• Distance: 1 mile one-way
• Duration: 1.5 hours
• Elevation gain: 500 feet
• Effort: moderate
• Trailhead: just east of Milepost 81 on Highway 12
• Directions: From Escalante, drive about 20.5 miles east on Highway 12. Turn left onto a dirt road between Mileposts 80 and 81; the road may be marked by a black boulder with a white stripe. Drive 0.25 mile up the bumpy dirt road to the trailhead. (Park low-clearance vehicles at the turnoff and walk to the trailhead.)

The hike to Upper Calf Creek Falls is more strenuous and less populated than the trail to the lower falls. It’s also entirely different in nature, so don’t feel that, if you’ve hiked to the lower falls, the upper-falls trip will be a mere repeat.

This hike starts with a fairly steep descent across slickrock then continues along a sandy trail. At a fork, you can choose to hike down to the base of the 87-foot-high falls or stay high and continue across more slickrock to the top of the falls and some deep pools in the stream.

Near the bottom of the falls are hanging gardens and thick vegetation. At the top, paintbrush grows out of cracks in the slickrock.