Day 13 – June 1 Slot Canyons

One of the things that has intrigued me about this part of the country are the slot canyons. On the front of the brochure for Grand Staircase – Escalante is a person, a little girl I think, walking through a slot canyon. So when I asked about hikes a few days ago, that’s one of the specifics I asked about seeing.

The slot canyons are accessible down a long gravel/dirt road, and the description of the trails made me a bit apprehensive. Not all the trail is marked; much of it is simply determined by direction and landmarks. Since I would be hiking alone, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do it. But with some encouragement from the kids, who seemed to think that of course I could handle it, I decided to give it a try.

I need not have worried about being alone. These slot canyons are a big draw in the area, and the trail head parking lot was full. I ran into a number of other hikers both on the way to the canyons and at the actual canyons themselves. There wasn’t a big crowd, but I knew if I got lost I’d have someone around to help me.

There were three canyons – Dry Fork, Peekaboo, and Spooky. Dry Fork, the first one you come to after descending into the canyon, was fairly wide for much of it and you just walk into it from the canyon floor. I was amazed at the lighting and shapes of the rock, carved over thousands, maybe milliions, of years by rushing water. It was also clear to me how being caught in a slot canyon during a flash flood is a very dangerous if not deadly situation. There is nowhere to go except to be dashed against the sides of the canyon.

Entrance to Peekaboo. Couldn't quite make it

After walking down Dry Fork till I hit a wall of boulders, I attempted to enter Peekaboo. To get to this slot canyon, you need to climb a 12-foot wall with crude foot and handholds notched into the rock. I was able to get up about halfway, but without someone there to push me up the rest of the way, I couldn’t navigate it. So I abandoned the attempt after a few failures to make the climb, and moved on to try Spooky.

To get to Spooky, you have to hike over a very large sand dune and then walk down a wide, sandy wash till you get to the opening. Once there, it is clear why it’s called Spooky. Very narrow from almost the very beginning, the shadows and shapes are irregular and haunting. I had to dump my pack at one point and continue on without it, turning sideways at times to squeeze through the opening. I had to actually press against my breasts to fit through in some places, and I thought how happy I was I hadn’t eaten a second pastry this morning.

Ow! My arm!

I also walked down this canyon until it became impassable without climbing over a large pile of rocks. On the way down to that point of turn around, I saw a few things that gave me pause. One was a huge boulder about chest high, lodged between the two walls, under which I had to crawl on my hands and knees. It made me think of Aaron Ralston and when the boulder fell into the slot canyon he was hiking in, trapping his arm and forcing him to amputate it himself after days of being lost there.

I also saw a small dead rattlesnake someone had clearly killed and set up on a ledge. Until that time, I hadn’t even thought about the possibility of rattlesnakes in the canyons – I think of them as out in the open areas, hiding under rocks or foliage where I could give them a wide berth. Here, if I came upon a snake, there are few options to escape, and in this place there would be no way to give any room to a snake. I was more attentive after that.

Once out in the sunlight again, I headed back toward the trailhead. However, I realized soon I wasn’t going the right direction – things didn’t look familiar. So I pulled out my GPS, on which I had loaded many TOPO maps for the areas I’ll be hiking this summer, and checked the map. Sure enough, I was heading the wrong way. I had completely forgotten about the sand dune, and instead of heading back up and over it, I had just continued down the wash for a few hundred yards. Navigation is something I’m learning as I go, and I’ve learned a lot through trial and error. I’ve always got a paper map, sometimes with descriptions of the hikes, my GPS, and a compass. It’s amazing how I need each of these tools at various times.

Once turned around, I climbed up out of the canyons to the trail head and headed back to town to look for a place to shower. On the 25 miles of washboard gravel, I came upon a cattle drive. There were about four kids on horseback, a man in a pickup pulling a horse trailer, and hundreds of cows and calves moving right down the center of the road. I followed behind for probably 10 minutes, moving about as quickly as the slowest cow. Then the young girl rode up to my window and told me I could drive right into the herd and that they would move out of the way. So I did, and they did. I enjoyed the bumper to cow butt traffic though, while it lasted.

Tonight, after a much-needed shower, I’ve been putting things together for my backpacking trip in Capitol Reef. I meet Helen tomorrow at 4 p.m., and we’re leaving then for the five days together in the back country. I really hope I like her. And if not, at least it will be good practice for the JMT next month.   I won’t be blogging until I’m back in civilization, so I should have quite the experiences to report in about a week. Ciao, baby!