Hike to Cosmic Ashtray (Cosmic Navel), Utah

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The Cosmic Navel, a.k.a. Cosmic Ashtray, Red Breaks Volcano, or Islomania Dome, is a rock form inside a bowl of sand atop a slick rock peak in southern Utah. To reach it, I traveled about 10 miles down Hole-in-the-rock Road near Escalante and turned left (east) onto Harris Wash Road. After about seven miles, this rough dirt road crosses Harris Wash. There is a sign saying that further travel is limited to “Authorized Vehicles Only”, so I stopped the truck at that point. There are a few pullouts for primitive camping. Once starting the hike signed the trail register and started out down the road, across the wash, and walked in sometimes sandy conditions for about four miles. Have the coordinates (37.682978, -111.315898) of the formation in handheld GPS and head north across rising slick rock in the general direction of a peak about half a mile away. The crater should be found after about 500 feet of climb. The formation is much bigger than it looks in the photos. The central rock rises about 40 feet above the smooth layer of orange sand. The formation is hard to photograph in direct sunlight because part of it will always be in shadow and part in bright light. Hang around until sunset to get this shot.

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