Last weekend my friend Andrew Cavanagh and I (Jed) did a couple of slot canyons about 30 miles south of Green River, Utah. I've broken them up into two posts because it's easier for my mediocre blogging skills to handle. We did one canyon on Friday, and the second one on Saturday. They were both pretty cool canyons, better than I expected. Here is the mouth of the first canyon, Three Canyon, which ends up at a bend in the Green River about 5 miles down canyon.
Here is Andrew doing the 1st rappel:
After the 1st rappel and a few hundred yards of narrows the canyon opens up to be nice and green with a trickle of water running through it. It reminded me a lot of Lake Powell side canyons.
We hiked about 3 1/2 miles of the main canyon, then turned up the Northwest spur to exit. We found a nice shady spot below a couple of dry falls to eat lunch. The exit was a little dicey with some easy but exposed free soloing. Fortunately there were some heavy duty bolts we could use for anchors at the top.
Up on the canyon rim, and everywhere this weekend, we saw lots of cacti in bloom.
After exiting the side of the Northwest spur I rode a mountain bike down to the truck and brought it back. We took a quick refueling break and then did the top of the Northwest spur, exiting the same way we had before. We were excited to get back in the canyon not just to do more exploring, but also because it was dang hot in the open desert sun. I didn't take a picture of the first rappel, but here is Andrew on the second rappel.
The Northwest spur had nice echos; single syllable words came back very clear. "Fart" worked especially well. Andrew cooked up a groovy dinner after we found a campsite next to Saturday's canyon. As soon as it was dark we were out cold.
Here is Andrew doing the 1st rappel:
After the 1st rappel and a few hundred yards of narrows the canyon opens up to be nice and green with a trickle of water running through it. It reminded me a lot of Lake Powell side canyons.
We hiked about 3 1/2 miles of the main canyon, then turned up the Northwest spur to exit. We found a nice shady spot below a couple of dry falls to eat lunch. The exit was a little dicey with some easy but exposed free soloing. Fortunately there were some heavy duty bolts we could use for anchors at the top.
Up on the canyon rim, and everywhere this weekend, we saw lots of cacti in bloom.
After exiting the side of the Northwest spur I rode a mountain bike down to the truck and brought it back. We took a quick refueling break and then did the top of the Northwest spur, exiting the same way we had before. We were excited to get back in the canyon not just to do more exploring, but also because it was dang hot in the open desert sun. I didn't take a picture of the first rappel, but here is Andrew on the second rappel.
The Northwest spur had nice echos; single syllable words came back very clear. "Fart" worked especially well. Andrew cooked up a groovy dinner after we found a campsite next to Saturday's canyon. As soon as it was dark we were out cold.
No comments:
Post a Comment