: 1) There were too many cairns placed along the trail leading to who knows where? Not sure if it was intentional to mislead, or careless people thinking they were helping others take "their" trail, which was (to them) the best way, despite the abundance of other cairns nearby. If you're following the legit GPX track (i.e. GAIA or similar) expect the cairns to NOT be in the correct locations. 2) Many of the cairns that might have originally been properly placed along the route were knocked down. This might be related to #1 above, or just visiting Kalifornians ‘re-wilding’ the trail. Either way - not appreciated. Take a GOOD tracking app with you, and maybe a backup as well. Carry an InReach, or other satellite communicator, as there is no phone service in the canyons. Water wasn’t really an issue. Day temps were in the 70’s, and nights dropped below freezing. We took a liter of water each, and refilled our bottles at the Escalante river (filtered, of course). If you have no way to filter your own water, you must carry enough to make the trip in and out. The entirety of the trail consists of slick rock, and deep, loose sand. The rock is grippy if you have the right shoes (trail runners recommended) but the sand just wears you out. There’s no shoe that will help with walking in the sand. Some estimates I saw of doing this out-and-back in 3 hours are grossly exaggerated. A young couple who started the same time as we did (around 11:30am) and passed us at the base of the parking area, never made it all the way to the Cathedral. We met them again around 5:00pm on their way back, just as we were making our third water crossing towards Neon Canyon. They said they never made it to the Cathedral, but decided to turn back in order to make it to the parking lot before dark. Though my wife and I are both in our 60’s, and carrying backpacks loaded for an overnight stay (@25lbs each) we pressed on from there and were able to make it to the Cathedral around 6:30pm. That left us enough time to enjoy it a while in solitude, and still make the five water crossings back to Fence Canyon, along the river, where we set up camp for the night. The water crossings are hard to predict. Accounts of people who did this hike in the spring reported chest-deep water. We thought we might be rock-hopping, given we did the hike so late in the fall. Well, we were wrong! What we experienced were water depths to about 30 inches, enough to get shorts wet, even if they’re pulled up pretty high. Expect the crossings to be about 40 feet across in the late fall, and icy cold… like ‘your legs go numb instantly’ cold. We brought water shoes, which was a wise choice, so we had warm, dry shoes to change into after we got done with the crossings. Getting in and out of the river was difficult as well. The banks are quite steep, with very little to grab onto to pull yourself up. The longer you stay in the water, the less your legs want to cooperate in getting you out of it. All-in-all, the trip was enjoyable. We had no time constraints, so we took our time and took lots of pictures. This hike is easily doable for pretty much any age, as long as you’re in reasonable health. On our first day, along with the younger couple mentioned earlier, we were the only humans in the area. Since that couple didn’t stay overnight, we had the entire Fence Canyon area all to ourselves. It was quiet, and peaceful. Just the way we like it. No crowds. No other human noises. Perfect.

5.0