Southern Utah '06
Woke early to beautiful sunrise over the Escalante desert.
The 42 mile long Straight Cliffs of
the Kaiparowits Plateau in the early morning light
Heading off to my first adventure of the
day
The Dry Fork slots
Looking out over the canyons of the
Escalante, with the Dry Fork of Coyote Gulch down below. The "wet fork" is pure paradise,
as I discovered 2 years prior to this trip. This time I wanted to check out
a few of the famous slot canyons in the easily accessible Dry Fork.
The timing was great. Since I'd camped out just a couple miles from the trailhead, I was the first in the parking area and first to explore Peekaboo slot. Just as I was exiting that I had my first human encounter of the day. I convinced them to do Peekaboo while I went off and had Spooky all to myself. I hiked out passing numerous people and 13 cars in the parking lot.
Peekaboo Slot
The entrance requires a bit of a climb. The
'tree' helped more than the moqui steps ('steps' cut out of the rock, visible
just to the left of the tree, and above the right branch).
This was a fun 0.3 mile slot, involving
just a little climbing (scrambling), squeezing, and crawling.
Yes, you squeeze through here
And I'm out!
Going back...
Continuing through the Dry Fork wash to...
Spooky Slot
The start of the 0.5 mile absurdly narrow slot
little chokestone early on
Starting to get narrow
The end of the trail for my backpack.
Let the fun begin!
The key is to keep from ripping up
skin, clothes, or camera.
And I'm out!
Looking back at the gash in the earth
Enjoying the wide open for a bit before
scraping my way back.
With a little bit of time left I walked up the Dry Fork Narrows a short ways
Sigh. Time to tear myself away from the escalante.
On the drive to Cedar City
