Slot Canyon

Saturday, March 30th, J's uncle took us through some slot canyons on the Navajo reservation.  We had to stop and get permission to go through the land.  The hike itself was a more of an advanced hike.  We did some free style rock climbing (meaning no gear), and there were parts where we had to shimmy ourselves up by having our feet on one end of the wall and our backs on the other.  We even had to army crawl under a big boulder.  It was a blast, and the view in the canyons was more than worth it!  We brought the kiddies with us, and Steve said that he has led teenagers through there that didn't do as well as the kids did!

We went through two different slot canyons during our hike, ending in a big cavern that reached over two hundred vertical feet straight up.  It was amazing.

The hardest part of this post was trimming down all the pictures.  J and I both took some amazing pictures and I would love to post them all, but that would be just too much!  I originally picked my 67 favorite, trimmed it down to 35, uploaded those, and then condensed it to what you see on this post--so enjoy!


A view of the canyons from midpoint as we were climbing down.  The day was slightly cooler than Friday, when we were hiking the toadstools, but the majority of our hike was also inside the slot canyons, so it was perfect temperature for us--and the slot canyons provided the perfect amount of shade!


This is where we hiked down.  If you look toward the top of the picture (where the loose rocks begin), you can see the ladder we climbed in order to make it past the sheer drop from one section to the other.  This was perhaps the most treacherous part of our hike, and the picture really doesn't do the steepness of the cliff justice.


These shots are along the hike before we get into the slot canyon.  Can you see the face?  Eerie, isn't it?

This one reminds me of a grumpy old man.


When we were inside the slot canyon, this was the part that we had to scale up the wall in order to continue through.

At another section, we had to shimmy our way under this boulder.  You can see that even a two year old has to bend to make it through, so imagine what it was like for the adults--but it  was fun!


I see you!  Zuri poking through another path in the slot canyon.

This was the side Zuri was on.


Our main destination.  I tried to get a good scope of the 200 foot sheer cliff, and show how J decided to climb up on a small ledge.  I had some other photos of the round cavern and the top of the cliff, which were pretty neat, but they ended up getting the cut as I was trying to reduce the amount of pictures in the post.

Maria and Nolan climbed up as well--they were all given boosts in order to make it up, because as you can see, it is a pretty sheer side and not much to hold on to as they climbed.


Whenever we stopped along the way, Zuri would find sticks and "plant trees."  She would get very upset if anyone messed with her "trees."  The kids really didn't care about the slot canyon; they were more interested in finding lizards and playing in the dirt, and of course, "planting trees."

The next series of pictures are all through our hike through the slot canyon.  There were some very narrow passages, where it barely fit one person, then there were other sections that we could walk side by side.  Smooth stone, rough stone.  Areas where the sun shone just right and we had some red hue to the canyon, and areas where things had been washed through.  We found the carcass of a fox, and the skull of a larger bird.

The very last picture was taken on our way back out of the canyon, and Emery is running toward us.  You can get an idea of the narrowness and height of the canyon.  It was all so amazing and so beautiful.  I wish that we had had more time to explore.