On The Road – TKH – Southern Utah-Slots

The first slot I came across on Southern Utah was in 2019 during my first traverse of Southern Utah. It is the Happy Canyon slot canyon. I had walked out of Canyonlands NP into Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and descended into Happy Canyon. It was a hot, shadeless walk along a wash in a wider canyon. The wash meanders inside the canyon to and fro. The hike “as the cow walks” is at least twice as long compared to “as the crow flies”. Finally the sand and gravel in the wash gave way to slickrock and soon I stood at the start of the slot canyon. I did manage to get in, but soon found myself on top of a dryfall with a deep pool below. I figured that I could get down, but I did not know whether there was a dryfall further down in the slot that I might not be able to climb down. In that case I would have to return the way I had come and there was no way that standing in the pool I would be able to get up on the dryfall I was standing on.

This is the view of the down climb into the slot canyon right at its start.

So I climbed out again and found myself a cow trail to follow around the slot canyon. The animals know how to get down to the water. at the time I had no idea of how brilliant the cows are I. finding ways around obstacles. I learned and ever since following the cow trails has never ever let me down. I made it down to the Dirty Devil river and then entered the slot canyon from the bottom.

The picture was taken in mid-day, so the colors are little bit flat in comparison to those taken in late afternoon or early morning. In any case, the canyon runs East to West, so I don’t know whether the light is better in the morning or afternoon.

The play of the light on the walls reminds me of Gothic cathedrals in Europe.

Later the same year I hiked the North Fork of the Virgin River, just outside of Zion NP. I had not dared doing it in May since the parallel branch of the Virgin river located inside the park, “the Narrows” had been closed owing to the volume the water flowing through there (and the temperature Brrrrrr!). “The Narrows” inside the park these days is a zoo and you have to apply for a permit months in advance. I hiked it thirty years ago and at that time it was easy peasy getting a permit, but no more. Access to the North Fork, on the other hand, is unregulated, you just have to know about it and find your way there. 

The hike starts near Mt. Carmel Junction on the East side of Zion NP using a dirt road frequented by the ATV/OHV crowd. Luckily the hiking route soon descends into the river while the off-road crowd climbs out of the canyon. For the next two days you then walk in the river and sometimes on its banks (it is not a long hike, but it is a slow hike, in part owing to one’s gawking and in part because walking in water is inherently slow). In the upper reaches there is camping on the banks and there are great side canyons to explore. Then you reach the slot canyon or narrows where you have to walk in the water, which often reaches up to your hipbelt (I pity the longitudinally challenged!). Obviously, you need to pay careful attention to the weather report. There is no ranger to stop you from doing something foolish and nobody to “close” the hike.

The walls here tower several hundred feet above you and in many places you can touch them with your outstretched hands. There are two ways out, one is called “Fat Man’s Misery”, a slot canyon that is a real bear to ascend. The second is a slickrock/lime stone climb that has some exposure, but is infinitely superior and easier than the first one.

This is slightly upstream from the picture above. You can see that the light is still reaching pretty far down. The further downstream you go, the less of the sky and sun you see.

The next two images are from Spring ’22 taken during my second traverse of Utah, this time along the Hayduke route. This is the narrows in Choprock canyon a few miles up from the Escalante river. It is relatively easily accessible from the Escalante. I don’t recommend entering it from the top as I did as part of my much larger itinerary. The canyon I figured is not named after Jimbob Choprock, but for the chopped rock that fills its upper reaches. Makes for some exhausting hiking up there.

The dark streaks on the walls are called desert varnish, consisting of lichen and blue-green algae that colonize the sandstone in areas where rain water accumulating on the slickrock flats above runs down the canyon walls. I just love the juxtaposition of the fresh new leaves on the cottonwoods and the red sandstone in the Spring or that of the yellow leaves in the Fall!

The early morning light really did make the rock glow, a look that I will never tire of.

The narrowest part of the Choprock slot canyon. You can touch both walls simultaneously with your outstretched hands.

Overall this is a very safe canyon, maybe a mile in length with wide sections upstream and downstream of the narrows. You would have to be very unlucky to get caught by a flash flood. However, you can see that you have an extremely limited view of the sky. You would have no idea whether there is rain some 10 or 15 mile upstream of you, let alone even further away. Some of these drainages are tens of miles long, so this is a real concern.

And just in case the eyes of the readership are glazing over with all these red rock pictures, on occasion one comes across something completely different. In this case a slot located in a canyon as it passes through a limestone layer. This is on Fiftymile Mountain also known as the Kaiparowitz Plateau, specifically the upper reaches of Navajo Canyon. This is some of the most isolated country I have ever hiked. 

This slot is only about 20 feet deep. Further up one comes upon a chockstone blocking the slot. One now has to climb up on the left, make one’s way along the dirt and talus slope above the rock and then can enter the canyon again for another few miles. It is not too along ago, I am told, that one could squeeze past this chockstone at the bottom left. However, in the interim floods have deposited more rocks and dirt upstream of the rock blocking that passage and now scrambling is required.