The Wahweap Hoodoos are unlike most of the hoodoos that you’re familiar with in Utah. Instead of deep, rich shades of red and orange, these hoodoos are a ghostly white.
They are located on the edge of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument along the Wahweak Creek and are a more difficult to access – we have not been here since May 2009 – the first time we visited this hidden gem after an exhausting 4.6 mile hike in a muddy river bed in 2003.
We are very excited to be back and show this place to our friend Dennis.
We are getting there late morning and explore the area and take pictures from all different angles and with different lenses.
These pinnacles are some of the most fascinating ones. You’ll notice that many of the hoodoos have flat caps balanced on their tops. Those caps are Dakota sandstone, which is 100 million years old! The white pinnacle beneath is mad of 160-million-year-old Entrada sandstone. The Entrada sandstone was softer than the Dakota sandstone, so over the millions of years the Entrada sandstone was worn away, leaving just the pinnacle.
We have our picnic around noon and then take a few more shots since the light has changed again.
Luckily the weather has been holding up better than expected and we have a nice mix of sun and clouds.
We will definitely not wait another 13 years before coming back.
My first and only visit to the Pinnacles on Wahweap Creek was in Autumn 2005, and we were able to 4WD all the way to the creek. At that point we were a mile or so north of the pinnacles and the road stopped at a barrier of some sort (a fence with signs.??). We parked there and the three of us hiked south along the western edge of the creek to reach two different sets of hoodoos. I don’t think the access road just described is still open – do you know, or know how I can check? The route we took was to turn north off HWY 89 at MP 17.8 shortly before the Rimrock hiking trailhead. That dirt road hit a T jct just over a mile from 89. Left at the T goes up Cottonwood Cyn all the way to Grosvenor arch. We went right at the T, going NE and stayed on that road for about 10 miles to where it ended at the creek. I think the only alternative is to hike north along the creek from Bigwater (Glenn Canyon City). The hike to the hoodoos is about 3 or 4 miles. I suspect you have explored extensively in that area, as have I.