Grand Escalante Slot Canyons
- Grand Staircase Escalante Slot Canyons
- Slot Canyon Inn Escalante Ut
- Slot Canyons Escalante Grand Staircase Hikes
- Grand Staircase Escalante Slot Canyons Map
- Hi Guys, I make a trip to the Grand Staircase / Escalante in southern Utah and hike / explore the rugged and beautiful Willis Creek slot canyon!
- ZEBRA SLOT CANYON. DISTANCE: 5.3 miles roundtrip (7.2 miles including Tunnel Slot) TIME: 3-4.
- Zebra and Tunnel Slot Canyons in Escalante, Utah are unique. The banding in the sandstone in Zebra is not like many other slots. The colors are different.
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View the alert: BLM Utah Current Operating StatusPerhaps the most visually stunning slot of Grand Staircase-Escalante is that of Zebra Canyon, streaked by pink and white stripes that line the towering walls of this extremely narrow passage. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument spans nearly 1.9 million acres of America’s public lands. From its spectacular Grand Staircase of cliffs and terraces, across the rugged Kaiparowits Plateau, to the wonders of the Escalante River Canyons, the Monument’s size, resources, and remote character provide extraordinary opportunities for geologists, paleontologists, archeologists.
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument spans across nearly one million acres of America's public lands and contains three distinct units: Grand Staircase, Kaiparowits, and Escalante Canyon. From its spectacular Grand Staircase of cliffs and terraces, across the rugged Kaiparowits Plateau to the wonders of the Escalante River Canyons, the Monument is a diverse geologic treasure speckled with monoliths, slot canyons, natural bridges, and arches. Due to its remote location and rugged landscape, the monument was one of the last places in the continental United States to be mapped.
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Slot Canyons
Slot Canyons > Escalante River > Escalante River Slot Canyon
Difficulty: Easy to moderate; steep slickrock approach, but no major obstacles in the narrows until a dryfall at the upper end
Management: BLM
Rocks: Navajo sandstone
Season: All year, if the approach track is drivable
Trailhead:End of a 1.6 mile dirt track forking north of Hwy 12
Rating (1-5):★★★★★
The slot occupies the lower end of a U-shaped slickrock bowl, and although short (1,000 feet), the canyon is very narrow, progressing from a sandy floored ravine with pools and nicely colored rock, to a dark, enclosed, twisting passageway just one foot across in places. Dryfalls at the lower end prevent walking all the way into the much larger canyon of the Escalante River, though this can be reached by scrambling down the slickrock slopes a little way west, hence the slot is often visited as part of longer trips, either up or down the river, or to Death Hollow.
Map
Grand Staircase Escalante Slot Canyons
Topographic map of the canyon, and of lower Death Hollow.
Location
The dirt track used to reach the slot canyon leaves UT 12 between mileposts 67 and 66, crossing flat, sandy land for 1.6 miles to a parking/camping spot on a rocky area at the rim of the ravine, from where huge white sandstone cliffs and domes are visible ahead, enclosing the Escalante River. The track is liable to be rutted, and may be impassable after wet weather. The slot is then reached by a 20 minute walk along the west rim of the ravine, in and out of a minor side drainage then along benches to a promontory above the river and the lower part of the slot, followed by a relatively easy walk down steeply-sloping ground to a sandy part of the drainage, just below the narrows. Hands are required in a just few places, to aid the descent, which is completed via a short gully down the enclosing canyon walls, generally sheer and 10 to 20 feet high.
Photographs
15 views of the canyon; gallery, slideshow.
Route Description
To the north, the canyon forms a shallow, curving slot of waterlogged, interconnected potholes, soon dropping off steeply to the river. In the other direction, a sandy channel a few feet wide extends a little way upstream, between cliffs of grey-white sandstone, as far as a pool beneath a chokestone. Above here the canyon narrows to around 2 feet across and has some pretty passages likely to contain more shallow, muddy pools, as the enclosing walls come steadily closer together. The sandstone is now darker, reddish-black in color; the passage narrows further and the curvy rocks overhang above, so the slot becomes rather gloomy, and very twisting - often it is possible to see just a few feet ahead. In many places the floor is bare rock, narrowing to a point, and easy progress is halted after a while by an upwards-slanting drop of a few feet, above which the canyon is shallower, and the slot ends not far beyond.
Brimstone Gulch
Coyote Gulch, Dry Fork
Davis Gulch
Egypt 3
Harris Wash
Little Death Hollow
Llewellyn Gulch
Neon Canyon
Peekaboo Gulch
Red Breaks
Spencer Canyon
Spooky Gulch
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