Grand Escalante Slot Canyons

Grand Escalante Slot Canyons Rating: 3,9/5 5265 reviews
  1. 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!
  2. ZEBRA SLOT CANYON. DISTANCE: 5.3 miles roundtrip (7.2 miles including Tunnel Slot) TIME: 3-4.
  3. 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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Perhaps 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.

The Monument is also an outstanding biological resource, spanning five life-zones - from low-lying desert to coniferous forest. Deep within this vast and austere landscape, the Anasazi and Fremont cultures made contact in the period AD 950-1100, leaving behind rock art panels, occupation sites, campsites and granaries. Stepping further back in time, fossil excavations have yielded more information about ecosystem change at the end of the dinosaur era than any other place in the world. The Monument’s size, resources, and remote character provide extraordinary opportunities for geologists, paleontologists, archeologists, historians, and biologists in scientific research, education, and exploration. This unspoiled natural area remains a frontier with countless opportunities for quiet recreation and solitude.
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Slot Canyons > Escalante River > Escalante River Slot Canyon
Canyons

Minor tributary ravine on the south side of the Escalante River, quite easily accessible from Hwy 12. Forms a nice short slot, with shallow pools and twisting passages through dark-colored sandstone
Length: 1.4 miles
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):★★★★★
Most Escalante area slots are far from paved highways and require some determination to reach; one of the few exceptions is found at the south side of the river about half way between Escalante town and the UT 12 road crossing, accessed by a 1.6 mile drive along a dirt track then a one mile hike. The drainage is unnamed on topographic maps but known as Micro Death Hollow on account of its proximity to Death Hollow, which joins the Escalante from the north, a mile upstream.
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.

Big Horn Canyon
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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