Canyon Redemption
Every spring and fall, we make our way to the desert to soak in the burnt orange cliffs, the serene desolation, and of course, the endless miles of dirt roads to explore. This particular weekend, we decided to attempt to hike to a remote slot canyon that had eluded us a few years back but this time, armed with better route beta, a slightly more capable vehicle, and many more miles of off-road driving under our belts, we were ready to give it another shot!
As we drove in through the narrow, winding switchback canyon, the daylight faded so we decided to leave the remaining more challenging driving for the morning. We found a pull off to call home for the night where the canyon opened up to the east so that we could be greeted by the warm morning sun (an important detail in the colder months).
The scenery certainly didn’t disappoint. After breakfast and some Greta zoomies, we packed up camp and pushed on for the remaining few 4x4 miles to where we would begin our hike.
We traversed along an old uranium mining road for a few miles before dropping down 1,200ft to the river below where we were going to wade across to access the mouth of the slot canyon that we had come to hike.
Pointing to the mouth of the canyon where we were headed.
The water, looking more like pale chocolate milk, was freezing cold! We tossed a stick across for Greta to fetch to gauge how deep the water was, and in a few spots she definitely went for a swim which meant that we had to pick our line carefully.
Once across the river we realized that we still had to cross a mud flat to enter into the canyon, and to our surprise, the mud was more like slimy quicksand which we promptly sunk into and nearly lost our sandals! It was unreal how slimy that mud was and there wasn’t a way to get back to the river to rinse off without going through the mud again. So we very, very slowly trudged and slipped our way up the mouth of the canyon until we found some chocolatey brown mud puddles where we were able to clean our feet off, at least to the point where we were able to walk normally again!
The canyon began to narrow and the way the light danced off of the rusty red walls was simply magical.
For late October, we were surprised to find such wet conditions throughout the canyon as we waded in and out of pools and puddles, climbing over boulders to make our way up the winding corridor. We finally reached a point towards the end of the slot canyon, where the walls choked down and a mandatory swim across a chest deep pool was the only option forward, so we decided to call it a day and make our way back out the way that we came.
On our way back towards the truck, we decided to make a quick detour to check out some incredible petrified wood, estimated to be 225 million years old, which was surprisingly intact and in places, crystals were forming between the tree rings!
The desert, often seemingly empty and barren, always finds a way to surprise us with just how much beauty and treasure are to be found if you’re willing to make the effort, which is one of the things that keeps drawing us back for more.
Until next time!
-Christina
