[Yana]

Tazz, Liz (non nwhiker) and I headed down to Utah for some fun in the desert sun in the hopes of escaping the snow. The fun happened, but escaping the snow was not so easy. Canyons are a strange place - there is always more to explore around the next corner. There isn't a single obvious destination like a summit or a lake. The views can be expansive, but they can also be very closed in. Many people consider deserts a desolate place, but they are full of life and vivid colors. There are so many places to go, so many things to explore. It could take you days to go a few miles, if you're not careful. The canyon country does something to you, if you stick around long enough. Southern Utah is a strange place indeed, if they feel the need to have disclaimers such as these:

Utah is a strange place

I have wanted to explore the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument for a long time. This is a piece of desolate and often difficult to reach country between Bryce National Park and Capitol Reef National Park in southern Utah. It is effectively divided by impassable geographical features such as watercourses and cliffs and to get to one section from another requires many hours of driving. For this trip, I was mainly interested in exploring the Hole in the Rock Road area. Hole in the Rock itself (which requires over 50 miles of dirt road driving to get to - we didn't go) is a passageway which was chiseled out of a rock by Mormon settlers looking for a shortcut. Well, I think we all know how shortcuts tend to turn out in rugged country. We drove down from Seattle in Tazz's Subaru, seeing Washington license plates all over the place. After enjoying a glorious sunset, we spent a chilly night camped near Red Canyon, just east of Bryce Canyon National Park.

Sunset in Red Canyon

The next day we continued on to Escalante, which took a while as we had to continually stop and take pictures.

Powell Point

There is a lovely and information-filled visitor center in Escalante, where we got many free maps and permits for our impending overnight trip. We also planned on stocking up on some last minute tidbits that we had forgotten, which was made rather difficult by the fact that it was Sunday and almost all the stores in Escalante were closed. Finally, we had found all we could and headed down Hole in the Rock Road, which is rather lengthy and washboard-y, but wide and easily navigable. The drive was made more interesting by very strong gusty winds which blew sand all over the landscape and obscured visibility. We made a less than brief stop at Devil's Garden for lunch. Devil's Garden is a bizarre little enclave of hoodoos and we found it impossible not to wander around for quite some time.

Devil's Garden

Devil's Garden hoodoos

Arch at Devil's Garden

Liz lounges at Devil's Garden

Anne dwarfed by some hoodoos

We arrived at the trailhead for our slot canyon exploration at about two in the afternoon. This is a busy place! There were about seven vehicles at the trailhead, three of them belonging to a 15 member posse from Washington (who we did not run into). The wind continued to blow sand and other bits of desert around, so we hurriedly descended the trail into Dry Fork Coyote Gulch.

Anne on the slabby trail

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Liz and Anne descend into Dry Fork Coyote Gulch

It is difficult to adequately describe a slot canyon - they are all very different in character, and are also much different from most other types of hiking or outdoor recreation. The first slot canyon we explored is called Peek-a-boo and it is a very small distance "downstream" (i.e., down the currently dry wash) from where the trail enters the canyon. Getting into this slot involves a bit of a scramble up some chiseled stone steps. The first part is quite steep, and the normally grippy sandstone has been smoothed to perfection by water.

Initial climb up Moki steps into Peek-a-boo Gulch

We successfully made it up this bit. The next two hundred feet of canyon are relatively flat, but are slow going as they are punctuated by a bunch of plunge pools that you have to climb in and out of.

Lower portion of Peek-a-boo

Here we used lots of teamwork, helping each other up by either pulling from above or acting as footholds from below. All kinds of climbing techniques were useful - stemming, liebacks, arm bars, etc.

Liz stems past a narrow section

Liz thought of a witty saying that quickly caught on as it was very true (and it rhymes, which also helped): If your butt is on the wall, you will not fall. We discovered that the best way to make upward progress was to create as much contact with as much canyon wall as possible: the easiest way to do this usually was to plant your butt (relatively large surface area) against the wall and push off. I did get to do a kickass lieback at one point - delicious! Liz used some more unorthodox methods, which I am truly sorry I did not capture with my camera. After these climbing obstacles, the canyon mellows out and is fairly easily walkable.

Liz in Peek-a-boo

Instead of retracing our steps (one way was entertainment enough for us), we exited the canyon onto the plateau above and made our way back to Dry Fork Coyote Gulch overland. Downstream from Peek-a-boo is Spooky Gulch, which is renowned for being very narrow. Its walls are also much higher than that of Peek-a-boo, which makes it much darker. While in Peek-a-boo, we'd had a break from getting whipped by wind-carried sand. Oddly enough, in Spooky, the sand was raining down on us from above.

Liz besieged by falling sand in Spooky Gulch

Spooky is so narrow that most people have to take their packs off, carry them in one hand, and walk through the slot sideways. I cackled evilly to myself while walking down this canyon, as my tiny size finally paid off! I did not have to turn sideways even in the narrowest sections. Ha! Short people do have a reason to live.

Anne in Spooky

Anne in one of the wider sections of Spooky Gulch

Unlike Peek-a-Boo, Spooky is mostly a walk. About halfway through, there is a slightly wider section full of very large rocks, but it is navigable by crawling around and finding the right holes to go through. Again, Liz and I relished these sections as they were just right for tiny people while the Amazon (Tazz) cursed mightily. It was impossible to take good photos in either of these slots, partly because I'm not a great photographer, partly because the lighting was atrocious (either too dark or too much contrast), partly because it's hard to take pictures when you're stuck in a space so narrow you couldn't even fall down if you tried. We emerged from the end of the slot into the late afternoon light, exuberant at having made it through. Again we took the overland route back.

