Kanab
Vicinity
A
Place I had read about on Facebook was near Kanab and I wanted to see if I
could access it. It is an area of
stripped cliff formations ( as a lot of Utah ) but really vivid. It is along the Paria River in SW Utah and
begins by draining the SW edge of the
Monument Set aside in 1996, the Grand
Staircase-Escalante National Monument. I
read a article on the Paria that said it was
“too
thick to drink and too thin to plow.” Samples
collected from the Paria River carried the highest sediment concentrations
measured in the United States: 780,000 mg/L of silt and sand – about 2 pounds
of mud in a quart of water.
You
know how a good glass of chocolate milk looks?
Like the store bought kind, pretty creamy let’s say. That is the Paria.
So
I decided not to meander across it to try and access the area I wanted but
rather I found another access site.
First
I had a small dilemma to solve. Try and
figure out which head goes to which body.
Easier with this blow up but I was using my naked eye.
There
is a road however, on Hwy 89 about half way between Kanab, UT and Page, AZ that
takes you to a site called Paria. This
was once a settlement, then after being abandon for many years became a movie
site for westerns, and now it sits there undisturbed.
You
can see why someone could choose it to settle near visually, but if the water
of the Paria was that muddy then, well, who knows.
Anyway,
I came for the view because that is why you come to southern Utah!
See that little oval valley? Wouldn't my retirement home look real nice right there?
Colored
rock is what this area is all about and this is one of the more stunning and
accessible places. Could looking at this ever get old?
The
floor and river bottom is pure sand and a very fine sand.
If
it rains, I will be stuck because my little run-a-bout will barely tolerate
this dry!
Remember
those bottles of colored sand layers that people do artsy things with? This is what they mimic.
I
just wonder what sunset would be like, but it has been cropping up
thunder-bangers in the area and I am a good five miles down that dirt road in
A
front wheel drive, low clearance go cart.
So, at least I got a chance to spend some time here. If I ever turn up missing, try here first!
But
wait! There’s MORE!
Anyone
who has Windows screen saver on their computer sees the cool rock layer
patterns of Antelope Canyon south of Page.
Specifically it’s called the ‘Wave’.
It is on Tribal land however and ‘because of too much traffic pressure’
to the site there is a lottery held every morning between 8 and 8:30 and only a
few people are allowed to access it. You
pay for a lottery ticket and then you either have a 4 wheel drive high clear
or, I don’t know, pay some more because it is a ways into it on rough sandy
roads.
So,
We’re
not going there!
But….alas,
the Kanab area has many, many ‘Slot Canyon’ sites. Most are accessible to anyone….who has 4
wheel drive high clear. I found one by
way of the Kanab visitors center that I could hike to.
West
of Kanab on Hwy 9 on the way to Zion Park (specifically between mile post 78
and 79) there is a very unmarked gravel turn out and a dirt road to start the
hike. There is a web site that gives
more detail:
This
gives good enough directions that I found the south slot entrance.
After
going around the ‘small knoll’ they talk about, there is a cross road (dirt,
sand) and by going left …
you
find this power post # 316 that has a downhill leg to the north away from the
road. That ‘trail’ takes you to the
south end of the slot canyon.
I
came back that way but sort of animal trailed down hill to the top of the slot,
could hear voices in the slot down below but no way was I going directly
down. So I bushwacked across to the west
and returned to the top of the ‘dune’ where I met the designated trail and saw
those voices now on the bottom of the dry wash.
The
going down was not so bad once I found the trail but it is soft sand all the
way.
I
trudged thru it
And
down it to the wash, meeting the other small group trudging up, thinking “I
have to do that!” I didn't really capture on pictures what this trail was like but trust, me what you see is a fraction!
Walking
in deep soft sand is hard when it’s level much less on a hill but I knew it
wasn’t far now to the slot and hoped it would be worth it.
That
is the slot canyon exit/entrance at the bottom.
Initially I was up at the top when I heard their voices. You can see why an alternative was needed.
Is
this going to be worth it?
Oh
yah, I think so…
No
tricks with the camera. It is on
auto. No photoshop. No way to mess these pix up.
You
see the toe holes dug out? This is where
I had to stop, but I knew that to start with and didn’t care. I got to where I wanted to go!
A
better way is to start from the North East end and come down this via rope or
slide,,,or both.
A
harness awaits for a rope (line) to be circled thru. It is about a 20’ drop and I don’t know how
the pro’s do it, but a forty foot rope tied end to end slipped thru the
carabiner would get you down and still retrieve the rope.
Again,
this is all I was after. Next time I’ll
go from the other end. It isn’t a long
slot, the web site tell you more and it would be cool to do, but I’m old and
happy just to get to see and do this.
I
don’t think I got one crappy picture and I took many. Go camera go!
You
can’t even distinguish what is what!
That’s what makes it so cool!
Get
a load of the color
Yes
it gets narrow, but very do able
And
really very friendly
These
slots are marvels
Here
a section broke away. Recently? Well, it looks recent but in geologic time
what does that mean?
Can
you get the dynamics of this?
Does
this help?
I
could have taken this without the sand path
But
what if I did play a little with one, just simple stuff and you hadn’t seen the
original. Would it be understandable?
Ok,
back out the way we came in, but I didn’t show you how Pink, no, not coral,
PINK the sides of this wash are.
There
are other features of this hike that make it enjoyable. The climb up the sand
dune was not one of them and I had to catch my breath several times in the shade
while my heart rate tried to go down. I
would do it again in a heart beat!
Ok,
maybe a million heart beats but who’s counting!
Tomorrow I leave for Bryce and hopefully dodge the rain!
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