Canyoneering in Escalante

August 16

Egypt 1 Slot Canyon in Escalante

Click here for today's photos.

Today we had a fantastic day of canyoneering.  Up early for the hour drive from Bryce to Escalante, to arrive at Escalante Excursions at 8am.

Escalante Excursions was excellent.  They really went the extra mile to make us feel we were in good hands.  They were extremely professional.  Our guides were Jim and Matt, and we also met the owners Rick Green and Aimee.  It took maybe an hour to get outfitted, go over the paperwork, have coffee and water, and do introductions and safety.  They supplied us with all we needed; packs, water, lunch, harness, ropes, helmets.  Then we headed for Egypt 1 Canyon.

We turned off of 12 onto Hole in the Rock Road, which is a partially graded dirt road we took for 16 miles at a blistering 45mph.  It was hard to keep up with our guides due to the speed and their dust screen.  Then we turned onto Egypt Road ("road") for another maybe 10 miles.  In all, those 26 miles took us a bumpy rattly hour.

We received more safety and rappelling instructions at the trailhead, then suited up with our harnesses and helmets and dropped in one at a time, rappelling down to the floor of the canyon.  There was a guide at the bottom and another at the top helping us through, and keeping us safe.

We continued through the slot which was crazy narrow at some points and for long stretches (you couldn't stand forward, had to turn to fit!).  We learned a lot of canyoneering techniques - foot bridge, heel jam, body bridge, sitting bridge, star bridge, mantel, smears, and did a total of five rappels.  The kids did great.  They had the kids do things they usually only do with adults.  They were fearless and had great technique.  The guides made a big deal of Brady's age and accomplishments, and acted like Callie was a teen.  I (Scott) fell once, but the belay guy caught me.  They had Miles be the "meat anchor" in one spot, holding the rope at the top where there wasn't a good rock to tie to.

Early on, we came across a rattlesnake.  The kids were psyched about that!  Matt said they fall into the canyon occasionally and will die if they don't do a "rescue", plus they don't really want to be wondering where it is when they're down there.  So they eventually caught it (rattle was rattling away!) with a stick and dropped it into Matt's lunch tupperware.  Matt then kept it in his pack until the end where he released it outside the canyon.

Another cool thing were 5 fighter jets that zoomed unexpectedly and loudly overhead after we came out of the canyon (and right when Matt was about to release the rattlesnake.)  They said they practice low flights in this area.  Side note: Matt did two 7 month tours in Afghanistan.  He said the terrain where he was there was similar to what we saw in the desolate stretch after we left Vegas, although there were other areas he'd heard of that were supposed to be much more beautiful.  Said he had a friend who wants to start an eco-tourism company over there once (if) things settle down.

We finished off with ice cream back at the "office."  It was a fabulous excursion.  Everyone had a blast.

We then checked into the Slot Canyons Inn.  Escalante is even smaller than Kanab, but the Slot Canyons Inn is a diamond in the rough.  It wasn't quite like the inn we stumbled across in Guatemala, but it reminded us of that.  Callie and Brady chased the kittens around for a while with horses, steer and sheep in the field behind them, then we had dinner at the Inn.  Dinner was great.  Outdoor seating with a beautiful view.  Outdoor wood oven, steaks cooked at the table on lava rock.  We even got treated to a beautiful rainbow over Escalante while sitting here at the Inn.  Just a great great spot.

Excellent adventure, excellent day.

 Brady rappelling in Egypt 1, Escalante