Liz and Anne walk next to Spooky Gulch

Entrance to Spooky Gulch

Further downcanyon is Brimstone Gulch, which is apparently also worthy of exploration. However, it is harder to get to and further away, and we did not have time to go there. We did venture into the North Fork slot for a little bit before heading back up the trail. This slot is a lot wider than the previous two, but also a pleasant walk.

North Fork

Dead tree snag in North Fork slot canyon

By the time we came out and started hiking back up to the trailhead, the clouds had turned nasty and gray and the wind was blowing even harder than before. Everyone else had wisely already left as evidence by the empty parking area. We piled into the Subaru with the intent to quickly find a sheltered place to camp for the night. On our drive back to Hole in the Rock Road, we passed a car heading to the trailhead, and so it was that we ran into a fellow nwhiker - GeoHiker! We chatted for only a few minutes and then went our separate ways to try to hide from the storm. Will we find shelter from the unrelenting wind? Will we be able to set up camp before the storm begins in earnest? Will I ever get the sand out of my ears, and much more importantly, out of my camera? How long does it take a person to get used to having sand in all their meals and drinks? Stay tuned to find out!

[Dayhike Mike]

Nice work! Those slot canyons can get "spooky" indeed. Just crazy looking when you're walking along the side of them (on top).

Liz and Anne walk next to Spooky Gulch

[Go Jo]

[puzzlr]

I'm so envious. I love exploring slot canyons but don't get down there enough. Thanks for the pictures and great TR -- you gave me a better idea of what Spooky was like than several of the guidebooks I have on it.

[Tom_Sjolseth]

How come you didn't solo the arch ala Potter? So much different over there, but very attractive. I have to get down there. BTW -- I think they're looking for that sign in Enumclaw.

[Tazz]

Great write up Yana! Thanks so much! Snow? Don't listen to her, she is crazy ! I don't know what she is talking about we were in SUNNY Utah! As you will see in the pics below it was sunny and in Utah! I was in the area 11 -12 years ago with Plain old dan and some friends from NH and we went to red canyon, Devils Garden and another slot canyon hike off Hole in the Rock Road. When yana said Escalante slot canyons I jumped for joy! there was so much more for me to do there. This trip was a bit of repeats and a bunch of new fun places too. What a great trip! I have been to the SW Utah for hiking 4 times now and every time i feel something special that radiates from that place. The place is magical. I leave there glowing and smiling. I want to share that magic with you all. I apologize ahead of time for too many pics( i was trigger happy). I just what you all to see what I saw and felt. I hope you all enjoy. I did. Red Canyon camp was cool in the morning. Along with the drive to Escalante.

ruins just east of red Canyon.

When arriving in Escalate It was a bit blustery to say the least...

whoo hoo more sand storm!

still have sand coming out of my ears! On to devils garden. last time i was here i didn't have a camera so I went a bit nuts and had a great time scrambling and hiking around taking pics.

a bit windy up there. Almost knocked poor yana off the bridge.

Did I say it was WINDY!?!

don't look at the angle. taken as a quickdraw, my camera was getting pelted by sand!

to be continued... too tired.

[Dean]

Sweet pics and a neat trip. My son in law and I will be down there a bit later this year. We also want to find our way to Navajo Point. BTW, did you happen to stop at Zebra Canyon? Utah is amazing.

[wildernessed]

Nice country, we looked at Montrose - Grand Junction, CO and Moab, UT areas when we were planning our migration from the East. There sure seems to be alot of "Devils Gardens" in the region. Awesome pics.

[Don]

Great stuff! Fun to see pics of Spooky and Peek-a-Boo. Unfortunately, I can relate to your sand storm all too well. Last year we visited Devil's Garden on my wife's birthday where I planned a special dinner for her. The sand storm was relentless and got the better of us. Back at camp in Escalante, hardly a breeze.

[GeoTom]

, and That is all I have to say. Oh, and

[silly_traveler]

[Tazz]

Silly I loved you trs! Funny, it looks as though there were 6 NWHs down in the SW, all during the same 2weeks with much overlap and even the running into one. Crazy! Its cool!

[silly_traveler]

There are so many things to do and see and hike down there and it's so nice to get away from this pacific northwest weather even if it's just for a week I think we'll be going down there every spring till we run out of places to go, or something How long did it take to drive down there from Seattle?

[Tazz]

When Yana said one of the trips was peek a boo and spooky I was excited. This one was on the list to do 11 years ago when there. We just didn't have enough time to get it all in. So i was so happy to be able to get play in these slot canyons. It was fun case we did XC overland loops. Yana that shot really shows the hieght and the pitch of the entrance of Peek-a-boo. It tell ya that was not easy! It was so slick and those holds...sloped slick things! Liz is right though. "If your butt is on the wall, you will not fall." The more contact you have the better off you are. Lots of friction moves! I tell ya it is so much fun though!

[GeoHiker]

Great job on the pics and reports! Tazz, you did share the %$^& out of me. What's this crazy person doing in a sandstorm driving up like that? Good thing Rocky is so famous! I'm camped on Lk Mead in NW AZ now. Been here for 3 days soaking up the sun. 80's and blue sky. Had to actually run into town and buy ice. Last of the Grand Canyon snow has melted. I know about that sand and dust, I'm still blowing it out of my nose a week later. Rocky's finally clean again after 4-5 swims in the lake. I'll keep an eye out for your next report. Another storm is coming this way on Wed. so thinking I'll work my way back home through Calif. Maybe stop off on the Lost Coast in N. Calif. Hopefully no storms or snow!....