After John's solar class in Colorado, we returned to Utah and made tracks toward Lake Powell. On the way south we stopped at a spot along highway 95 to do some canyoneering. I'm pretty excited about the Utah canyoneering book I bought - we never would have found many of the places that we've taken our ropes into. This particular spot has the charming name of "Death Canyon".
I don't seem all too concerned about that on the way in:
My colorful arm injury from Moab - it never hurt much nor affected me anywhere near like it looks like it should have:
The bottom of the rappel, which turned out to be pretty wet. Enough wet to turn the sand into quicksand. We have since learned that it probably had a finite depth that might go up to one's waist but we probably wouldn't get TOO stuck. Ultimately, however, I declined to test it out. We went up to the slot canyon to play around but didn't do this rappel:
Pretty canyon country:
A short rappel that we did just for practice, looping the rope on a chokestone up top. "Look Ma, no ATC!":
John demonstrating the art of "stemming", or using both sides of the canyon to move along without touching the ground (very useful for getting over obstacles):
I was a bit shaky (and still am, if there is anything below me that I really don't want to fall into):
But some spots were easy:
Just practicing:
Downward Dog for canyoneers:
Overlooking the northern end of Lake Powell and the first bridge over the Colorado River since Moab many miles to the north:
Parked on sandstone at the Hite Campground - a wonderful place for primitive camping:
The view out the back of Howie:
More to come - another day!
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