Canyoneering – ON THE ROAD with Maria + Stephen

Thursday proved a most exciting and satisfying day as we spent the day canyoneering with Escalante based guide Rick Green. Rick took us to Egypt 1 Canyon where we had the opportunity to work with him to better our canyoneering skills and also learn a great deal about the history and geology of the area. Rick showed us a number of friction techniques to allow us to make steep vertical descents where there are no hand or foot holds by wedging our bodies between the rock walls to descend via friction. Don’t where your best clothing for this activity. We also had our first opportunity to rapel down steep canyon walls. By the time we exited the canyon we were quite wet and muddy because several sections required us to rapel or slide down into knee deep water. A great day with a terrific guide. We are looking forward to our next opportunity to take on more challenging canyons.

On Wednesday we ventured down the Hole in the Rock Road for 26 miles to canyoneer in several exciting slot canyons. This environment was a dramatic change from the tall Ponderosa Pines of the Box Canyon in Dixie NF where we hiked on Tuesday. The road is a washboarded bone rattling dirt track but fun to drive none the less and provides dramatic views of the Straights Cliffs section of the Fifty Mile Bench and Fifty Mile Mountains. Once at the trailhead we tackled the three slot canyons which can be accessed from the Dry Fork Gulch below the trailhead. We hiked Dry Fork first as an out and back as the slot became impassable due to water. We then made a loop by climbing up through the Peek-a-Boo slot and then traversed across to Spooky Gulch and then down climbed Spooky slot exiting into Coyote Gulch and returning to the trailhead from there. As you can see from the photographs below the slots provide some challenging terrain with the tight spaces and chimney descents but make for great fun and excitement.