Utah Day 7

Walls of Peek-A-Boo

Beginning of Peek-A-Boo

Peek-A-Boo Arches

Melissa inside Spooky Gulch (this is where I had to stop)

Crust like ground inside Dry Fork Slot

Friday May 30^th, 2008

Bryce isn’t very large and we suddenly realized that we hadn’t been to any slot canyons so we decided to head back into GSENM to see some of those. We headed to Escalante and then started down Hole in the Rock Road (another unimproved road) for about 26 miles until we reached Dry Fork. A short hike down some slick rock and sand takes you to the entrances to 3 slot canyons. I have never seen or experienced anything like this before. I’ve seen pictures of slot canyons but I don’t think I really knew what they were until we were in them.

The first one was the Dry Fork Slot. This was a good place to start as it wasn’t really that narrow. The slot canyons are mainly formed by wind and flash floods so it’s really cool to see how they are shaped over time. You can almost see water flowing through it by looking at the walls and the shapes they’ve taken on from years of erosion.. Very interesting place for sure.

The second slot we went to was Spooky Gulch. I only make it about 100 yards up this one before it became impassable for me. I got to a spot where the walls were probably about a foot apart and I wasn’t able to squeeze through it. Melissa got through and headed all the way to the end but obviously I didn’t enjoy this one as much as she did!

We saved the Peek-A-Boo slot for last. At the beginning I didn’t think I was going to be able to do this one either but I decided I didn’t want to stand around anymore while Melissa had all the fun so we made it happen! To get into this slot you have to scramble up 12 feet of rock. There are little holds and it’s really not that hard to get up this part but once you are there’s another big rock you have to get over. The problem with this upper part is that I had to stand in about a foot of muddy water to get to the area that I had to scale. Once your shoes are wet it’s a little difficult to do that. I think the only way for an inexperienced climber to get over this part is to have the assistance of another person. I had to help Melissa over by holding her feet and sorta pushing her up the rock. Once she was over she had to pull me up. It was all kinda strenuous and awkward since there really wasn’t any holds or a good way to get over but I’m really glad we figured it out cause the walk through it was really cool.

Peek-A-Boo was full of really sharp turns and some pretty narrow areas. I was able to get through the majority of the slot and really had a good time once we got up into it. It’s hard to explain what this place was like so I guess you’ll just have to let the pictures do the talking. This slot canyon was one of my favorite parts of the trip though. It was the first time I felt like I pushed myself and did something (rock scrambling/climbing) that I didn’t really know I could do. There’s no way I could have done it by myself though!

After our slot canyon adventure we headed back towards Cedar City, stopping at Cedar Breaks on the way. This is another National Monument that looks a lot like Bryce. There are a few viewpoints here so we just stopped at one, checked out the view and then continued on to Stephanie’s. After showering for the first time in a few days we went over to Applebee’s to watch the Celtics beat the Pistons. We also thought it would be fun to drink some of the sissy 3.2% Utah beer.