On Saturday July 22nd 2011 I drove to Escalante and then down the Hole In The Rock Rd that Mormons built to Settle the SE portion of Utah in the 1860s. It is wash-boarded road with over 55 miles of sliprock and sand in the remote backcountry of Southern Utah. From the road the area does not appear to be that special, but once you get off on some of the Spur roads there are some very interesting places. It is said there are more Slot Canyons in this area than any where else in the world. Egypt road that goes off about ten miles to the East leads to at least 9 different slot canyons all of which are technically challenging, requiring rappelling and technical bouldering skills to get over, around and under chokestone obstacles. These slot canyons are more difficult than I feel comfortable to attempt, especially when traveling alone.
Becoming much more cautious in the last couple of years, I had decided to go to some of the easier slot canyons about 30 miles South of Escalante. At the trailhead I introduced myself to Fred and Gale from New Jersey and after hiking down into the canyon wash, asked them if I could tag along for safety sake—I have never done this before in my life! We explored Dry Canyon (Slot) a little and then made our way to the entrance to Peek-abo Slot Canyon. To get into the canyon there are two vertical sections that are 6 feet and 8 feet high that have footholds carved in the sandstone that must be used to reach a small overhang notch to pull yourself up and into the slot—essentially two parts of a steep waterfall into the wash below. So many people have used these notches carved into the wall that it is rounded with no flat spot for purchase. When I put my foot into the notch it just slipped out and I could not reach anything to grab onto to pull myself up. This was very disappointing. Fred has experience doing technical climbs and he tried to make it up, but had the same problem I did. Later on we met some people who made it up. One of the guys in the group climbed up to the bottom of the first drop off, as Fred and I had done, then he did a vertical jump to grasp a ledge and did a one arm pull up to where he could grasp the lip of a rock at the top of this series of water falls and did a pull up to climb up and scramble over. Nope, I could not have done that even if I had thought of it. Then they used a rope to help the others in the group up.
We could not see anybody else around when we were at the entrance to Peek-abo, so we walked ¾ mile in the wash down to the entrance of Spooky Slot Canyon. Guide books and the rangers recommend going up Peek-abo and then cross country and down Spooky and we did not know why, so we ventured into Spooky which was about 4 feet wide for the first 100 feet. After that if got down to about 14 to 18 inches wide with 40 foot high vertical walls. The light was great in the canyon and illuminated to sandstone red walls in a pinkish yellow glow. This was fun! After going about 200 yards into the canyon the walls began to closed down to 10 to 12 inches. I had to spread my legs apart and slid down the canyon walls until my chest was in a spot where I could push sideways through the space. At first there were just a couple of these narrow spaces and then it would open up to 14 to 16 inches again. Then the narrow sections became more frequent and longer and now there were also obstacles that had to be overcome. I started thinking I hope we get out of this narrow stuff soon and it opens up again, but for the next ¼ mile it remained claustrophobically narrow. This was when my prayers for God to help me get out of there without getting stuck dramatically increased.
We had heard about a man who got stuck in Brimstone Slot Canyon a few months ago and was not found for a few days and then it took most of a day to even get him out of the canyon. There were also dozens of 270 degree bends and it would take a couple of minutes to position your feet so your legs could get around the sharp turn and at the same time climb up and over some obstacle. Sometimes you were pushing against one wall with a leg and your back and the other leg was bent 270 degrees around a bend. It could take 2 to 3 minutes to negotiate some of these areas. It was tiring trying to adjust my body to make these contorted movements and I found my self breathing heavier and hoping that we were just about done and ready to ascend out of the canyon. After another 15 minutes of the same stuff we arrived at a larger opening and there were 6 people in this area trying to figure out how to get up 9 feet and over a huge boulder blocking everything but about a 2 foot diameter opening to next section of the canyon. We finally lifted one of the young guys up to where he could grasp the top of the boulder, find purchase and struggle to lift himself over the top of the boulder. We then lifted people up and they were raised up by people who had already made it through the opening. That is how it worked until there were just two of us left. But Fred had brought a rope and a 4 foot rope ladder with him. So he unpacked them and we gave them to the people above to help us get out. The rope ladder was swinging under the boulder above, but it was all I needed to get high enough to reach the ledge and pull myself up high enough to get my knee into a position to leverage my body up and over the boulder and into the alcove leading upward to the next series of undulating canyon walls. Without it, I would of have had to back track over ½ mile alone and I was not even wanting to considering doing that. What if I ran into other people: how would we get past each other? We thought we were at the end of the canyon and about to exit, but there was another ¼ mile of twists and turns with obstacles before we finally reached the head of Spooky Slot Canyon. I was thanking God for helping me to get out of Spooky! And I also think God gave me the insightfulness to ask to tag along with Fred and Gale. And Fred was the only person who carried a rope and a rope ladder. A coincidence? I believe God was answering prayers and looking out for me before I even entered the canyon.
Well I was tired and had enough of slot canyons and told Fred and Gale. Fred told me, “you made it through Spooky and it was the hard one, so Peek-abo is going to be a piece of cake in comparison.” This sounded reasonable, so I hiked with them ¾ mile over deep sand going up a steep incline to the start of Peek-abo. It looked so easy compared to Spooky that I got excited and plowed on through the canyon. About 100 yards up the canyon walls were so narrow a child could not make it through. The walls were separated by less than 6 inches in many places So we climbed up out of the canyon walls and walled down 200 feet and got back into the canyon. At first it was nice and then it got down to the narrow 12 inch stuff with undulating 270 turns combined with obstacles to get over and around. After going through a couple hundred yards of this narrow stuff we arrived at a 270 degree turn that required going down a spiral column and then having to bend and exit this section through a hole in a rock formation. It was very pretty in this area and that diminished my anxieties. A few hundred more yards and we could see a series of arches/bridge and though them the exit from the Canyon. There were still a couple of downhill spirals with pools of water until we arrived at the ledge above the entrance to Peek-abo. It looked kind of scary from above at the wash 20 feet below. The walls have been worn smooth from centuries of water flow and I was not that sure about how to descend. Fred got out the rope and I sat at the lip of the ledge and then gradually rotated my body 90 degrees and entered the almost vertical water shoot. I started to slide at first, but then with my hip in the rotated position and my back I was able to push back with foot so my hip and back rubbed against part of small overhang and that slowed me down enough so I could use my foot to stop me so I could rotate my body back to flush and then slide down to the first ledge we had previously stood on when attempting to ascend. From there it was an easy 6 foot drop to the wash below. Again I was thanking God for helping to get out safely and that Fred and Gale had been there to help and encourage me.
The lighting was fanatic for photographing and I got more than 100 great photos inside these two canyons. The attached picture showing me struggling to move forward in Spooky was not posed. I felt like I was doing that King Tut dance that Steve Martin popularized. I needed to slide my body up and down to find a place where I could squeeze through. It was really awkward walking like that for long stretches.
These small coincidences in life always make me feel God's love for us
